Lads Networking question??

-ADREN-

Say a load of my friends came to my house and brought there pcs .. how would i connect them all so we could play CS and other games over a network? what hard ware would i Need?

chernobyl

A hub and standard rj45 or if the cards use coaxial.

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Britany Spears Looking incredible

po0k

Co-ax is nly really good for two to 3 pcs.
It also can't work for full-duplex connections.
whereas a hub can
geta 100MBit setup straight off, and a 10MBit hub if u can'r find a cheap or second hand 100MBit hub. 100MBit are ahndy for bringing to lan events.
U could try messing around with DCHP and stufffor TCP/IP stuff, but I prefer to do it manually, through the Network NeighBouthodd properties. Also, install File and Printer Sharing if u intend to swap any files accross it. Install windows Logon too. And always logon to it for lan games.

[fist]Snowball

Ns pic


If u have rj45 plugs and a hub I can lend u some cable. I would need it back tho, I am allways useing it for lans and stuff but I'll lend it to ya man

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Snowball.

Buses are sociable vehicals, thats why they come in twoes and threes

-ADREN-

cheers snowball.. but i have really no idea what ye are talking about.. what kind of network cards would i need to install into each pc aboout howmuch and what hub where when?

Kali

moved to Networks board... so it can get some threads going...

Skeptic1

Networking with 10baseT.

What you need:

1. Hub: A box into which several cat5 cables are plugged. These are available in 4, 8, 16 etc. port versions. ~ £60.
2. Network Cards: These are fairly standard these days. Two types: 100 and 10 Mb/s. 100 Mb/s cards will drop down to 10 Mb/s if mixed with 10 Mb/s equipment. ~ £15 to £30.
3. Cat5 cable: Category 5 cable. This should have connectors similar to phone plugs (but larger) at each end. It goes between the network card and the hub.

Assuming you want a small TCP/IP network for gaming:

1. Set the workgroup of each computer to the same name.
2. Set the subnet mask of each computer to 255.255.255.0
3. Set the ip address of each computer to a different address. E.g. 100.100.100.1, 100.100.100.2 etc. (There is a range of numbers reserved for internal networking but I can't remember it).
4. Connect all the computers together and see if you can ping one computer from another.
5. File and printer sharing can be enabled if this is required.

Zee Dude

this is a great web site for getting started with networking
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/index.htm

I would recommend a 10/100 hub, or if you want to pay a bit extra then go a switch, Scan do offers on them regularly at
http://www.todayonly.co.uk, about £50 for a 10/100 switch.

Anyway have phun.

[This message has been edited by Zee Dude (edited 16-06-2001).]

The Cigarette Smoking Man

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Skeptic1:
Set the ip address of each computer to a different address. E.g. 100.100.100.1, 100.100.100.2 etc. (There is a range of numbers reserved for internal networking but I can't remember it)</font>

The most common one is 192.168.1.0 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 but you could use 172.22.0.0 255.255.0.0 if you need more addresses.

Have a look at http://www.helmig.com for information on networking.

sutty

192.168.0.1 with a subnet of 255.255.255.0 is the networking standard, but you can use what ever you want as long as your network is not going to be connected to the Internet. But you have to make sure that if you are going to setup a network that you all use the same range. ie: if you use 192.168.0.1 and your mate is on 192.168.1.1, you wont be able to see each other, so make sure your all on something like 192.168.0.xxx (xxx being a number from 1 to 254) if you are going to be using a server for games its best(just for ease of memory) to use it as 192.168.0.1

If you do ever use a DHCP server (this is a more Advanced form of Networking IP address) then to start off use win2k pro as it can do a very basic from of it. That is very easy to setup.

As for your Hardware, Skeptic1 ones post is all that you would need, for the moment. When your seting the TCP/IP settings on the computer you dont have to do much, just the IP address and the subnet mask. The work group is not all the important. If you want to share files, dont do it when games are on as over a HUB it will case lag and Packet loss. You may want to look into getting a cross over cable. its the same as a Cat5 with RJ45 connects, but for one thing, two of the wires are crossed over at one end. This will allow you to connect two computers together and share files with each other (at the speed of the slowest of the two cards)

GL in the LAN

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Ciaran Sutcliffe
aka: sutty
[HIV]sutty
For a good time goto:
http://www.hotinternetvirgins.com

acous

if yer gonna shell out £50 or whatever, get a switch instead of a hub.

a hub sends each packet to every port, so your 100mbits is shared between every machine connected. a switch sends it to the port its destined for, so you get the full speed for each port.

The Cigarette Smoking Man

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Acous:
if yer gonna shell out £50 or whatever, get a switch instead of a hub.
B]</font>

It's only for CS though and that needs about 2KBps

A cheap and nasty hub would do the job. Have a look on dabs.com, they have an 8 port 10/100 Bay Netgear hub for £35 sterling. They also have 10/100 Netgear NICs for £15 sterling.

Loomer

Switch Vs. Hub
The advantage of a switch over a hub is that each node on a switch has its own collision domain whereas all nodes on a hub share the same collision domain. Unless you are connecting 25+ PCs though a hub should be more than adequate.