Quindor

Hi guys, I've been a long time watcher and also lurker (sometimes I post) here on the forum!
 
Recently Linus posted a video about gaming outdoor and how insane it was. Well, I kind of had to laugh at that video because we've been doing something similar for quite some years! We call it CampZone and it has grown out to be an event of around 1500 to 2000 attendees who come to our camping/festival and strike down for 11 days to play games, BBQ, hang at the campfire and generally have fun! Some call it the ultimate gaming vacation, but maybe that's going a bit too far.
 
We are doing it with a bit more luxury then Linus in the video though. We have almost limitless power available using 3 Diesel generators, have a Gigabit port for everything with more then 100Gbit of network bandwidth available, field covering WiFi and even a 2Gbit fiber internet connection with a public IPv4 for everyone to get the fullest out of their vacation and time with friends!
 
We often get international visitors but recently we've started a special international visitor incentive. If you come over to enjoy your vacation and game with us and can present your plane ticket and boarding pass we'll give you a pretty big discount on the event costs because we love having you guys over!
 
I recently made a video about CampZone! It's a technical overview of the event and the organisation behind it but should also give you a good idea about what CampZone is and what goes on there!
 

*Click on the photo to see the video!
 
Let me know what you think of the video and if anyone has any questions, I'll be here to answer them!

What the hell is "outdoors"?
 
Edit: I couldnt find it on steam so I looked out a window. The graphics were amazing, maybe even better than 4k 60fps but the story lacked depth. 2/10 would not recommend
 
(Serious note, this would be really cool to go to)

Hi guys, I've been a long time watcher and also lurker (sometimes I post) here on the forum!
 
Recently Linus posted a video about gaming outdoor and how insane it was. Well, I kind of had to laugh at that video because we've been doing something similar for quite some years! We call it CampZone and it has grown out to be an event of around 1500 to 2000 attendees who come to our camping/festival and strike down for 11 days to play games, BBQ, hang at the campfire and generally have fun! Some call it the ultimate gaming vacation, but maybe that's going a bit too far.
 
We are doing it with a bit more luxury then Linus in the video though. We have almost limitless power available using 3 Diesel generators, have a Gigabit port for everything with more then 100Gbit of network bandwidth available, field covering WiFi and even a 2Gbit fiber internet connection with a public IPv4 for everyone to get the fullest out of their vacation and time with friends!
 
We often get international visitors but recently we've started a special international visitor incentive. If you come over to enjoy your vacation and game with us and can present your plane ticket and boarding pass we'll give you a pretty big discount on the event costs because we love having you guys over!
 
I recently made a video about CampZone! It's a technical overview of the event and the organisation behind it but should also give you a good idea about what CampZone is and what goes on there!
 

*Click on the photo to see the video!
 
Let me know what you think of the video and if anyone has any questions, I'll be here to answer them!

nah, it's only 1.8Ghz and 1.7Ghz because of the 1700 and 1800 are in Mhz.
it's most likely a code, because 1700 / 1800 = 93, so it will be 7% better.

Considering I do this sort of stuff all the time for a living, I'm pretty confident that it is correct. Regardless of whether it's a Layer 2 or 3 switch, it still won't go through the router.

If I understand correctly you have one COAX cable coming into your house, currently it's hooked up to your modem and you get internet.
 
If that is correct and you want to use the second COAX port to hook up to a TV or something, that should in theory work. But do be warned that this will create some signal degradation and could cause issues.
 
Does your cable provider not give you a coax splitter in the kit like shown in the attached picture? These can split the signal to what is needed for the modem, a tv and a radio. That would be the best solution. If not, the splitter you linked should in theory work.

The M1015 - Fairely inexpensive and works very well. Very well documented on the FreeNAS forum for you to get help with also.
What are you talking about?

More bandwidth won't influence ping/latency directly, but it will indirectly.
 
What I mean with that is that it doesn't matter if you have 10, 100 or even 1000Mbit internet, your latency is determined by other factors. The way it is of influence though is how much you can do with your line at the same time. Starting a download or even someone surfing on their phone will create latency spikes on the 10Mbit connection which it probably wouldn't on the 100Mbit and certainly won't on the 1000Mbit connection.
 
So if you wish to be able to download and game, or for instance stream (upload) at the same time as gaming, etc. more bandwidth can be beneficial in keeping your ping low, it just won't get any lower then it was before with nothing is using the line.
 
