So I'm thinking about hosting a larger sized LAN

[Brentx]

Alright I have been hosting 5-10 person LAN's since I was a freshman in High School in my basement. Me and a few friends even chipped in money for a platform (made out of shipping pallets and floorboard), desks, chairs, network equipment, and cabling. It's a pretty cool setup. I will post pics for you guys if you want.

It has now gotten to the point where I want to try something a bit more difficult. I was talking about this with my buddies, and they would help me clean my basement (heh the parents are happy about it) and make it a LAN center for 25-35 computers.

I have installed an extra breaker box, so electricity will not be a problem, however I can see that organizing one of these could get out of hand easily. I will have 2-3 helpers to do food runs, help check peeps in, and hep set up everything. I am the most PC competent out of any of them, but they can take care of basic problems.

EDIT: It's decided, the house is NOT going to work, I will be renting a place out.


So, do any of you have any experience in doing this? Or would you just recommend trying to rent some place and move all the equipment there for our LAN parties?

This will obviously be advertised publicly, hell, if any of you are willing to drive to Milwaukee you are welcome to come .

 

[doze]

If you still live with mom and dad good luck. 12~15 people turns into a crowd real quick so unless your basement is massive and very well ventilated then 25~35 is a lot of body/machine heat to pack into one spot.

edit: I forgot to mention that space for one or more consoles is nice for your non PC gamer buddies to hang out or for breaks away from the PC

 

[Brentx]

Originally posted by: doze
If you still live with mom and dad good luck. 12~15 people turns into a crowd real quick so unless your basement is massive and very well ventilated then 25~35 is a lot of body/machine heat to pack into one spot.

edit: I forgot to mention that space for one or more consoles is nice for your non PC gamer buddies to hang out or for breaks away from the PC

I just got off the phone with a buddy of mine, and he agrees, 15 is going to be the limit in my basement. Yes it is the parents house, however, they will be out of town, so I would not have to put up with them worrying about stuff.

And it looks like I will be having this outside of my house. I am thinking a Knights of Columbus building by my house might do. They will probably have tables and chairs too.

I am thinking about advertising this event around my campus, so I am thinking more like 35 people will probably show.

The only probalem I see is getting the equipment, I have a bunch of switches, but nothing that could really handle this amount of traffic.... newegg here I come .

And the console idea sounds like a good idea. I just don't have TV's for it. I know a bunch more people will come if they can play on their consoles however. Halo 2 tournaments would be fun for everyone.

 

[MichaelD]

Inviting tens of strangers to your parents' home is not a sound idea from a security point of view.

If you want to have large, open-to-the-public lans, you should rent someplace out.

 

[doze]

Advertize the list of games in advance so people can have them preloaded. Make sure you have backup servers and switches too just in case if you will be charging for the event. Those halls usually charge a few hundred for the night so plan out your expenses in advance and sell energy drinks and snacks for exstra cash.

For food just order a lot of pizza at once, it will be cheap and can be delivered easily.

 

[KarmaPolice]

I have been going to lan parties since I was like in 8th grade from a 4 man day one to a 528 man one..boht have thier ups and downs. Now I am 22 and a college student I still enjoy going to them. yes they are very nerdy but damn playing computers games with your friends for 3 days straight is a good time. Not something to do every day, week, or month..but once and a long while its awesome.

I am part of a online community that hosts lan parties about every 4 months. We started doing this about a year ago and its been going great. I think we started with 18 and we are now up to about 19 with the limit of people coming being 26. Thats 19 GAMING spots and 26 spots for sleeping, food, and drinking. We sell out all 26 spots in usually the first day but we dont really advertise cause its mostly just community members.

It all takes place in a town house next to my college. You need to do a lot of planning. The guy incharge of ours makes floor plans, measures ****** out, figures out how much food we are gonna need, takes money prior to the event for the alloted amount of food, drinks and alchohol. You gotta make sure you have a decent router to handle this ****** and if you want to do internet you gotta make sure it can handle it too. Make SURE you have updates to all your games.

We have a great time..yeah its about gaming but like i said before there are people there that come just to hang out, drink, play games, and meet people that they know online. 3 days of good times..which usually turn into 4 when 2 guys decide to stay an extra day

We are in PA and we've had members come from Canada, MN, and TN.


dont with the explination.....if you have any sepcific questions feel free to ask. Of course your in highschool...so might want to do without the alchohol.

