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Would like to hold a LAN party...

Saint Nick

Saint Nick

Lifer
Long story short, we got a large room in the basement of a friend's business and would like to hold a LAN party there. It will be for about 50 people and I would like to know what I need to invest in and what I need to look at to accomodate this many people.

I also need advice on how to set it all up.
 
The biggest problem with LAN parties are software related. You need to specify, IN ADVANCE, what gaming software will be used AND WHAT VERSIONS. You won't believe how many incompatible versions of software will show up. Everybody thinks that their "special mod" is best. And nobody can play together. You'll spend hours downloading and re-installing software and patches and not get to play anything.
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
The biggest problem with LAN parties are software related. You need to specify, IN ADVANCE, what gaming software will be used AND WHAT VERSIONS. You won't believe how many incompatible versions of software will show up. Everybody thinks that their "special mod" is best. And nobody can play together. You'll spend hours downloading and re-installing software and patches and not get to play anything.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I can see where you are coming from. This LAN party will probably not have access to the internet... so updating games if it was needed would not be possible. I guess I could tell everyone to update to the latest version before attending but there is going to be a few handful of people who didn't update their software.
 
well .. a few points on lan parties ..
1. figure no more than 6 computers to a circut breaker (~20 amps)

2. use switches to reduce collisions (10 mb switches will out perform 100mb hubs in a lan config)

3. use a commercial router for DHCP services (linksys and such seem nice till you are in the middle of gaming and the router reboots and chokes the network)

4. have the game servers in a seperate area of the room that has better cooling for the higher demands.

5. test the servers and switch ports 1 week before start of lan party.

 
You should be able to go borrow a cup 'o internet from somebody nearby......look for a wireless network, approach them, invite the resident geeknoid tech guy to the party and set up a wireless bridge🙂
 
Originally posted by: servin247365
wow a LAN party with no internet connection, Good luck...
Click to expand...

well if you remember back in teh day most lan parties didn't have internet connections... well MOST...
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
The biggest problem with LAN parties are software related. You need to specify, IN ADVANCE, what gaming software will be used AND WHAT VERSIONS. You won't believe how many incompatible versions of software will show up. Everybody thinks that their "special mod" is best. And nobody can play together. You'll spend hours downloading and re-installing software and patches and not get to play anything.
Click to expand...

Actually the largest problem with hosting LAN parties is POWER. On a normal circuit you can run 4-6 computers.

After that the major problem is seating. Do you have the room, tables, and chairs for the number of attendants expected.

Next would be Networking equipment. Do you have enough ports. It may be switches, hubs, routers, whatever.

After you get all that stuff out of the way then you can worry about what software will be used and what versions. If you dont meet any of the requirments listed earlier then there is no point in attempting to have a LAN party.


Originally posted by: servin247365
wow a LAN party with no internet connection, Good luck...
Click to expand...

Actually, my LAN group tried the internet connection and it turned out to be a bad idea from our stand point. People were abusing the connection and we had to cut it. Careful considerations must be made when having a LAN with an outside connection.
 
Originally posted by: EMPshockwave82
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
The biggest problem with LAN parties are software related. You need to specify, IN ADVANCE, what gaming software will be used AND WHAT VERSIONS. You won't believe how many incompatible versions of software will show up. Everybody thinks that their "special mod" is best. And nobody can play together. You'll spend hours downloading and re-installing software and patches and not get to play anything.
Click to expand...

Actually the largest problem with hosting LAN parties is POWER. On a normal circuit you can run 4-6 computers.

After that the major problem is seating. Do you have the room, tables, and chairs for the number of attendants expected.

Next would be Networking equipment. Do you have enough ports. It may be switches, hubs, routers, whatever.

After you get all that stuff out of the way then you can worry about what software will be used and what versions. If you dont meet any of the requirments listed earlier then there is no point in attempting to have a LAN party.


Originally posted by: servin247365
wow a LAN party with no internet connection, Good luck...
Click to expand...

Actually, my LAN group tried the internet connection and it turned out to be a bad idea from our stand point. People were abusing the connection and we had to cut it. Careful considerations must be made when having a LAN with an outside connection.
Click to expand...

Yep, we got the power situation figured out 🙂 We're just worried about not having a server and the switches. Those are pretty expensive pieces of hardware.
 
not having a server isnt that huge of a deal. You may have to take turns sitting out of games and use your systems as dedicated gaming servers. Switches on the other hand could be a problem. Gigabit is expensive but you can get 16 port 10 / 100 switches fairly cheap. Stay away from hubs as much as possible. If you must use a hub place it on the outer edges of the system & it will cause less problems.
 
