Lan Party Questions

Hey guys and gals.. I was thinking about starting monthly LAN Party in the Indianapolis, IN area.. I want to start kind of small ( 30 people or so ) so I can work out the bugs that I am sure will be there..

I would love to have some people post what the most common area that you have had problems with.. I intend to use cisco 2950's and 1900's ( i have 4 2950's and 2 1900's).. but thats all I know for sure that I want to use... Any and all suggestions would be great..

I would also like to have people post some ideas about future equipment that would make things run smoothly. I currently have tons of fiber cable I could use for the backbone in future events.

lastly, I was wondering what kind of server configurations most people are using? WINTEL boxes? Linux? are you running a domain for the gamers? mostly what kind of software and network monitoring stuff ya using..

I would basically like to know what everyone is doing to make it as fun and as fast as possible.. The guys I have to help have lots of ideas but havent done one yet.. So any and all feedback would be greatly apprieciated.


Dethloc

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Dethloc on 02/08/03 11:18 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

Wish I could come to indy and help you out, by help you out I mean play the crap out of games, hah.

I live in southern Illinois, and the deepest I like to drive in Indiana is Evansville. I've got some bad stories about driving in indy, heh

It's all good ^_^

I have recently also started to form an org for throwing lan parties, My first party is going to be about 50 peeps. the one thing i have found out is that there isn't alot of help out there on this particuale5r topic. I have had to do alot of resaerch myself about the specific aspects of what it takes to throw a party. one good article i found here

http://www.extremetech.com/article [...] 595,00.asp

outlines what it takes.
another big consideration is power, one good article i found on power consumption here

http://www.fwgg.org/files/FWGG_POWER_TEST.pdf

this outlines how much juice each machine will consume on average and how many machines you can put on a single 20 amp breaker.
unfortunately there is not such thing as a prefabricated power setup for LAN parties, I am working with an electrician to come up with a temp power setup that can be rolled out and rolled up at events.

one thing to remeber is that throwing lan parties is a serious thing, which takes ALOT of planning. If you get to the day of your event and your network goes down, or your power setup fails. your going to have alot of pissed off gamers on your hands. make sure you test and double test everything and don't try to handle everything your self, throwing a lan party requires a person to handle each different aspect of the event. you have to think about things like "where are my tables and chairs going to come frum" and "what am I going to feed this group of hungry gamers?" "what games am i going to have?" "tourneys?" "sponsorship?" "prizes?"

Look into renting alot of your equipment to start with, local party rental outfits can provide tables and chairs, I am told the best way to provide temp power is to use a device called a "spider box" which runs about $800 - $1000 retail, however this can be rented as well.

snatch yourself up a domain and setup a website and advertise the hell out of it!

look at local comp shows in your area and try to throw a lan party on the same day as a comp show. I went to one lan party that was in the building next to a comp show, and I ended up running over and grabbing a memory upgrade for my machine during the event.

that's about all I can give as far as advice, I am still trying to learn everything about lan parties myself, I am hoping to be able to throw my first one sumtime in the next 6 mos. money is a big factor, initially I am estimating that I am going to have to throw about 2-3 grand into the project before I can throw my first one, but with every business there is a startup cost which will turn to profit if you play your cards right.

g00d luck!

if you have any questions feel free to email me.
-Steve

www.xstreamlan.com

Man, That took a while. Better late than never.

You ought to check out Indy Gamers on 11/8/2003 and 11/9/2003. They put on a good LAN. You could pick up some good information from them.



<A HREF="http://www.stompfest.com" target="_new">Stompfest Sept. 13-14 - Indy. IN</A> - Should be some good gaming!!!

Some LANs are free but for most, people pay something.

I was at one three weeks ago where everyone chipped in $5 for the food that was provided. Granted, it was only 22 people in a guy's basement across a couple of switches. However when the venue gets bigger to allow for more people, there is the cost for renting the place, power, equipment, etc.

So depending on what you are looking for in a LAN there are parties 5,000+ and parties as small as a few friends over a hub.



Got a LAN Party that you want people to know about?

Let me know about it.