Something I can also definitely advise is getting your own router (preferably a Mikrotik or Ubiquiti, above consumer level) to smooth out latency spikes. In my experience consumer routers (Asus, Netgear, etc.) are already a lot better at managing connections then the boxes you get from a provider (Be sure to set those in "bridge" mode to prevent double NAT!).
If you want to step up above that it's something from Mikrotik or Ubiquiti. I saw the biggest improvement in ping using one of their routers. No matter what I or someone in the house was doing, my ping was always flat and fast. Only when the bandwidth filled up would it rise. Before, even with a good consumer router if someone opened a torrent which created 400 connections quickly, the router would choke on it and temporarily the ping would start fluctuating, influencing the online experience greatly!
 

Sure it will! I've tested Gigabit a few times without issue (sometimes you need to select a different server or test a few times if the server only has a Gigabit itself and someone else was testing at the same time from that server).
 
I have 300/30 myself but have 3Mbit of camera streams coming in at all times.

 
 

Ah yes, that explains a lot more.
 
When using RAID, all the disks that are part of the RAID sort of become one. After that 1 (or more depending on type of RAID level) disks can fail and the volume as a whole (the RAID) will remain active like nothing happened. You replace the disk, it rebuilds (or resilvers in the case of ZFS) and you are back to your original redundancy! From a usage standpoint, you don't notice anything, at most you will take a temporary performance hit (With RAIDz1/z2, with mirrors only during resilvering).
 
When looking to build something for 50 to 70 users you need to take a lot of things into account. For instance, is 1Gbps enough? It will depend on what they will do with it. Word/Excel usage, sure, no problem. But if they are working with bigger image or video files sometimes, you need to start thinking about 10Gbps connections (for the server).
 
Then also the hardware becomes more important. For that amount of users you either need a bunch of 7200rpm disks and a decent cache or you need to think about 10K/15K disks (although I would just skip those now-a-days and directly go to SSD's). It all depends on budget. As a general rule of thumb, think about having 10% of your total volume size in SSD cache size when using cheaper 7200rpm disks.
 
Also, depending on chassis, it's better (when using RAID1/mirrors) to have 16x1TB (8TB effectively) then 4x4TB (8TB effectively). Although you would have the same amount of space, 16x1TB will give you much more I/O then 4x4TB would. Cache and such is great but it can never make up for actual disk I/O in the end.
 
What kind of hardware are you looking at and what is your budget? For this, something like a SuperMicro server would be perfectly suited. They also have the correct type of LSI HBA's, etc.
 
For ZFS CPU is somewhat important (Again depending on RAID level, compression (LZ4 highly recommended!, deduplication (NOT recommended), etc.) but memory is the most important (get lots of it!). A remote box to do replication is a great idea, that one can be a bit less in specifications.

Most if not all computers are in theory suited to run 24/7 without issue. Yes server components are often of a bit different design or quality so that they can take it for 5 years+ but in my experience most desktop components do just fine, I wouldn't worry about it too much.
 
About running fanless or with a fan, if using the fan is an option and the little noise it might make isn't a problem I would choose to use a fan. Cooling will always be better that way. And when something is running 24/7 a lower temperature is preferred, heat "wears" on computer components basically. Otherwise, go with the fanless version and direct a fan at it yourself, fanless does not mean "without airflow".
 
In my experience running a Minecraft server can eat up quite the amount of CPU and Memory. Maybe the vanilla version is still ok but running a modded server (which you will end up doing in the end) for like 5 to 10 people the little celeron is going to get challanged there. Minecraft is programmed in Java which isn't very efficient and thus it requires quite a bit of resources (CPU and Memory). I would not go less then a Desktop dual-core with at least 8GB of RAM (if running on Linux, Windows will need more). I think the celeron will be just enough. Definitely look into Java tuning for Minecraft!
 
Teamspeak on the other hand uses almost nothing, basically anything (1 core @ 3Ghz with 512MB ram) would be fine for that if you are not going to have more then 20 - 25 people logged in at the same time.

I can think of two things:
They have an enterprise grade router able to setup connections much faster then your home setup can They have a local DNS server able to respond much faster to all requests then your home setup can Especially with my local DNS cache I can notice a very big difference in surfing speeds. I also have a completely overpowered router but that should be of less influence.
 
So even though latency is the same or even better on your connection if it needs to do 12 resolve requests for one website and these take 5ms each or less then 1ms each, you will certainly notice it!