Originally posted by: Diademed
I have lots and lots of 10baseT hubs, if you happen to be looking. Nice ones, too.
Click to expand...

Well... hubs apparently will bog down the system if too many people are on it at once 🙁 I need switches
 
I hear you. These hubs actually have connectors for *I think it is* a thinnet backbone... (the round coax-like connector)

I believe if you wanted, you could connect them all with backbone, and have as many or as few machines on each as you wanted.

Although thinking on it, it may not work. It's not hubs you have to worry about so much as the thoroughput. 11mbs is slow, but may be serviceable, depending on your requirements.

Thought I'd throw it out there. 😉
 
On a dedicated 20 amp circuit (i.e. on breaker, NOT one outlet) we have 16 P4 2.4 Ghz systems with low power monitors (9 inchers) without problem. We have had up to 18 or 20 without tripping the breaker, but these wern't high load, high end machines under load.

Switches/hubs: if you setup things right, a couple of hubs won't cripple your network of 50 people. The best idea (if you are limited) is to run hubs to a set of people (say 10) and run the hubs to a central switch, so then you have 1 broadcast domain and 5 collision domains.

Determine the games you are playing, (a short list of one or two, so folks don't feel like they have to buy 5 games) esp. if you include a few free ones (like Enemy Territory). Get the latest full patches/incremental patches and map packs and put them on a central server (or possibly just burn to 2 or 3 disks) so that when folks come, they can install the latest patch without internet/slow pipe and be done.

 
500 watts X 50 = 25,000 watts. That is just for the CPU's

Monitors actually pull more power than that. So you could be looking at supplying up to 100,000 watts continuously.

You would need special power feeds coming from the main Breaker Box. Or maybe even a new breaker box to tie into the mains. Your mains may not have enough juice.

One big question is are all 50 people going to play at a single time? That is a lot of circuits to run. Maybe need like 10-15 circuits from a breaker box or higher capacity circuits like a furnace or a refrigerator would use. This would take some planning. It would take some investment in equipment and maybe an electrician. I have easily run a 3 computer Lan but it takes some thinking on how to set it up. Even network Cable is expensive by the foot.

You can buy an 8 port Linksys Switch for around $39.00 A 4 port switch can only support about 3 people because you have to have one port for uplink. Do not try to link routers together! Another option would be to get 2 or 4 larger switches, but the larger the switches the longer the cables you need. You can hook say 4 or 6 or up to 7 people up in a star configuration, and hook up the little switches up to a larger switch or a central router if you want internet access. If you hook up 10 switches to a central device that means you need about a 12 port switch or router in the middle. Here is where you have to decide if larger switches are a better idea. Do the switches cost more or the cable. If you know someone who can make cables for you buying cable in bulk is an option. A lot depends on the size of the tables as well. Computers weigh a lot, so keep that in mind. How many can you put on a table and where will you set the tables. Round tables might be nice. Try making a diagram and then look at prices.

I suggest you try this on a small scale first.

You might have to have a fundraiser or just have certain people buy certain things like workgroup switches.

So are people going to play in Teams? Maybe each team should have to bring a switch large enough for their team and bring their own cables.

When thinking about this it is best to split the problem up into pieces and figure out how to attack the problem.

You could play games in shifts. If you were going to be the sole supporter of this, you would probably need to charge admission or something. You are approaching the size where you just about need a sponsor. Makes me wonder if you can get a community service grant for doing this as a public service. I mean if they can fund midnight basketball, maybe they can fund a place to run a Lan. I could see you selling this to a school principal. Might be easier to sell it to a School Science or computer department.

Think of something like a school meet the teacher lan party night.

 
LAN party pointers.

Power is your biggest issue. The older a building the usually the more of an issue. What we came up as a solution was two fold. Prior to a LAN party we mapped out what outlets are on which circuit. That way we could evenly distribute the load, and hopefully not trip anything.

The other solution - we borrowed a sipder box (i think that is the correct term). Its an electrical box taht runs off of a 240 ciruit and makes 4-5 110 circuits. works great. A couple of the venues we've used has 240 drops in the room. Rember overns and dryers gernal use 240v.

Waivers - we have people sign waivers - if some one is under 18 they need a parent to sign. This won't fully protect you from being sued if some one gets dismembered, but gives you better ground to stand on if some comes after you for some thing they lost or was stolen. Another benifit is you get a firmer head count.

