07-31-2003, 02:48 PM | #1 (permalink) |
Psycho
|
LAN party
Me and my friend are planning on hosting one but we have no idea what we are supposed to have to make it run smoothly and not have to run out in the middle of it to Best Buy to get something we forgot to buy. Can anyone tell me what is need for one of these?
|
07-31-2003, 02:55 PM | #3 (permalink) |
Human
Administrator
Location: Chicago
|
Pizza, lots of pop, chips, pretzels, dip....oh yeah, and a big hub and crossover cables
__________________
Le temps détruit tout "Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling |
07-31-2003, 02:56 PM | #4 (permalink) |
Please touch this.
Owner/Admin
Location: Manhattan
|
big huge SWITCH (not hub)
plenty of Cat5 cable, the ability to make cables make sure you have enough power outlets, and only a few computers per outlet good air conditioning/house fans is a must have a few backup computers make sure everyone brings their software, computers have a habit of getting FUBAR'd at LANs for some reason seats for everyone of course munchies.. it's a party after all and make sure SOMEONE at the party is a networking expert ahh.. the ol' days of LAN parties
__________________
You have found this post informative. -The Administrator [Don't Feed The Animals] |
07-31-2003, 03:00 PM | #5 (permalink) |
The GrandDaddy of them all!
Location: Austin, TX
|
me and a couple of friends were thinking about having a lan party (we're all teen's, so not much $$).
any way that we can all bring our routers and hook 'em up to lan?
__________________
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." - Darrel K Royal |
07-31-2003, 03:05 PM | #6 (permalink) |
I am Winter Born
Location: Alexandria, VA
|
First, make sure you know about how many people you're going to have. Do extensive work to make sure you have enough power circuits in order to pull this off. Nothing will make the LAN party suck more than having the nth person plug in and overdraw the circuit.
Games: Make sure that you have a centralized file share with all of the latest updates for any game you anticipate people may play. If you don't care about being legal, ISOs are also helpful, though it's a fast way to get yourself in trouble if someone tells the BSA. Food and Drink: See about collecting money from everyone to order pizza, have a large supply of soda, easily accessible bathrooms, enough tables and chairs, snack food (chips, cookies, etc.). Network equipment: With up to 8 people, a hub is fine. After that, you will need a switch, otherwise people will start having lots of network congestion. These can get expensive, so if possible have people bring their own or borrow some from work. Also have lots of Cat5 network cable. If at all possible, try to tell people not to do file sharing across the network, as I was at one LAN party, back a year ago, when LOTR first came out online in good copy. Suddenly, half of the people dropped out of the Q3 game we were playing and walked over and started watching it. Pissed me the fuck off. Depending upon how large it is, there's more advice I can give you. About how many people were you expecting?
__________________
Eat antimatter, Posleen-boy! |
07-31-2003, 03:29 PM | #9 (permalink) |
I am Winter Born
Location: Alexandria, VA
|
With under 8 people, I'd say just bring along hubs and switches (your "4-port Cable/DSL routers" also function as switches, with a configuration change, I think). Make sure you've got enough patch cable (not crossover - no idea why hrdwareguy mentioned that).
You shouldn't have too big of a problem. If you've got any specific stuff you want advice about, feel free to ask. I help run a 40-person LAN party about once every two or three months, so I've got some experience.
__________________
Eat antimatter, Posleen-boy! |
07-31-2003, 03:31 PM | #10 (permalink) |
Insane
Location: Ames, IA
|
8/4 ppl should be no problem, the only suggestion i have is to use heavy duty extension cords if you get too many computers on one household circuit, then you wont be playing much. No daisychaining! (hooking a surge protector into another surge protector)
|
07-31-2003, 04:05 PM | #11 (permalink) |
I am Winter Born
Location: Alexandria, VA
|
Ideally, run the extension cords to several different rooms, so you can draw from multiple circuits and (hopefully) not blow anything.
Again, power is something you really need to be paranoid about.
__________________
Eat antimatter, Posleen-boy! |
07-31-2003, 04:13 PM | #12 (permalink) |
Banned
Location: Pussy awp camping
|
wtf...You dont need crossover cables.
