How to host a LAN

An alternative title would be – some things to keep in mind when you host a LAN. I’ll be publishing this whole article over the course of several weeks as it is rather long. Here is the first part!

Recently I have had a couple friends ask me about LAN parties. Apparently, I am a man of experience when it comes to gathering nerds together and getting them to play computer games. I have attended and hosted LAN parties, all relatively minor affairs. I have yet to experience anything like QuakeCON and the halls full of gamers all screaming things about gay hackers, pwning, leetness, and all other sorts of lingo or excuses. So, in this particular article, I will be dealing with how to organize a smallish LAN party. I’ll be looking at space issues, power issues, skill level disparity, technical organization, games to choose, gameblocking and several other things I think up while I type this. Always keep in mind your main goal: Everyone having fun! Now, each of these issues here may not be a problem at your larger LAN parties, but due to the fact that we are working with a small group of people, having even one person left out can cause problems. At the end I will attempt to provide a cohesive checklist of items to consider.

Firstly, let’s look at space and comfort. By space I mean physical space, the amount of space a gamer needs. By comfort I mean the ability of the gamer to play for an extended amount of time without physical problems inhibiting him (or her, but let’s be realistic here). A minimum space for a person is a spot for the case, keyboard, and mouse pad area. Comfortable seating is important as well, nothing is worse then playing an intense game for an hour and having back spasms as a result. I’ve had this happen and I immediately just want to go home and lay down. The solution to this? Don’t overpopulate your party and have space planned out for each person. Be able to accommodate people with physical needs. I’m tall; I can’t sit comfortably at a child’s desk. Most of us don’t have long tables with which to seat a large group of gamers at, but we do have coffee tables, benches, and the like. If you do not have enough space to accommodate a large group of people for long periods of time, do not host a large LAN party. Simply said, your friends will become tired and cranky and be bitchy and be no fun to kill. Things to do prior to the arrival of your friends:

• Plan out seating
• Arrange the furniture BEFORE they arrive
• Have extra spots ready in case someone brings a friend

These three things are pretty basic but are very important as they will affect factors which I will discuss later on.

Most people don’t think about how much power a computer consumes. Hosting a LAN party will drive your energy bill up for the month, don’t be surprised. People will be bringing a CPU and a monitor. Usually the monitor is the power thirsty beast unless it is an LCD monitor. Hopefully no one will bring speakers because it is general gamer etiquette NOT to bring speakers but to bring headphones. Those gamers who do bring speakers cause problems with space as well as power as well as being irritating. Along with your space planning, you must plan for power in advance. Even though these will only take up two spaces on a power strip, I like to plan for three because you will have people who will bring cell phone chargers, cup warmers, or sundry other things like a hair dryer possibly. You need to know the locations of all power outlets in your abode, and plan accordingly.

• Have extension cords hooked up and ready to go
• Know where your breaker box is, just in case
• Make sure people bring their own power strips

Even though one power strip can host more then one person, it is better to have extra.

Along with the power issues come technical issues. This is a rather broad subject, so I will start with the theme of physical space and power organization. The biggest technical issue you will be facing is that of creating the network. You want your network to be easily expandable, bug free, and easy to hook into. One of my least fond memories was also one of my first LAN parties. I had made a ton of mistakes but my biggest mistake was letting someone else mess with my wiring. For two hours I went through the entire network trying to figure out what I had done wrong. It turned out someone had plugged into the uplink port on one of the hubs and had blocked out the two networks. Luckily my friends were patient with me and found ways of entertaining themselves while I worked on the problem. So again, the key to successfully creating a gaming network is to plan ahead, you may notice this recurring theme. If you are not comfortable with networks, get someone who is to come over ahead of time and help you set it up. During the party, let them supervise the network. This is an opportunity to learn about networking, but let the experienced person handle it. Here are a couple brief tips on networking:

• Run network cables ahead of time if you can
• This includes positioning of hubs and routers!
• Have one supervisor of the network
• Do NOT let anyone plug in without the supervisor
• Put tape over ports which are not to be used by gamers (especially uplink ports)

One thing that could become an issue is network latency. 100 mbit is pretty standard now and in a small LAN party that should be plenty. If you have upwards of twenty people, you may want to consider gigabit networking.

-Joshx0rfz