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Running a LAN - Hardware and software related
blizzard224
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
In a couple of days I'm going to have a LAN with a group of 7-8 friends of mine, and I was wondering if any of you have suggestions as to what sort of games we could play that take into account the reasonably small number of people coming, and the fact that the worst computer there is probably in the region of about a 2 ghz single core with 1g ram and a pretty basic video card (a pretty limiting system, but not too many of us have anything much better anyway).
Outside of the staples - CS, Team Fortress Classic, DoTA and various WC3 mods... what else is there for us to play? Maybe some of you know some cool indie games for us to download? Or even games that are low in price / freely available for download? Don't really have any discrimination as for genre and stuff, anything goes - probably nothing with a too steep learning curve though, we only have 1 night to play.
Next question is on the subject of routers. I've got 3 routers, each with 4 LAN ports, and a maximum of eight computers to plug in and have going on the network, am I going to be able to pull it off or will I need another router / some funky connection adapter that I'll need to blow 100 bucks on? If I can pull it off, how do I connect the routers into the same network? Just an ethernet cable running from a LAN port to a WAN port / a LAN port to another LAN port?
Other than that, I'm also a tad concerned about the state of my power outlets. With 8 rigs + speakers + Monitors , routers, some knobhead will probably bring a fan or something.... well, that's a lot of plugs basically. Am I going to be better served running in extension cables from other rooms and then putting a 4 plug board on each one, or will that not really help? I am basically clueless about this power stuff, I don't know if it's even unsafe to have power boards plugged into powerboards into powerboards, I was always told it was, but I suppose it may just be an old wives tale.
Any general tips are also appreciated, I hope to make it an excellent night for all involved, so thank you for any help doing so!
Outside of the staples - CS, Team Fortress Classic, DoTA and various WC3 mods... what else is there for us to play? Maybe some of you know some cool indie games for us to download? Or even games that are low in price / freely available for download? Don't really have any discrimination as for genre and stuff, anything goes - probably nothing with a too steep learning curve though, we only have 1 night to play.
Next question is on the subject of routers. I've got 3 routers, each with 4 LAN ports, and a maximum of eight computers to plug in and have going on the network, am I going to be able to pull it off or will I need another router / some funky connection adapter that I'll need to blow 100 bucks on? If I can pull it off, how do I connect the routers into the same network? Just an ethernet cable running from a LAN port to a WAN port / a LAN port to another LAN port?
Other than that, I'm also a tad concerned about the state of my power outlets. With 8 rigs + speakers + Monitors , routers, some knobhead will probably bring a fan or something.... well, that's a lot of plugs basically. Am I going to be better served running in extension cables from other rooms and then putting a 4 plug board on each one, or will that not really help? I am basically clueless about this power stuff, I don't know if it's even unsafe to have power boards plugged into powerboards into powerboards, I was always told it was, but I suppose it may just be an old wives tale.
Any general tips are also appreciated, I hope to make it an excellent night for all involved, so thank you for any help doing so!
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
blizzard224 on
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It's a free CL (or used to be) on Steam
Good times.
The routers you have, you can't just daisy chain them like that and expect everything to work fine. I can't say for certain how they will behave unless I knew the model numbers for each and looked them up.
However, if you connect to each one to manage it, most have a way to turn off the gateway function and use them as just a switch. This is what you would have to do for all but the main Router. So it would look like this Internet>wan port on router 1> LAN ports to lan port 1 on other routers > Free lan ports> computers.
If you are looking to do this a lot, I'd suggest getting a cheap 16 port switch, you just hang that off a free port in your existing router and that handles the LAN side of things easy.
Power!
I don't know what your house is wired like. But, I'd imagine your room is probably sharing a breaker with other things in your house. If you have a clearly labeled breaker box and can see what's around. I would recommend taking an extension cord from 3 separate breaker areas and divide up all the stuff from each. (and use the heavy gauge extension cords, not the cheap thin ones you would use for a lamp or something).
This way you are far less likely to pop a breaker. And if you don't know what I mean by areas it's this.
If you go to the garage you will have a breaker panel with switches. If you turn off one of the small ones, that's one breaker. You want to hit up at least 3 of these (your room+ 2 others) to distribute the load. If you want to get super technical you would have to know the AMP value of your breakers, then add up the AMP value on all the equipment you will be running on that breaker (this information is usually in the manual or on a label). If all of the stuff winds up being under the AMP value on your breaker, you're probably good.
I don't believe it - I'm on my THIRD PS3, and my FIRST XBOX360. What the heck?
Ah, thanks a lot, that helps quite a bit. As far as I can tell I'm fucking lucking as far ass the breaker setup in my house goes, upstairs extension, loungeroom and dining room (where we'll have the PC's) are all super available, so running the cords is going to be easy as pie.
