Internet switch for LAN party

Hi there

I am hosting a LAN party in about 3 weeks and I am currently getting all the hardware ready.

About 20 people are invited and everyone is connected by LAN (it’s a LAN! party :wink: ) so I need a switch.

I do have a switch with 48 ports but it is only 100Mbit. Will this work or do I need to buy a 1Gbit switch?

We will be playing just local games as there is no usable external internet connection (there is a mobile network connection, just to log in steam and such)

There will be a local Minecraft server that is hostet on an additional pc so my calculation is 100Mbit connection to server divided by 20 players gives everyone a 5Mbit connection. Is this possible to play lag free? same goes for Garry’s mod?

I just want to hear some thoughts

the upgrade to Gbit would be around 50$ for something used here in Switzerland but i would rather safe the money for games…

Janick

Once everyone downloads everything for the game, there is not much traffic used afterwards. It’s all just text. I think it will be fine with just 100 Mbit. What’s the total capacity on that switch?

Should probably be fine but will be a bit painful for updates if a few people dont have stuff installed. Which specific switch is it ? (not all can saturate all their ports)

yeah well everyone knows wich games are being played and we have most games on USB sticks for the guy that didn’t listen and we still have our phones.

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It is some old Netgear desktop switch, ill have to check the modle tomorrow.

@Dynamic_Gravity how much bandwidth/user does minecraft servers need guessing it isn’t a lot

probably will be fine

image

Seems to be in the kbps (other games will probably not be much more to be honest)

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ah good, then we are fine :wink: I was not sure it this number can be trusted

honestly its just location data and any changes once the world is loaded cant be that much data

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For some reason I couldn’t connect to my Minecraft server via the same network, I had to connect to it via internet, might save some hassle if you make sure your switch/server has all the settings setup and can connect without the internet before hand

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testing prior to event is a + for sure

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That’s why i am planing 3 Weeks in advance. We had more or less the same party a year ago but with only 12 players. So I manly have to upscale.

That is strange, I know that it works on my network. But then I have to try that with the new pc/server as my current online MC server is hosted by a Pi 4

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Speaking as someone who created the network for a 100 people LAN:

As long as all of you keep file sharing to physically handing over HDDs and USB drives, all fine, good to go.

Game servers do not need much bandwidth wise.


A good little switch when you want to have “some Gbit available”, the MikroTik RB260GS.

For future upgradeability, the MikroTik CSS326-24G-2S+RM is a magical price/performance wise.


For the LAN network I and a friend created, we had this setup:
Router was a Dell R610 with PFSense (as overkill as it gets)

Switch Ports Use
Quanta LB4M 48 Port Gigabit & 2 SFP+ Core & 1st stage distribution switches, also used for attendees
Avaya 4548GT-PW 48 Port Gigabit & 4 SFP attendee hookup
D-Link 1224T 24 Port Gigabit & 4 SFP 10 tournament PCs

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Yeah it’s only like a mega bit ish per user from what I’ve seen after running the server.

It basically just sends location data back and forth and info about what is in each chunk.

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Dont forget hygiene. Remember that this is pretty much an orgy of connections, one of those 20 PCs may have malware that can spread into the network. Have a good antivirus solution (or use linux), update windows if you have not done so and update windows defender as well.