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Can a LAN network be set up in a car?

I'm going on a road trip with my girlfriend and her family to Southern California on Friday the Third, which is pretty cool, except that my girlfriend's sister prefers to not go anywhere and instead play League of Legends on her laptop. As such, I thought I'd take it upon myself to set up some kind of LAN network within the car (thinking of calling it highwayLANder. . .  huehuehuehue) in order for us to play P2P on minecraft and other games which allow LAN connection games, just so she doesn't get bored. My first instinct was to get a mobile hotspot, except that those cost a pretty penny, may not allow P2P communication (for security), and will be using data to connect to the internet, which is a feature that probably won't be used. Which brings me to my question all you computer wizards:

 

How can I set up a functional local area network within a car for P2P gaming.

 

If i have to, I'll get the hotspot and gift it to my own sister later, but I'd prefer not to. Thanks in advance for the help.

Also, here are some things to consider when coming up with your own frankenstein creation:

  1. all laptops being used have both wireless and wired network capabilities
  2. I have a lot of spare network switches, a netgear wireless hotspot, and linksys wireless G router just lying around to use.
  3. it all has to fit under the seats of a toyota camry (the seats will be cramped as is)
  4. I'm not very experienced in Linux, but if necessary I can learn and I know a lot of computer programmers who can help.

GO FORTH YOU MAD, NETWORKING GENIUSES!

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If it's only 2... link with an ethernet cable and play that way. It used to work, anyway.

 

Make sure Network Discovery is on though!

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Well if all you are doing is playing P2P games, a suggestion I have is to get a TP-link TL-WR702N there $18 - $20 on Amazon and only require usb power, so you can use a car to USB power adapter and set the Nano router in router mode and connect to it, it has a wan port as well. As long as the game server can be run on one of the pc's playing the game you should not have a problem.

 

Nano-Router: http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WR702N-Wireless-Repeater-150Mpbs/dp/B007PTCFFW/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1427761087&sr=8-7&keywords=tp-link+wireless

Car Power Adapter: http://www.amazon.com/GTMax-Charger-Vehicle-Power-Adapter/dp/B003TULUI4

 

(Note: I just selected a random cheap power adapter)

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Just get one of those DC power converts that plug into the cigaret lighter. Plug a switch into that, wire everything up with ethernet. If you need wireless you can plug an access point into the switch as well.

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If it's only 2... link with an ethernet cable and play that way. It used to work, anyway.

 

Make sure Network Discovery is on though!

It's three, so I considered using a regular old switch, but I'm a network N00b and don't quite see how communication between the two devices would work without some device in between assigning addresses.

 

well, odd double post glitch, before and after an edit. anyways, it should say three devices.

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If it's only 2... link with an ethernet cable and play that way. It used to work, anyway.

 

Make sure Network Discovery is on though!

It's three, so I considered using a regular old switch, but I'm a network N00b and don't quite see how communication between the three devices would work without some device in between assigning addresses.

Ryzen 7 3700X

Aorus GTX 1080ti

G.Skill TridentZ 3200MHz 2x8GB

Corsair SFX 750W

Phanteks Evolve Shift Air (glass front)

2x Corsair Force GS 120GB SSD (RAID 0)

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It's three, so I considered using a regular old switch, but I'm a network N00b and don't quite see how communication between the three devices would work without some device in between assigning addresses.

 

Then something like that wireless router sounds the best: USB in the host computer, and then the two slave computers can connect to the network from there.

The projects never end in my line of work.

CPU: Dual Xeon E5-2650v2 || GPU: Dual Quadro K5000 || Motherboard: Asus Z9PE-D8 || RAM: 64GB Corsair Vengeance || Monitors: Dual LG 34UM95, NEC MultiSync EA244UHD || Storage: Dual Samsung 850 Pro 256GB in Raid 0, 6x WD Re 4TB in Raid 1 || Sound: Xonar Essense STX (Mainly for Troubleshooting and listening test) || PSU: Corsair Ax1500i

CPU: Core i7 5820k @ 4.7GHz || GPU: Dual Titan X || Motherboard: Asus X99 Deluxe || RAM: 32GB Crucial Ballistix Sport || Monitors: MX299Q, 29UB65, LG 34UM95 || Storage: Dual Samsung 850 EVO 1 TB in Raid 0, Samsung 850 EVO 250GB, 2TB Toshiba scratch disk, 3TB Seagate Barracuda || PSU: EVGA 1000w PS Platinum

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Thanks for the replies. I'll test a few different setups and see which one works best.

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Story from the past: I and a few school friends were on a roadtrip for a robotics comp... anyway it was a 3 hour trip and we all had laptops so we set up an ad hoc network and played AoE II :) not sure if windows 8 supports ad hoc networks but windows 7, vista etc. did. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/set-computer-to-computer-adhoc-network#1TC=windows-7

 

Otherwise if you have an Android phone then you can setup a wifi hotspot very easily just remember to turn off cellular data if that's going to be a problem.

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Story from the past: I and a few school friends were on a roadtrip for a robotics comp... anyway it was a 3 hour trip and we all had laptops so we set up an ad hoc network and played AoE II :) not sure if windows 8 supports ad hoc networks but windows 7, vista etc. did. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/set-computer-to-computer-adhoc-network#1TC=windows-7

 

Otherwise if you have an Android phone then you can setup a wifi hotspot very easily just remember to turn off cellular data if that's going to be a problem.

This sounds awesome, I'll definitely try it!

 

I looked it up, and windows 8 can create ad hoc networks, but they require some command prompt tom-foolery. It does work, though.

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There is also some software known as 'virtual routers' which basically do what wifi hot spots on mobile phones do. It's been a while since I've used them so I can't vouch for a specific one but they can be quite handy and much easier to use. This might be good to check out http://lifehacker.com/5983161/virtual-router-plus-turns-your-windows-8-pc-into-a-wi-fi-hotspot

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As nightmarevoid said, adHoc is the best choice.

 

Another option would be to use an old android phone and setup a wifi hotspot.

 

Optionally you could get the sister to start playing some singleplayer with a crazy good story, maybe Mass Effect.

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