Hi, me and some friends are gonna have a LAN party in a couple of days. Im just wondering is there anything else we need except PCs, soda, energy drinks, games and a room? im sorry if this is not the right place to ask this in
Thanks
Wow I have never LAN partied so I googled it and the is a wiki how..Never knew..I would figure bandwidth is one of the most major concerns..
Make sure everyone has the games you plan on downloading BEFORE they turn up at yours otherwise you'll be waiting god knows how long.
For best gameplay DO NOT use wireless. When there are alot of users and heavy wireless traffic, the average wireless AP packs in and gives up.
Distributed users, to prevent the power draw popping a breaker.
Also make sure everyone knows where the bathroom is.
Huh, thanks for posting this question..I found out some people do this as a business..Also found this site, They be gaming in Georgia and Illinois..
Learning stuff everyday..
Someone needs to bring a 10 port or higher gigabit switch.
thanks for the tips guys
Yes, bring an Ethernet hub, and a power strip, once again enough for you and your buddies. Remember that one Ethernet port will be taken form your router to the hub.
omg do not use a HUB.
We used to have really large ones at our school. Lasted from 9PM to 6AM.
Here's what we had/what you'll need.
Make sure you have sets of power strips on DIFFERENT circuits. You will be drawing a lot of power.
Make sure to use Gigabit SWITCHES. Not hubs. Modem->switch->Computers. if you need more connections, attach another switch to the first one.
You'll need food. Not just drinks. Try not to go for energy drinks, because (some) people will crash afterward, and you don't want that.
As stated above, make sure EVERYONE has all of the games installed that you wish to play. Steam games would be the easiest bet.
We always had music at ours, but that's a personal thing. I personally believe music helps me game, but that's up to you.
bring headphones, no one wants to hear your game noises. if you bring your gf make sure she has her own computer to play on or something to do like reloading your gun.
Does anyone know of a cheap Gigabit Switch for a LAN with 10 people?
It's a LAN-party. Downloading should not be an issue unless nobody has it. In fact, our LAN-parties (real ones, not just a couple of people at someone's house, though we did those as well, but with 10ish people) were 75% downloading stuff from others, if not more. That was in the days of 10GB caps and 3-10Mbps Internet connections. But we still download a lot on LAN-parties even today. Having everyone bring the original software of the stuff they bought (or received) can also be convenient (OS, games) in case they need a reinstall for whatever reason.
Making sure everyone has all the other stuff they're going to need (like updates and a working OS) is more important (well, things that are time consuming or require Internet connections). Once you have that, Internet traffic is at a minimum. Just imagine you won't have Internet for the duration and prepare accordingly :)
Making sure everyone's got the hardware and peripherals they'll need is also important. Can't say how many times someone turned up with one too few power cables or a missing network cable :P (Luckily we always found a spare somehow). Easy to forget a mouse or headphones too. Or a mousepad (damn you crappy tables). Batteries for batterypowered devices. Charging cables for phones.
If you don't have enough beds the others should make sure they got sleeping materials (blow up matrass, sleeping bag, pillows, whathaveyou) if they need or want them (remind them to bring their own if you can't provide, it's not really up to you to provide that).
There is a lot you can forget or not think about when going to a LAN-party or organizing one.
100Mbit switches would work too really. Gigabit is mostly useful if you're planning on downloading from eachother a lot. Switches are indeed better than hubs, go for switch(es).
Crashing is an important part of LAN-parties. At least at what we call LAN-parties (friday evening to sunday evening), less sleep more play! Just make sure if you got work or school or something important afterwards that you get plenty of sleep so you can recover :p
Music also gives ambience, doesn't need to be loud. If someone doesn't feel like gaming right then they still have something going on, though for small LAN-parties it might not be needed at all. We sometimes watched movies in-between gaming or boozing.
Lol, crashing means sleeping. No gaming if you've passed out after a caffeine buzz. But it only effects sosme people that way. I personally am not phased by it.
yes, excuse my blunder mix up between a hub and a switch, your bandwidth is going to tank with a hub XD
Everyone needs to bring an ethernet cable. Borderline important.
Also consider setting up ventrilo/mumble (alternatively Skype) Everyone will be wearing noise cancelling headphones.
Also consider having dedicated servers for your games... you will always have some one calling host advantage or console cheating or other other fucking thing, also have a machine the a Public Shared Folder, easy way to transfer files, and have a Gigabtye Connection as well.... and if you get really into it... team to nic's together