Where to host socket server

[rowkilla]

Hi,
I followed this awesome tutorial http://www.kirupa.com/developer/flash8/php5sockets_flash8.htm and learned how to make a php socket server and connect flash to it. Then I made some changes and made a flash multiplayer game myself, problem is, for the socket server to run I have to run the phpsocketserver.bat file and open a random port.
I have a webhost server set up on my pc and it works fine but my connection aint that good for a real-time multiplayer game :/ the ping is way too high. I tried optimizing the connection but even with nothing more than a simple connection counting the ping its still too high.
So where can I host the server and run it? I supose on a dedicated server I can do it but they are way to expensive since I just want to host the socket server in it.

Thanks :)

[eirche]

consider virtual private server (VPS), less expensive than dedicated server but still $40 or up.

[icio]

You don't _need_ the bat to make the PHP script run - you could do this with another php script. The main problem I think is with which hosts will allow you to run the socket script. With respect to this, eirche is right with VPS.