LAN Party for my gaming community

[Blu]

Hi there LTT community!

After watching a few videos of various LAN parties, I thought it would be a good idea to host a LAN party of about 100 people to bring our small community together, etc. I have an average understanding of networking, and I think I should have at least part of the knowledge to setup a network infrastructure, at least the physical side of things. I have a few venues that I'm keeping my eye out for, and have searched up places to hire 6ft desks, fold-able chairs, etc.

 

I am here to ask how to setup a network for 100 people, fully. Along with power systems, as I'm pretty sure I'll need external power sources to power 100 PCs under load! Any advice/help/tips is/are welcome!

 

Many thanks,

Blu

[mrgooglegeek]

Power sources, yes. And switches. LOTS of ethernet cable. Don't use wifi. Don't use hubs, you will need switches. You might be able to rent some but idk for your area.

[danomicar]

You'll need to buy some serious networking equipment in order to give people enough bandwidth. You should definitely consult with your venue about their internet services before moving forward.

[Schony125]

4 minutes ago, Blu said:

Hi there LTT community!

After watching a few videos of various LAN parties, I thought it would be a good idea to host a LAN party of about 100 people to bring our small community together, etc. I have an average understanding of networking, and I think I should have at least part of the knowledge to setup a network infrastructure, at least the physical side of things. I have a few venues that I'm keeping my eye out for, and have searched up places to hire 6ft desks, fold-able chairs, etc.

 

I am here to ask how to setup a network for 100 people, fully. Along with power systems, as I'm pretty sure I'll need external power sources to power 100 PCs under load! Any advice/help/tips is/are welcome!

 

Many thanks,

Blu

well if you do it in Switzerland im gonna help  you

[mikat]

first on your list: Get 1 Gbit/s internet to your lan party place

second on your list: get switches to run all the connections.

third: get a shit ton of ethernet wiring

[Blu]

4 minutes ago, Schony125 said:

well if you do it in Switzerland im gonna help  you

If you decide to come & live in the UK, sure

[Schony125]

Just now, Blu said:

If you decide to come & live in the UK, sure

no going to the us sorry

[Vali]

Do not connect switches in cascade

Learn how to set up and troubleshoot a DHCP server

Labeling your cables is a good idea. Test them.

Do your maths with the amount of power you will need (tip: it will be a lot) and how big the electrical cables need to be.

Be prepared to find some ungrateful people who will complain for stupid things.

[brwainer]

Start with finding a venue for such a gathering - needs to be big enough to give each person at least half of an 4'x8' table - so that would be 50 4'x8' tables, plus room for chairs and walking behind chairs.

 

Once you find a few venues, get quotes from them. Be very specific about your power requirements - you should budget for 800W per computer and a 15A circuit per table (so 50 15A circuits) to make sure that in almost no case can a circuit be overloaded. If your power is 240V then a 15A circuit can power two tables (4 people). You need to upfront about the power usage as they will need to guarentee they have the power capacity as well as give you a proper quote. If you try to tell them the day before the LAN about the power requirements then you are going to have a very bad time. You want to make sure your power requirements are spelled out in the contract so you have something to protect you in case they don't take your power requirements seriously.

 

At the same time you should be asking them about their available internet connections. You will need at least 200Mb/s for 100 people - 500Mb/s or more is preferred. The venue should either be able to manage that themselves or give you contacts with the local ISPs. It is pretty common to have to make an event contract with a local ISP seperate from the venue contract.

 

100 people is big enough to seriously be looking into a caching server. Squid is the go-to package for caching. It can be done on a  separate server or as part of a PFSense router. You need to have someone experienced with caching for LAN parties either set it up for you or give heavy consulting. On the other hand, 100 people is small enough that with a good internet connection you could get away with not having any caching.

 

You will need an enterprise router capable of routing (NAT) at whatever speed your internet line is. Your ISP may be able to rent one to you for the event. If not you should go with a PFSense server, a custom router made from a stripped down *nix operating system (preferred by some of the biggest LAN administrators) or an enterprise grade commercially available router that is rated for your line speed.

 

You would ideally have switches with both Loop Protect and STP, to prevent problems if someone connects both ends of a cable to the switches. With 100 people you can probably get away with unmanaged switches if you have to. Your venue may be able to provide switches, especially if it is a large hotel or similar that is used to large business events.

 

In addition to wired ports for every computer, some form of wireless should be available, especially if the cellphone coverage in the venue isn't great. If your venue has wireless this will probably be enough.

[Blu]

13 hours ago, brwainer said:

Start with finding a venue for such a gathering - needs to be big enough to give each person at least half of an 4'x8' table - so that would be 50 4'x8' tables, plus room for chairs and walking behind chairs.

 

Once you find a few venues, get quotes from them. Be very specific about your power requirements - you should budget for 800W per computer and a 15A circuit per table (so 50 15A circuits) to make sure that in almost no case can a circuit be overloaded. If your power is 240V then a 15A circuit can power two tables (4 people). You need to upfront about the power usage as they will need to guarentee they have the power capacity as well as give you a proper quote. If you try to tell them the day before the LAN about the power requirements then you are going to have a very bad time. You want to make sure your power requirements are spelled out in the contract so you have something to protect you in case they don't take your power requirements seriously.

 

At the same time you should be asking them about their available internet connections. You will need at least 200Mb/s for 100 people - 500Mb/s or more is preferred. The venue should either be able to manage that themselves or give you contacts with the local ISPs. It is pretty common to have to make an event contract with a local ISP seperate from the venue contract.