Also, Considering picking up a switch, probably a 12-port. Things are only 35 bucks AUD if you get a cheapo one and it seems like it will make present and future events a lot easier to set up =D
And Embrik - can't believe I forgot Wolfenstien. Great times to be had there.
EDIT: Found a place where I can get this :http://www.digitalyes.com.au/prodView.asp?idproduct=27388
for 25 bucks. Will it be sufficiant for what I need?
If you can see yourself in a situation needing more, and have some spare cash now, might as well go for a better one. If not, this should do fine.
B.net: Kusanku
The ports will be sufficiant yeah - I'd go for the next model up, but it's 3 time sthe price for twice as many slots and I can't see myself needing them at all in the near future.
Soldat looks really awsome and exactly what I'm looking for, but Defcon... seems like a kinda steep learning curve to me.
Yeah, daisy-chaining routers will work, but not in the way that you'll probably expect, or be prepared to deal with. Pretty much all SOHO routers are set by default (and sometimes have no option to turn off) to do NAT/PAT, which generally has all sorts of complications for LAN gaming. You could work around them, as a good number of routers have the right knobs and dials for doing it, but unless you're good with networking concepts and understing the settings on the routers, you're likely to get frustrated.
Not all is lost, as usually routers that have 4-port switches in the back are actually really two devices in one box: a) a NAT/PAT router, and b) a 5-port switch, one of which is permanently dedicated to the LAN side of the router. if you daisy-chain routers by plugging in the LAN side, chances are it'll "just work". There's a limit (7) on how many switches you can daisy-chain, however.
So this:
Internet -> (WAN) Router (LAN) -> (LAN) Router (LAN) -> (LAN) Router (LAN)
should work. Or you could chain all the additional routers off the first.
One of your bigger problems will probably be power. Just because you have enough outlets, doesn't necessarily mean you have enough amps to power everything. Properly-sized (in terms of amperage) outlets, power strips, and extension cords. In most houses, outlets in the same room are usually on the same circuit, so even if you pull from different outlets, you're still on that same (probably 15-amp) circuit. Brining in power from other rooms only works if those rooms are on a different circuit.
Plugging in powerstrips into powerstrips is bad primarily because it allows you to create an unsafe situation. If you've got a 15-amp-rated powerstrip on a 15-amp circuit, all is well. But when you start daisy-chaining powerstrips, you can pull more current through the head of the chain, which isn't designed to handle that load.
Age of Empires II: pretty good for LAN
Diablo II: pretty good for LAN if everyone is ok with this type of game. It's even more fun if you download a file editor and pimp out a bunch of characters for everyone. Of course that alone will take you 1 or 2 days.
Civilization III: only if everyone has some idea how the game works/ doesn't mind spending all day on one game. I know there is FreeCiv for Linux, but I don't know if that would work on PCs.
Red Alert II
You might even try a free MMO and have everyone start out with level 1 characters.
EDIT: Don't forget about install time. It will certainly take longer than you think to install everything properly. You should start the day before you plan of gaming if possible.
It is kinda like playing a John Woo version of counterstrike: Diving through glass doors, flipping and diving off walls. Pretty fun for LAN play.
Hardware-wise, I'm simply hooking an 8-port switch to my router using a 50' cable. Everyone will hook in to that and I won't have to have a mass of bodies in my computer room. At least one other guy is using a wireless card, as he has in the past. It works just fine and doesn't eat up a port.
Software-wise, we're fairly limited in that we can only play free games, or games that everyone can afford. These are:
Unreal Tournament 1999: only $5, lots of mods, and has aged well. Still tons of fun with all the custom maps. Our particular favorites are the giant-sized ones.
Unreal Tournament 2004: when this dropped below $20, everyone wound up buying a copy. Just as good as the 1999 version, but some slower machines may need to drop detail/resolution to stay smooth.
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory: the crowd favorite.
In addition to those, we're going to play the following this time because they are all free (click title for link):
Babo Violent: got a good look at this in the PAX LAN room, and it looks like a lot of fun.
F.E.A.R. Multiplayer: I'm still amazed these guys let you play the multi for free. The edge will go to those with the shiniest new boxes, but it should be a lot of fun with the improved melee mechanics.
The Quake Wars Demo: from Steam. We're gonna find out if this sequel is an "Aliens" or a freaking "Highlander 2".
I was desperately casting about to find some way I could set up the Team Fortress 2 beta in LAN mode, legally using the same license. Sadly, it doesn't appear to be made that way and Steam tends to treat offline-mode like some kind of bastard stepchild. Thus, we'll have to be happy with the above.
Would love to hear any more suggestions. That's one thing I love about the PC: so many freebies.