Lan Party connection device

[miller-brandon]

I have a sort of dilemma. I am going to a LAN party and i have volunteered to purchase the main connectivity device (ie switch) I want to bring pretty decent hardware performance since we are running fios, but i dont have all the money in the world to spend either. There are going to be at least 8 people there, maybe more. I want to bring a gigabit switch but i dont think ill be able to afford 2 8 port gigabit switches or 3 5 ports or 1 16 port. I have considered one 16 port 10/100 switch and have read that is really all you need to have a lan party, but im just wanting to get the best performance scenario for a budget of less than 60 USD including shipping. id like to run gigabit but if you think i wont need it just post it up here. Ive thought about buying 1 8-port gigabit switch and 1 5 port 10/100 switch so i could make sure that the people i know that are going to be there get the best performance and the ones that dont can have what ever is left over.

 

[jlandi]

I have a sort of dilemma. I am going to a LAN party and i have volunteered to purchase the main connectivity device (ie switch) I want to bring pretty decent hardware performance since we are running fios, but i dont have all the money in the world to spend either. There are going to be at least 8 people there, maybe more. I want to bring a gigabit switch but i dont think ill be able to afford 2 8 port gigabit switches or 3 5 ports or 1 16 port. I have considered one 16 port 10/100 switch and have read that is really all you need to have a lan party, but im just wanting to get the best performance scenario for a budget of less than 60 USD including shipping. id like to run gigabit but if you think i wont need it just post it up here. Ive thought about buying 1 8-port gigabit switch and 1 5 port 10/100 switch so i could make sure that the people i know that are going to be there get the best performance and the ones that dont can have what ever is left over.

Are you staying local or connecting out to the Internets? I think either way, you should be fine with going with a 10/100 switch. You can always find a cheep one on eBay, maybe an old 2900 series Cisco could be a good bang for your buck.

But as I always say, the more bandwidth the better! So if you have the money go for it.