What will I need for a Lan party?

[timmyboy]

I am thinking of hosting a small lan party (4-10 people) at my place, but it will be the first lan party for my mates and I so am unsure what I will need.

So lay it on, what will I need?

I am understand that I will need a switch, which one would you recommend?
Is it unwise to have a couple of people hook up to one surge protector power board?
I am unsure what games we will play, but how much of difference would there be having one computer act as dedicated server?

Thanks in advance.

[malenko]

Dedicated server is fucking awesome but not needed, lots of pizza and nachos and coke

Those surge protector boards are pretty good, just dont put double adapters on each output to get more people on the board, that ends nasty.

Pretty much any switch/hub will do as long as you have enough ports for everyone to plug into.

Also make sure you actually have enough room and desk space before people get there and ask what they are bringing. I have seen a few people rock up with a 3x24inch monitor setup to show off their epeen. And tell everyone to bring headphones, I have also seen people their 5.1 setup.

[Desmo]

Friends.

[brandonberg]

A tip - My mates and i used to mark our power/ethernet cables etc with a short length of different coloured electrical tape. It makes it easier to identify who ownes what when cleaning up and avoids any ownership issues.

[timmyboy]

Cool thanks Malenko.

Friends.

What is this 'friends' you speak of?

[SOLID]

No speakers only headphones is a good rule.

[Desmo]

What is this 'friends' you speak of?

People you meet on the WoW forums.
And yes, a no speaker rule is a good one.
Also, make sure you have enough HDD storage space......

[SOLID]

Don't announce that you have porn or the server will crash

[Mo-Fo]

If you're hosting it then yes, a hub. Otherwise I'm sure someone else will have one.

Checklist..

PC
Monitor
Mouse
Mouse mat
KB
Headphones
Any other peripherals (joystick/steering wheel)
Ethernet cable
Power board
Chair?
Munchies/Redbull/money
Some good weed (if that's ur thing)

and if it's an overnighter then maybe a pillow and blanket (just in case you can't go the distance and flake out at 5am)

[Desmo]

If you're hosting it then yes, a hub.

You can pick up a gigabit switch for SFA nowadays.

Some good weed (if that's ur thing)

Essential.

[Squawk_Ident]

So need one of these south of the river. Someone start one K go

[Moustacha]

Don't daisy chain surge protected boards. If one surges it dumps its power down to the next board, knocking that one out, and so on, possibly damaging devices attached.
Daisy chaining non-surge protected boards is usually the way to go when it comes to LANs, but it's best if you can get each person onto a wall socket each.

[malenko]

If you have a whole heap of people around try and either spread them out around the house, or run extension leads from power points from the bedrooms too. Houses often have multiple circuits in them. Kitchens, lounge rooms/activity/family rooms on one circuit, bedrooms on another. Balancing your power load over both circuits is handy cos it reduces the chances of overloading and blowing fuses, and if one does overload, it doesn't effect everyone.

[Kryzaach]

DHCP Server.

Predefined list of games.

To cut down on downtime, game installs that can be directly copied and run are far preferable to complex installs.

Someone cluey when things get numptied up.

A large stick to to thrash the guy who rocks up and decides to rebuild his computer for no reason and fucks it.

[Pkunk]

Wise words from Kryzaach

How beefy is your home ADSL/modem router combo? I've had 2x4 person LANs where a cheap ass one was good enough... no need for a switch or anything. It even handled the load well when the 4 of us played games online

If you end up having more people any old switch should suffice but make sure your ADSL gear is up to snuff. Something like the ASUS RT-N16 should do well and might even handle 10 people on wireless all playing online without too much trouble. Less so if you try to leech porn at the same time (which is again, another LAN staple)

[McGoo]

I have some old switches you can have if needed. Note 'have', not 'borrow'. They are commercial grade circa ~2000, somewhere around 30-50 ports on each (there are two of them) rack-mounted noisy beasts. They can do all sorts of wonderful things Im sure, but the only bit you would care about is that they work. Oh, they are only 100Mb though, so not the fastest option. Let me know if you get that desparate.

[Ferris]

24 or 48 port gigabit switch
ethernet cables. but tell people to bring their own.
x number of powerboards
x number of table and chairs
no speakers, only headphones rule
1 monitor rule
dhcp server
dc++ a week before all the leeching directories. everyone must do this.
uptodate virus scanning a week before. everyone must do this. nothing worse than some cunt rocking up with a pc which has the dreaded lurgy on it.
enough parking

[timmyboy]

I have some old switches you can have if needed. Note 'have', not 'borrow'. They are commercial grade circa ~2000, somewhere around 30-50 ports on each (there are two of them) rack-mounted noisy beasts. They can do all sorts of wonderful things Im sure, but the only bit you would care about is that they work. Oh, they are only 100Mb though, so not the fastest option. Let me know if you get that desparate.

Thank you for the offer. Can someone tell me if it is ideal if I get a gigabit switch or will a 100mb switch be fine?

[timmyboy]

24 or 48 port gigabit switch
ethernet cables. but tell people to bring their own.
x number of powerboards
x number of table and chairs
no speakers, only headphones rule
1 monitor rule
dhcp server
dc++ a week before all the leeching directories. everyone must do this.
uptodate virus scanning a week before. everyone must do this. nothing worse than some cunt rocking up with a pc which has the dreaded lurgy on it.
enough parking

Holy shit a 24 port gigabit switch? I aint got that many nerdy friends. I am thinking 10 people tops as per my 1st post.

[Moustacha]

Thank you for the offer. Can someone tell me if it is ideal if I get a gigabit switch or will a 100mb switch be fine?

If you're leeching off each other gigabit is a must (also look into jumbo frames. Makes shit transfer faster).
If you're just playing games, 100mb is enough.