Router for large LAN events

[jj9987]

Greetings.

 

We are planning to organize a LAN party and expecting over 100 gamers to come.

What router or other solution should I look for that is stable and can handle large amount of connections?

 

Last time we had around 50 people and used a TP-Link router that was supposedly better than random household one, however it's DHCP failed to give out IPs and we had to assign them manually.

[Goodman2265]

use a router and run cables from one router to another router to double ports

[Codymm03]

Are they all going to wired then do the one above.

[Altecice]

Unless your TP-Link router was running a very small subnet (/27 >) that I dont see how it can fail to assign IP's...... However just be aware that DHCP requests are broadcasts so perhaps you had too many collisions in your broadcast domain and the computers gave up after 16 attempts. I assume you are connecting some sort of switch to connect the devices or are you connecting via wifi?

[jj9987]

Wired connections only and we had approximately 8 switches connected (some of them were router-switch-switch-switch).

The router was a mainstream one with dual-core processor and with 256MB RAM.

[8uhbbhu8]

I suggest running 1-3 routers and several switches in full duplex then MAKE SURE that DHCP is able to give addresses through all the switches as well as making sure your subent is large enough also make sure you have setup a tunnel between the switches and routers.

[Steven9595]

With the amount of devices connecting like that you'd be better off with a commercial grade router like the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite hooked up to some switches.

[leadeater]

Multiple consumer grade routers as suggested by a few will not solve your DHCP issue and running more than 1 DHCP on the network like that would be extremely bad. Spend some money on a good low port count switch to use as the core and either run DHCP on the switch directly or use a small PC running a DHCP server.

 

A Cisco SG300-10 is a good low cost switch or anything from Ubiquiti. Personally I would run both the Cisco switch (or equiv) and a Ubiquiti router for internet access.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0FU1ZS2212&cm_re=Cisco_SG300-10-_-33-150-087-_-Product

 

Also when you start getting high device counts on the same network segment as you are getting using lots of small cheap switches will have issues and will likely start getting their MAC tables flooded. You'll really only want to branch out from the core switch by 2 hops max and keeping it to 1 if you can.

[LAwLz]

Was the only issue the DHCP? Performance was good and all? If that was the case and I were you then I would just disable DHCP on the router you currently got, and then make my desktop PC handle the DHCP tasks.

There are plenty of free DHCP programs for Windows which should require very little configuration to get working. I can't recommend any particular one since I don't have any experience with them (always used Windows Server) but you can find plenty of alternatives on Google.

 

What I would do before all that however is check your DHCP settings on the router. It sounds weird that it would be the DHCP that failed first since that's a pretty low-power task. Are you sure the DHCP pool address pool was big enough and that it was not an issue on some of the client PCs?

[MeshFile]

I would suggest pfSense as you can use any old computer and it will still be a heck of a lot better than multiple consumer grade routers. You can do so much more with it after the LAN event.

[Peter Smyth]

Can I ask what your LAN event is? Does it have a website or Facebook page etc?

[Guest]

Ubiquiti EdgeRouter or if you're concerned about DHCP, have a dedicated DHCP server?

[Guest Gabbs]

This

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122611

[Guest]

This

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122611

Probably fall over pretty quickly

[Steven9595]

This

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122611

No way that'll be able to handle the 100+ clients. Consumer gear just isn't meant to handle that kind of a load.

[Guest Gabbs]

No way that'll be able to handle the 100+ clients. Consumer gear just isn't meant to handle that kind of a load.

 

Dual 1ghz cpus. I think it's fine. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

[leadeater]

Dual 1ghz cpus. I think it's fine. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

 

Just because it is a dual 1ghz cpu does not actually mean the cpu is any good and then neither could the dhcp server implementation. Just because something is business grade does not make it more expensive either. A Ubiquiti edge router has cheaper models than this, faster more optimised hardware and the OS is specifically customised for multi user networking and true routing. Also all the extra bells and whistles just add to the price of the unit but offer nothing and only makes the manufacture make compromises to keep the cost down, wireless is not need for this setup. That AIO router is purely just for show, you'll never see a business product look like that and all of them will by far out preform it, watch Linus's Ubiquity AP video.