 

100 people is big enough to seriously be looking into a caching server. Squid is the go-to package for caching. It can be done on a  separate server or as part of a PFSense router. You need to have someone experienced with caching for LAN parties either set it up for you or give heavy consulting. On the other hand, 100 people is small enough that with a good internet connection you could get away with not having any caching.

 

You will need an enterprise router capable of routing (NAT) at whatever speed your internet line is. Your ISP may be able to rent one to you for the event. If not you should go with a PFSense server, a custom router made from a stripped down *nix operating system (preferred by some of the biggest LAN administrators) or an enterprise grade commercially available router that is rated for your line speed.

 

You would ideally have switches with both Loop Protect and STP, to prevent problems if someone connects both ends of a cable to the switches. With 100 people you can probably get away with unmanaged switches if you have to. Your venue may be able to provide switches, especially if it is a large hotel or similar that is used to large business events.

 

In addition to wired ports for every computer, some form of wireless should be available, especially if the cellphone coverage in the venue isn't great. If your venue has wireless this will probably be enough.

What would one use a caching server for? (Please don't kill me for asking this )

 

Thank you for all this great info btw, really appreciated

 

[brwainer]

30 minutes ago, Blu said:

What would one use a caching server for? (Please don't kill me for asking this )

 

Thank you for all this great info btw, really appreciated

 

If one user downloads something, say a game patch, the caching server will store it, and when another user goes to get that same file, the server serves it locally instead of having to use the internet connection.

[Blu]

2 minutes ago, brwainer said:

If one user downloads something, say a game patch, the caching server will store it, and when another user goes to get that same file, the server serves it locally instead of having to use the internet connection.

Got it, might invest in one then, as it might just make everything run that much smoother  Using good ol' physics, P=IxV, I=P/V, the average voltage supplied in the UK is 230V, so 800/230 comes up to around 3.5V per person. Rounding that up to 4V per person for ease, need to find a supplier that can possibly set up a portable power source. I was thinking of using 6ft tables, 2 people per table, with an 8-port switch finishing at each table cluster of 4 tables, in a 2x2 formation. 

 

Would you happen to know of anybody that knows how to setup a caching server for a LAN?

 

Many thanks

[Blake]

On 4/20/2016 at 7:20 AM, mrgooglegeek said:

Power sources, yes. And switches. LOTS of ethernet cable. Don't use wifi. Don't use hubs, you will need switches. You might be able to rent some but idk for your area.

Fuck that, 1 collision domain 1 broadcast domain. Live dangerously. Use hubs

[BlindGam3r]

On 20/04/2016 at 10:24 PM, Blu said:

If you decide to come & live in the UK, sure

I live in the UK and would be more than happy to help with the networking, If you need a hand 

[Blu]

6 hours ago, BlindGam3r said:

I live in the UK and would be more than happy to help with the networking, If you need a hand 

Would be really cool if you could  Still all on paper right now, might not do it for a while, as I really need to have everything planned to the last punctuation mark before I can set things into motion

[Julian5]

On 20/4/2016 at 11:20 PM, Schony125 said:

well if you do it in Switzerland im gonna help  you

Same here.

On 20/4/2016 at 11:15 PM, Blu said:

Hi there LTT community!

After watching a few videos of various LAN parties, I thought it would be a good idea to host a LAN party of about 100 people to bring our small community together, etc. I have an average understanding of networking, and I think I should have at least part of the knowledge to setup a network infrastructure, at least the physical side of things. I have a few venues that I'm keeping my eye out for, and have searched up places to hire 6ft desks, fold-able chairs, etc.

 

I am here to ask how to setup a network for 100 people, fully. Along with power systems, as I'm pretty sure I'll need external power sources to power 100 PCs under load! Any advice/help/tips is/are welcome!

 

Many thanks,

Blu

Where are you from?

[Blu]

1 minute ago, Julian5 said:

Same here.

Where are you from?

London, UK.

[Julian5]

1 minute ago, Blu said:

London, UK.

are you paying for this or are you having sponsors / people paying for entry?

[Blu]

8 minutes ago, Julian5 said:

are you paying for this or are you having sponsors / people paying for entry?

Organising it myself, probably a cheap entry of £25-30 for the 2 days

[Julian5]

your probably gonna need to get a generator for your power depending where you live. You probably will need to contact your ISP to get a 1 g/s speed and rent a shit ton of switches. Where are you running the server?

[Blu]

Just now, Julian5 said:

your probably gonna need to get a generator for your power depending where you live. You probably will need to contact your ISP to get a 1 g/s speed and rent a shit ton of switches. Where are you running the server?

Server?

[Julian5]

1 minute ago, Blu said:

Server?

your gonna need to host the game on something

[Blu]

Just now, Julian5 said:

your gonna need to host the game on something

Will probably rent out some dedi-boxes and run some on there, but it was mainly a social gathering thing, where people could just game together, and possibly on the same game/server

[Julian5]

1 minute ago, Blu said:

Will probably rent out some dedi-boxes and run some on there, but it was mainly a social gathering thing, where people could just game together, and possibly on the same game/server

if your internrt is fast enough you wont need to worry about a cache server

[Blu]

UPDATE: All my inquiries into venues fell through for one reason or another, so just wondering what "type" of venue should I be looking to hire for around 100 people?