Either get a wireless bridge setup or try powerline internet. Some of the newest powerline (ethernet over powercords) have very competitive or even better throughput then wireless. So that would be my prime choice if you can't get a regular ethernet cable to where you need it.
 
If you need to go wireless regardless I would advise equipment from Mikrotik or Ubiquiti, but that requires some knowledge to set it up. You could look up tutorials for this but if you don't think you can do it, look around for a wireless AC bridge sets and that would probably be best. Read some reviews first!
 
But, with both there is an important rule to remember: Place the send and receiving devices as close together as possible! 
Yes, this goes for both powerline and wireless (any form, even with giant antenna's). Any loss in signal because of distance you can avoid will raise throughput and prevent issues. So for the sending device use ethernet cable from your router and get it as close as you can get it or at least try and find an optimal spot. Then, do the same for the receiving end. That might mean the receiving device won't be in your room but in a better position and linked using ethernet.
 
Hopefully this helps!
 
--update
Lol, you changed the topic line.
 
My advice still stands though but if you're not only looking for a bridge but also for "general purpose" wireless you just need to change the devices a little bit (Make on your access-point/router). Just remember my advice, placing your 'wireless router' where the internet enters the house is most often the wrong solution AND the easiest fix!

If your just going to use it as a bridge then have a look at a Dreytek Vigor 120, very good and very cheap. I use one at home to bridge my ADSL2+ connection to my FortiGate firewall using PPPoE passthrough/Half Bridge. This means the Dreytek is only initiating the ADSL connection and intercepting the PPPoE login from the firewall and converting it to a PPPoA. The firewall or in your case the RT-AC68U gets the public IP address and does the NAT'ing.
 
http://www.draytek.net.nz/draytek/support/passthrough/

Ah yes, that explains a lot more.
 
When using RAID, all the disks that are part of the RAID sort of become one. After that 1 (or more depending on type of RAID level) disks can fail and the volume as a whole (the RAID) will remain active like nothing happened. You replace the disk, it rebuilds (or resilvers in the case of ZFS) and you are back to your original redundancy! From a usage standpoint, you don't notice anything, at most you will take a temporary performance hit (With RAIDz1/z2, with mirrors only during resilvering).
 
When looking to build something for 50 to 70 users you need to take a lot of things into account. For instance, is 1Gbps enough? It will depend on what they will do with it. Word/Excel usage, sure, no problem. But if they are working with bigger image or video files sometimes, you need to start thinking about 10Gbps connections (for the server).
 
Then also the hardware becomes more important. For that amount of users you either need a bunch of 7200rpm disks and a decent cache or you need to think about 10K/15K disks (although I would just skip those now-a-days and directly go to SSD's). It all depends on budget. As a general rule of thumb, think about having 10% of your total volume size in SSD cache size when using cheaper 7200rpm disks.
 
Also, depending on chassis, it's better (when using RAID1/mirrors) to have 16x1TB (8TB effectively) then 4x4TB (8TB effectively). Although you would have the same amount of space, 16x1TB will give you much more I/O then 4x4TB would. Cache and such is great but it can never make up for actual disk I/O in the end.
 
What kind of hardware are you looking at and what is your budget? For this, something like a SuperMicro server would be perfectly suited. They also have the correct type of LSI HBA's, etc.
 
For ZFS CPU is somewhat important (Again depending on RAID level, compression (LZ4 highly recommended!, deduplication (NOT recommended), etc.) but memory is the most important (get lots of it!). A remote box to do replication is a great idea, that one can be a bit less in specifications.

I really wish ZFS didn't use RAID anywhere in their terminology, like Storage Spaces did with 2-Way Mirror/3-Way Mirror/Single Parity/Dual Parity etc, since RAID and ZFS are not alike at the technical level. I personally feel using RAIDZ-* etc was a mistake and just confuses matters.
 
There should be a rule on this forum, if you mean or are talking about ZFS then say ZFS and not RAID. Just a personal peeve as you can tell .
 
RAID is RAID, ZFS is ZFS, BTRFS is BTRFS etc the difference matters.

I'm going to have to slightly disagree with your statement of FreeNAS not being "enterprise grade". Given that TrueNAS is designed for the enterprise, and FreeNAS is *almost* exactly the same software, I think that is a bit of a harsh assessment. And judging by your answer, you don't need me to tell you how "enterprise" ZFS is. 
 