 

All three of these are better choices for the required network setup the OP has referenced:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0XK-000W-00080&cm_re=ubiquiti_edgerouter-_-0XK-000W-00080-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0XP-000A-00001&cm_re=ubiquiti_edgerouter-_-0XP-000A-00001-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1EA1HT7624&cm_re=ubiquiti_edgerouter-_-33-664-001-_-Product

[Guest Gabbs]

Just because it is a dual 1ghz cpu does not actually mean the cpu is any good and then neither could the dhcp server implementation. Just because something is business grade does not make it more expensive either. A Ubiquiti edge router has cheaper models than this, faster more optimised hardware and the OS is specifically customised for multi user networking and true routing. Also all the extra bells and whistles just add to the price of the unit but offer nothing and only makes the manufacture make compromises to keep the cost down, wireless is not need for this setup. That AIO router is purely just for show, you'll never see a business product look like that and all of them will by far out preform it, watch Linus's Ubiquity AP video.

 

All three of these are better choices for the required network setup the OP has referenced:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0XK-000W-00080&cm_re=ubiquiti_edgerouter-_-0XK-000W-00080-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0XP-000A-00001&cm_re=ubiquiti_edgerouter-_-0XP-000A-00001-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1EA1HT7624&cm_re=ubiquiti_edgerouter-_-33-664-001-_-Product

 

Ok, but one the same note.. not just because it's a consumer grade product it means that it cannot handle 100 DHCP leases. That is literally nothing.

Also, you can flash it with DDWRT which is a very solid router firmware.

 

Plus, the OP said he/she had a LAN party with 50 users last time on a TP LINK router. So I'm pretty sure they connected via wifi.

How would 100 users do that without extra hardware with what you propose?

[leadeater]

Ok, but one the same note.. not just because it's a consumer grade product it means that it cannot handle 100 DHCP leases. That is literally nothing.

Also, you can flash it with DDWRT which is a very solid router firmware.

 

Plus, the OP said he/she had a LAN party with 50 users last time on a TP LINK router. So I'm pretty sure they connected via wifi.

How would 100 users do that without extra hardware with what you propose?

 

 

Wired connections only and we had approximately 8 switches connected (some of them were router-switch-switch-switch).

The router was a mainstream one with dual-core processor and with 256MB RAM.

[Guest Gabbs]

 

 

I get it. But that means more hardware, so price will go up and not just what you posted before.

Just thinking what would be better for the OP for one LAN party.

[leadeater]

Plus, the OP said he/she had a LAN party with 50 users last time on a TP LINK router. So I'm pretty sure they connected via wifi.

 

50 users on a single access point will not work, especially 50 high demand users. I've installed 50+ wireless AP deployments in to schools using $600 IAP-225 units and you really only want 30 users per access point, I know for a fact no consumer unit will do that many users with any resemblance of good performance for every user connected.

[Guest Gabbs]

50 users on a single access point will not work, especially 50 high demand users. I've installed 50+ wireless AP deployments in to schools using $600 IAP-225 units and you really only want 30 users per access point, I know for a fact no consumer unit will do that many users with any resemblance of good performance for every user connected.

 

I agree. But I'm just replying to what the OP asked without going crazy with tons of different hardware and cables to hook up 100 users.

[leadeater]

I get it. But that means more hardware, so price will go up and not just what you posted before.

Just thinking what would be better for the OP for one LAN party.

 

He already has all the equipment, the issue was the device used previously could not handle the load. A device very similar to the one you linked to. Only one of mine was more expensive than that netgear unit and all of them better suited to the task, 2 of which being much cheaper. I don't see how something that actually costs less cost more? Please read the entire thread so you don't have any missing information that is required.

[Guest Gabbs]

He already has all the equipment, the issue was the device used previously could not handle the load. A device very similar to the one you linked to. Only one of mine was more expensive than that netgear unit and all of them better suited to the task, 2 of which being much cheaper. I don't see how something that actually costs less cost more? Please read the entire thread so you don't have any missing information that is required.

 

You're right.

I just read what the OP posted in the first post which should have already had all that information.

[legopc]

Like some people already said, get an edgerouter light 3. It simply is an awesome router and im pretty sure that unlike some pleb shit consumer router this thing can handle 100+ users.