What is the best private server for World of Warcraft?

Answer 1

Q. Best private server to play on?

A. I've never heard of a great private server to play on, honestly. Most of them tweak the game in some way (level cap of 255 with modified level progression, mobs are not at all like the real game, quests are broken, and so on). Steer away from paid servers (after all, you should be playing Blizzard for the service), and research any server carefully before attempting to connect. Many of them have version requirements (less than the latest release), or may be otherwise untrustworthy. Do not use an account name that even remotely resembles your Battle.net ID, and do not use your Battle.net password on that server. And remember that they can patch your computer and thus take control of it.

Q. Best private server to run yourself?

A. I am aware of the following: CyPack (IceGlow) and Mangos (Reaper-X). You should do a side-by-side comparison, but I'm exceptionally certain you'll find that both of them have more-or-less complete databases full of quests, items, and npcs, and both run exceptionally well on even a single-core 2GHz system with 2GB of RAM. Both require MySQL to run, and both install in just a few minutes. Researching it yourself is the best way to find out. Most private server packs are virus-free, but do scan before you download one.