I know you will say that FreeNAS is not TrueNAS, but the underlying technology is essentially the same, so I wouldn't go as far as to say that.
 
Just my opinion however!

Ah, yes, it can do those things using CPU (Then it's called a bridge since it's not being switched) but you really shouldn't. Mikrotik Routerboards, like any brand have their set of strong and weak points if you know how to use them, they are very cheap and stable for their feature set.
 
In reality, the CCR switches work great for controlled home or small office setups. For about 900$ you have 48+ Gigabit ports and a very powerful router, all interconnected using 10Gbit, I don't think that's easily beat especially considering the awesome software (and features). Ubiquiti can get close though and then it becomes more of a "which brand do you prefer" game.
 
Comparing Ubiquiti routers and Mikrotik CCR routers it's all about flexibility. Ubiquiti is fast because it can do certain things (but not all!) with hardware offloading, a CCR does it all in software with more raw power. There is something to be said for both approaches.
 
I wouldn't use the current CRS line switches in a critical business scenario (it lacks the features for that), the CCR line on the other hand is great!

Simple Answer: You cannot combine two connections together to form a faster link. It just doesn't work that way.

No, 10G will absolutely not help you.  Even multiple gigabit won't help unless you can prove that your computer's interface is hitting the limit on a 1G connection.  There are various tools that will help you see network utilization in real time.  On most Linux distributions, you can install 'ifstat' from your package manager.  On Windows, you might as well just open task manager and go to the network tab - look for the gigabit connection to hit 100% and watch the graph for a while.  If it doesn't hit 100% and stay there, you don't need 10G.
 
Note that doing "teaming" properly requires a switch that supports LACP and you know how to configure it.  Any other form of "teaming" generally provides redundancy, where only one NIC is actually used at a time.  Also teaming multiple NICs will generally not let you get more than the speed of one NIC to a given server/computer at a time.
 
10G will not have an appreciable impact on latency that will matter to you (.0001 ms per packet or something on that order of magnitude)

Yeah, vendor cards should work just fine.
 
Otherwise you could also get OEM Intel cards? Those should always work (unless your desktop board has a really crappy BIOS).
 
Depending on if you want to use SFP+ with Fiber, SFP+ with DAC cables or RJ45 you need to get different cards. DAC can be really cheap if the switch is close by. Fiber is great for long lengths (but you can't terminate them yourself) and RJ45 is needed if the cable needs to go through pipes and want to be able to terminate them yourself (best to use keystones).
 
Getting all Intel would also be my choice!
 
Some examples
DAC: Intel X520-DA2  http://goo.gl/pKbCdX
SFP+: Intel X520-SR2  http://goo.gl/iwuE7t
RJ45: Intel X540-T2  http://goo.gl/SvHI3O
 
 

Yeah, the only real way of figuring out is measuring your statistics (CPU & GPU load). It will tell you what is going on!

Depending on your needs and wishes you can look into three categories:
Consumer grade (All the Asus, Netgear, TP-Link, etc.) Pro-sumer grade (Mikrotik, Ubiquiti, etc.) Pro grade (Fortinet, Cisco, Juniper, etc.) Most home users will be very happy with consumer grade hardware. People with more advanced setups (home or small business) get pro-sumer equipment and if you're into the stuff or run a (bigger) business you need pro grade equipment and features.
 
So maybe you want something like this?... But probably, judging from your technical knowledge in your replies I think you should definitely stick with consumer grade equipment, because with each grade the ease of setup goes down (but gains in flexibility and features). The same goes for price.  
 

Some of your information is not inherently true. More specifically, I have it quoted below, with the parts I want to focus on in bold.
 
It depends on how you have your fans connected. If they're connected to the motherboard directly, then this would probably be true, though not always. In my situation, all of my system fans are connected to a fan controller which never changes unless I make it. Even my video card's fans are running at a constant rate.
 
Now, while I didn't mark this in bold, the statement about dust causing fans to make more noise due to balance is not necessarily true. While I'm sure the weight of dust can over time cause the fan to go out of balance, this is an extreme scenario, and I have not seen fan noise reduce due to removal of dust that was not caused by higher temperatures from other dusty components, like the heatsink.

LIke @KuJoe said the extra router will add a bit of extra latency but it shouldn't be that much. But to fix your problem give the research router a static ip on the personal router and port forward to the research router from the personal one, then from the research one to your friend's computer.