 

[fire400]

1. wireless N with WPA2

2. word of mouth for SSID and encryption key

3. done

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: fire400
1. wireless N with WPA2

2. word of mouth for SSID and encryption key

3. done

:thumbsdown:

 

[edro]

Be sure to rent a cattle fan to ventilate all the body odor from the room.

 

[sswingle]

Originally posted by: fire400
1. wireless N with WPA2

2. word of mouth for SSID and encryption key

3. done

Worst idea ever.


Whats this platform thing you made? Whats the point?

 

[jlbenedict]

How much $$ do you have? To hell with renting a place; make it a permanent solution:

http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN...sults.jsp&MID=9876&N=2984+4412&pos=n14


ugh.. link doesn't work..

Its a vinyl, 12ft x 24ft utility shed for $1,835.00.. Lay down some concrete and throw this bad boy up and get to it! You wouldn't need heat; i'm sure a dozen or more computers would do fine for heating

 

[Brentx]

Originally posted by: jlbenedict
How much $$ do you have? To hell with renting a place; make it a permanent solution:

http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN...sults.jsp&MID=9876&N=2984+4412&pos=n14


ugh.. link doesn't work..

Its a vinyl, 12ft x 24ft utility shed for $1,835.00.. Lay down some concrete and throw this bad boy up and get to it! You wouldn't need heat; i'm sure a dozen or more computers would do fine for heating

Hahaha. That would be awesome. Well we did tear down the pool a few years back and the back yard is looking a little barren

But yeah, I would plan everything out from electrical and network diagrams to printing out signs of rules, getting waivers if you are under 18 that your parents will have to sign on site (does that sound like a good idea) and food of course. I will talk it over with a few others, but I will probably be shooting for June. That gives me plenty of time to invest in the network equipment, cabling, wiring, and gives me time to plan with a few others how we will correlate things.

Any other suggestions? These are good so far

Originally posted by: ScottSwingleComputers

Originally posted by: fire400
1. wireless N with WPA2

2. word of mouth for SSID and encryption key

3. done

Worst idea ever.


Whats this platform thing you made? Whats the point?

It keeps all of the computers off of the cement, and gives us some room off the ground in case the basement ever floods. It's kind of nice, because it is like a floor 5 inches off the ground.

Maybe I'll post pics when I get back from class to just show it off

 

[InlineFive]

Think about it, your current hardware doesn't need to be able to handle huge amount of traffic. Games are designed to run well over small pipes, like the internet. I think that Quake 2 games generally require about 5Mbits for 64 players.

So as long as your players aren't file sharing or trying to spread malware a 100Mbps network should be just fine.

Personally I'd ebay a few old unmanaged Dell Powerconnect switches if you need them. Pretty solid and they do the job.

 

[CraKaJaX]

What would you do about parking? I know that during the winter here... you can't park on the streets due to snowplows. I hope you have a huge driveway.

 

[jlbenedict]

Originally posted by: Brentx

Originally posted by: jlbenedict
How much $$ do you have? To hell with renting a place; make it a permanent solution:

http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN...sults.jsp&MID=9876&N=2984+4412&pos=n14


ugh.. link doesn't work..

Its a vinyl, 12ft x 24ft utility shed for $1,835.00.. Lay down some concrete and throw this bad boy up and get to it! You wouldn't need heat; i'm sure a dozen or more computers would do fine for heating

Hahaha. That would be awesome. Well we did tear down the pool a few years back and the back yard is looking a little barren

But yeah, I would plan everything out from electrical and network diagrams to printing out signs of rules, getting waivers if you are under 18 that your parents will have to sign on site (does that sound like a good idea) and food of course. I will talk it over with a few others, but I will probably be shooting for June. That gives me plenty of time to invest in the network equipment, cabling, wiring, and gives me time to plan with a few others how we will correlate things.

Any other suggestions? These are good so far

Originally posted by: ScottSwingleComputers

Originally posted by: fire400
1. wireless N with WPA2

2. word of mouth for SSID and encryption key

3. done

Worst idea ever.


Whats this platform thing you made? Whats the point?

It keeps all of the computers off of the cement, and gives us some room off the ground in case the basement ever floods. It's kind of nice, because it is like a floor 5 inches off the ground.

Maybe I'll post pics when I get back from class to just show it off

Damn.. now that I realized it.. that utility shed gives me an idea
I could use one of those for my gym and put all my equipment in one of those. Its cramped into a small, spare bedroom in our basement.