You need a switch. Size depending on how many people. Cable making is easy, but buying my crimpers is $45 >_< And 4 of us own a pair You need power strips, Cat5, and a switch Our current LAN has gone on for about 2.5 months now and we're probably gonna break it up soon. |
07-31-2003, 04:17 PM | #13 (permalink) |
Banned
Location: Pussy awp camping
|
If you're thinking about mini-lans, routers will work. At the current LAN, we have 10 computers up. Mine was born here a couple weeks ago, and we're gonna deliver another one later tonight. This summer we've built about 5 computers for misc people.
|
07-31-2003, 04:45 PM | #16 (permalink) |
I am Winter Born
Location: Alexandria, VA
|
Sure, you can, if you have only 4 people, use your cable modem router or whatever to hook up everyone. More than that and you just start daisy chaining appliances, though you'll get some latency with the increased number of layers between the computers and the top-level switch.
__________________
Eat antimatter, Posleen-boy! |
07-31-2003, 05:05 PM | #18 (permalink) | |
Banned
Location: shittown, CA
|
Quote:
|
|
07-31-2003, 05:08 PM | #19 (permalink) |
I am Winter Born
Location: Alexandria, VA
|
Ideally ban it completely, but that's pretty hard to enforce.
One very sweet setup that my friends and I are trying to configure for the future is as follows: Dedicated server machine hooked up to a Cisco switch (with support for 10+ VLANs). When you first hook into the network, you load to VLAN 0 - you're given a webpage that asks you to select what you want to do (file share, play game X, play game Y, play game Z, and so on). Given your option, it configures the switch so that you're placed on the appropriate VLAN. When you get tired of that specific activity, you return to the webpage, tell it what you want to do next, and move to that VLAN. This provides a very nice way of segmenting broadcast domains so that the games and file sharing don't fuck with one another, while allowing people a little more freedom. Sadly, we don't quite have the money for the require Cisco hardware (though 3 of us are CCNA certified and I'm on my way, we may be able to borrow some through our contacts. It'd be fun to try).
__________________
Eat antimatter, Posleen-boy! |
07-31-2003, 05:12 PM | #20 (permalink) | |
I am Winter Born
Location: Alexandria, VA
|
Quote:
Some of the funniest memories, though, are restoring to using in-game chat to attract the attention of the guy sitting right next to me, as his noise-cancellation headphones + loud music drowned me out, as well as my friend who showed up having just recieved his computer parts from Newegg an hour and a half before the LAN party. So we immediately build his system, passed him a WinXP CD, and went back to gaming. Fun times, having a bunch of guys sitting around a computer case, building it, swapping stories, and then spending several hours playing games.
__________________
Eat antimatter, Posleen-boy! |
|
07-31-2003, 07:24 PM | #21 (permalink) |
Knight of the Old Republic
Location: Winston-Salem, NC
|
Let's see...make sure to have a cubic asslode of cat 5 cable. Crossover isn't necessary. If you're having more than 10 people, I'd make sure to have a switch. Make sure no one is connected to file-sharing programs, and try to agree with everyone on not using the network for anything but gaming. Even the slightest transfer will make networked games lag to hell.
Me and my friends usually have LAN's consisting of 10-20 people. When it gets above 15, the power goes out about once per night. Get used to it! The more surge protectors the better. Make sure everyone has a network friendly OS. Win XP does the job VERY nicely. Win 98, ME, and even 2000 give lots of problems when trying to connect to a lot of other people. Again, I suggest everyone have Win XP Pro installed. Makes things a lot easier. Other than that, just ram all of the cat 5 cables leading from the PCs all into a central hub or switch. Turn on the PCs, have someone start a server, and there ya go! One last thing: make sure everyone has the same version of the same games installed prior to the LAN. That can get very confusing and boring. Waiting on people to install games gets really old, especially if there's a waiting list. -Lasereth
__________________
"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert |
07-31-2003, 10:20 PM | #27 (permalink) | |
Tilted
|
Quote:
To get back to the subject the number one thing that someone else said was to make sure everyone has the same versions of the games. It is such a pain to have to reinstall your game just because the other dumbasses never patched but you did, errr Generals And for filesharing to solver it I just bring a couple of my binders and say here go at it, have fun. |
|
07-31-2003, 10:39 PM | #28 (permalink) |
Crazy
|
Guide if you want it... http://www.tweak3d.net/articles/howtolanparty/
|
08-01-2003, 06:03 PM | #29 (permalink) | |
I am Winter Born
Location: Alexandria, VA
|
Quote:
__________________
Eat antimatter, Posleen-boy! |
|
08-01-2003, 06:20 PM | #30 (permalink) |
Addict
|
One thing everyone forgot to mention is virus scanning!
