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[e90]

I've stupidly agreed to semi organise a small lan party for a few mates, 10-12. But I've never done this before, so wondered if anyone that has can offer suggestions.

The site is almost confirmed which will have enough space, and use of a 10Mbit fibre link.

We have 10-12 games listed, some new some old that will be out in a vote to all users (Quake3, TF2, CS, etc... we have enough please don't give me any more lol)

I think we have access to a rack server or two for dedicated servers if we need, though not sure what is best to put on them?

Any tips of experiences that might help me make this a non complete failure?

Thanks

[r007]

Well, I'm probably stating the obvious here, but you should try to have the network at the venue running as smooth as possible even before the event. Seeing as you're just a few, that's probably not too much to do.
Get a decent switch (most preferably one that can block DHCPOFFER broadcasts by port, so that client machines can't bugger up your network autoconfig), wire up all the places beforehand, have a DHCP server dishing out the right infos. All in order to have people be able to show up, plug in and go.
Have dedicated servers for games that most people want to play. Ensure the broadcast announce of these servers works on LAN so that you can just jump in.

Have enough snacks and drinks ready. (Preferably selling drinks on consignment...)

[DeadlyAvenger]

Preparation is key. Make sure that everyone has everything they need in terms of games installed as you won't all want to be hammering the internet when you get there.

It's worth making sure you have a couple of games you can all play that don't require a net connection (read: steam) in case it goes down and you're left with nothing to play as you can't update TF2, launch steam etc.

It's also worth thinking about what you'll do if there's a problem with the LAN - have you got sufficient switches, network cable etc.

If you have a dedicated server - you won't want to be setting it up while you're there so make sure that's set up in advance and test that you can connect to it locally and that all the servers are as updated as possible and you can quickly/easily log on to change maps, restart the servers etc. A lot of games have their own dedicated server files that are different to what gets installed with the game.

To be honest, for the number of players you have, there's no reason you couldn't host listen servers if you have a reasonably specced PC.

[Tommy the Cat]

you will need booze, lots of booze. Plenty of showers and toilets just incase someone feels the need to do a shit in a shower. Comfortable places to sleep desirable.

[Burnalot]

Comfortable places to sleep desirable.

Read: floor of someone else's hotel room.

[Lister]

Bring some girls too, they love it.

[Berath]

Yeah, we do!

[Hzza]

Don't sit next to Cat when he's been drinking is probably my top tip; you'll either end up deaf in one ear or covered in beer/puke/gay.

[e90]

Thanks guys.

I was wrong, it's not a 10Mbit link, it's 100
And the first seven people to agree to go are sys admins, including a few guys that have more years of building networks than I care to think of, so I'll leave that to them lol.

Good point about steam going down, I had planned on recommending a few non steam based games, but I hadn't thought of steam failing (gives me extra push to bring out the classics).  And yes a few rigs going are quite powerful, I'll assign them one game each to host, nice idea.

Thanks guys.

PS Berath, if you love them all that much feel free to come along. though you may be the only lady around lol

[Tommy the Cat]

Don't sit next to Cat when he's been drinking is probably my top tip; you'll either end up deaf in one ear or covered in beer/puke/gay.

I have never puked at Lan.

Also don't give Hzza a beertray.

[e90]

beertray?

[Tommy the Cat]

Yes, a beertray. While they do work as frizbee, it's not advisable

this is what happened to CV's head:

[e90]

lol, yes I remember seeing photos of that.

Beer trays strictly banned :s

[Blue Geezer]

so are we all off to leeds to crash a lan?

[e90]

I'm sure we have room for one or two