Internet helps but isn't nesscery. Post what games you are going to play, and if you don't have a server, have some CD's and DVDs burned with the latest patches that you will be using. If you have a server creat some shares or a website with the patches.

Use switches.

Have extra CAT 5 for stringing between swithces - bad cables are not uncomer particularly if they are hand made.

Run power, to each station ahead of time. And make sure all cat5 and power cables are secured or out of the way. We use duct tape. You don't want tripping hazards, or some one unplugging a whole row of computers.

I know its in the winter, make sure the room has good cooling. It keeps gamers happy and comptuers too. We had one party a medium sized room, that could not handle the heat load of 30+ with computers. Computers started to lock up and people were uncomfortable.

Arrange food. Talk to a pizza place see if they can cut you a deal buying 20-30 pizza's have everyone buy in to it.

Have people ready to help get other people set up and trouble shoot from the begining. People will have trouble, some one may be set up for static - or worse, some one may have ICW going. You need people there to help track down problems.

Have other activities planned - we've done stupid games like a mouse toss, contests with gary's mod, random drawings for prizes. Just somethign to break up the sitting on your butt staring at a screen.

um...thats off the top of my head. Just remeber the bigger the LAN party the more work invovled......
 
well I have a 48 port lan system ... here's the specific's...

I use a 4 car garage (865 sq feet) all wires are ran thru the rafters to drop points, the tables are 4ft by 6 ft and seat 6 this allows a 6 port cat 5 drop and 3 outlets to be mounted over head (3 outlets on one 20 amp breaker, limits how many people play on a drop (they get 1 power plug and need to bring their own power tap, cat 5, and all other cables/devices)and the tables will self monitor that way (the guy with the amps, lights, and 22 inch will be told by friends at the table to turn some things off when the breaker trips twice....)) I have 8 drops in this manor (7 for gamers x 6 = 42 and 5 ports for servers 1 port for router) the switches are old 3com 10mb switches (most games operate over the cable modems just fine (1.5 dl and 128k up ...) the switches are in a 19' inch telecom tower that has a comercial imagestream rebel router doing DHCP NAT internet and firewalling. the rest of the case is 1U and 4U computers the 4U's are web/ftp servers (2 for redundancey...) and 1U p3 or p4 game servers (5 .. 4 for games one for TS to limit shouting during matches). I run Enemy territory, Americas army, and command and conquore. If others want a different game they have to supply me the game and info 30 days before so i can setup install and test server configs. I try to have the servers start at different times so they can join a game quickly about 2 min apart works fine. the garage is feed with 100 amps and I find a 8 - 12 hour session at $5 gives plenty of cash for pizza and just covers the electric bill 30 days later.
 
when are you planning on havin it cuase if you pay for shipping i can hook you up with a 24 switch and a 24 port 10 base switch.

PM me

Jordan
 
Originally posted by: EMPshockwave82
Actually the largest problem with hosting LAN parties is POWER. On a normal circuit you can run 4-6 computers.

After that the major problem is seating. Do you have the room, tables, and chairs for the number of attendants expected.

Next would be Networking equipment. Do you have enough ports. It may be switches, hubs, routers, whatever.

After you get all that stuff out of the way then you can worry about what software will be used and what versions. If you dont meet any of the requirments listed earlier then there is no point in attempting to have a LAN party.


Originally posted by: servin247365
wow a LAN party with no internet connection, Good luck...
Click to expand...

Actually, my LAN group tried the internet connection and it turned out to be a bad idea from our stand point. People were abusing the connection and we had to cut it. Careful considerations must be made when having a LAN with an outside connection.
Click to expand...


I prefer my LAN parties w/o Internet. That just takes away from the gaming usually.

I agree though, the #1 problem is POWER then Seating. Your average 6-8 foot table will hold 2 people comfortably. Now if you get more people with LCD's, you may be able to squeeze more onto a table but larger monitors take ALOT of space.

I suggest you get your network setup ahead of time that way you don't have people stringing cables everywhere.
 
Originally posted by: Gillbot
I agree though, the #1 problem is POWER then Seating. Your average 6-8 foot table will hold 2 people comfortably. Now if you get more people with LCD's, you may be able to squeeze more onto a table but larger monitors take ALOT of space.

I suggest you get your network setup ahead of time that way you don't have people stringing cables everywhere.
Click to expand...

if you measure an avg work space is 24" deep buy 28" wide ... a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood makes a good table for 6 people (3 each side) with extra for elbows...
 
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