I went to a LAN once and someone had KLEZ or some stupid shit and all of a sudden about 30 people all jumped up when the virus triggered their anti-virus. The admins immediately shut down the network and everyone had to show a clean virus scan screen. Then they kicked out anyone who was infected. I love highly moderated LANs. |
08-01-2003, 11:45 PM | #31 (permalink) |
Psycho
Location: Lovely City #1
|
Okay some simple ground rules for smaller ones and bigger. Halx is right...SWITCH not hub. Try to start it earlier in the afternoon rather than later as anything that can go wrong probably will. Also early starts lets you work out kinks. First off BAN speakers...a friend of mine always brings them and I wanna kill him. Secondly if its just friends try to focus on playing games because it pisses me off if I lug my computer around to just watch TV. Food...proper power...and yeah AC is very good.
|
08-02-2003, 12:57 AM | #32 (permalink) |
Please touch this.
Owner/Admin
Location: Manhattan
|
Oh yes, I forgot about headphones, you want to stress that everybody bring headphones!
I also forgot to mention another thing that people have gone over - no need to BUY a switch. Just *borrow* one from an electronics store with a return policy.
__________________
You have found this post informative. -The Administrator [Don't Feed The Animals] |
08-02-2003, 01:01 AM | #33 (permalink) | |
Banned
Location: shittown, CA
|
Quote:
|
|
08-02-2003, 05:52 AM | #34 (permalink) |
I am Winter Born
Location: Alexandria, VA
|
Agreed, juanvaldes. At our LAN parties, normally those of us that run the place (myself and a few friends) show up around 8, run all of the cables, set up the power, make sure that our servers are functional. Doors open to everyone else around 10 or 11, and then we play until 10 at night (we've gotta be out of the building by 11).
Even when we do a smaller LAN party at someone's house, there's inevitably an hour or two setup time, because things will go wrong.
__________________
Eat antimatter, Posleen-boy! |
08-02-2003, 09:40 AM | #35 (permalink) |
Banned
Location: Pussy awp camping
|
Well our LAN of 2.5 months just broke up last night.
I dont think speakers should be banned, but you should use headphones. We use speakers if we all gather around someone's computer to watch a funny clip. We usually dont mind some people's speakers either if they're playing the same game or listening to music we dont like. But most of us use headphones out of decency. |
08-02-2003, 10:38 AM | #37 (permalink) |
Psycho
Location: Lovely City #1
|
Well as stated already the early start is key because you want to get situated and get everything taken care of. ONe to many times have friends of mine just started out late and we end up only getting a few hours of good gaming before its already 6 in the morning. I still think that everyone should have headphones except maybe the if a person is hosting it at his home.
Good Idea on that "borrowing" halx |
08-02-2003, 11:07 AM | #38 (permalink) | |
The GrandDaddy of them all!
Location: Austin, TX
|
Quote:
well, if the pc's have internet connection sharing....(isnt that the reason or am i way off)
__________________
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." - Darrel K Royal |
|
08-04-2003, 06:38 AM | #40 (permalink) |
Upright
|
you would also need a crossover if the switch or hub does not have a uplink port or a MDI/MDIX button. Many older managed switches do not have this and to link a switch into another switch or router then you would need a crossover cable.. it's not a bad idea to have one or have the ability to make one just in case.. . also, dont forget to brush up on your smack talk.. :-)
|
Tags |
lan, party |
|
|