What is the best way to configure a network of 20 pc's?

[evagoras]

At present there are 20 pc's connected to an adsl router via a 24 port switch, will the network run better if the 24 port switch was replaced by two 16 port switches, and then connect 10 pc's on each switch.
The problem is when all computers are playing Call of Duty 2 sometimes the computers stall.
Also to avoid network congestion would it be better to have two networks with 2 routers, 10 pcs one each router via a 16 port switch and bridging the two networks together?

 

[fredweston]

At present there are 20 pc's connected to an adsl router via a 24 port switch, will the network run better if the 24 port switch was replaced by two 16 port switches

No, it will actually run worse. The backplane inside the switch is a lot faster than an ethernet uplink between two switches. But you haven't really given us enough information. Is the COD server connected locally to your switch or is it an online server? If it's online, then you're really overburdening your DSL line. Unless you have some super fast commercial service, you can reliably expect to support maybe 4 or 5 gaming sessions (depending on the game).

If the server is local, have you checked to see if it's actually a network issue? You shouldn't even be approaching saturation on a 100mbps network with 20 players. Look at the networking tab of task manager on the server computer, it will give you a general idea as to how much bandwidth it is using.

It is probably not a network issue, if you are running a 20 man server it might simply be that the server itself doesn't have enough horsepower to keep up.

 

[evagoras]

The 20 pc's are not connected to a server and they are in an internet cafe on a workgroup. all pc's have their individual applications and games install on each pc.

 

[fredweston]

Ok, so where is the game server? Or are they all playing single player? If they are all playing online then that's the problem, you probably don't have enough bandwidth. If they are all playing single player, then I don't see how the network could have anything to do with it.

 

[evagoras]

Take for example Call of Duty 2, you can play single player, multiplayer or on the internet. My problem is they all play multiplayer with each other locally. ie all 20 pc's play against each other. One pc makes a game server and all the others connect to that game server.

 

[Madwand]

Is the game server PC also used as a client? Maybe then they can get better performance by keeping the clients off that machine and dedicating it to the server role.

 

[fredweston]

What he said. You need to do some investigation of the PC running the server. Is it running a dedicated or listen server? You can find out the differences between these two modes by googling or reading the game manual. Also, task manager will tell you a lot about the load on the server computer. How much RAM does it have? Is it swapping a lot? If it's less than a gig, you probably need to upgrade it. For 20 players I'd probably go with 2 gigs to be sure.

 

[evagoras]

So what you are saying is I should allocate the best PC from the 20 that I have, boost its ram to 2Gb and make it the local dedicated server for Call of Duty. With out letting anyone play the game as client.
This will then make all the other 19 PC's who are all playing against each other locally, play COD 2 without the game pausing and stalling.

 

[evagoras]

This morning I setup a Pentium D 945 3.4GHz, INTEL 945GNTL Motherboard, 2GB Ram, 200GB Sata II HD Computer. Only loaded Windows XP, and COD2, and disabled the firewall. I Made it the COD2 Dedicated Server for my Local Network. Tonight was the first night and COD2 is definatly running better on all the other 20 pc's now.
Thanks guys for your advice.
Is there anything else you recommend I do?
I would still like to know if 2 x 16 port switch is a better choice than 1 24 port switch?