LAN Party

A LAN party is a gathering of people with their computers, where they connect to each other through a local area network, primarly for computer gaming. A lan party is more than just multiplayer gaming; it is a social gathering, and as such, it often includes food, drinks, and geeky socialization. A lan party can be a very fun part of the college experience.

LAN Party How-to

First, you need some participants with their own computers, and a suitable space with tables and power outlets. Bring power strips, ethernet hubs, and at least one LAN cable per person. Consider ordering pizza. Second, decide on some games to be played -- common choices include Counter-strike and Warcraft III, and make sure everyone who want to play has the game installed on their computer, and they have the correct game updates. No-CD cracks can help here.

Third, you must set up the network. There are several different configurations for creating the local area network:

No Hub

This is just for two people. You will need a crossover cable. Just plug one end into each computer and set the IP address. On some newer network cards crossover cables are no longer needed and a regular network cable will work as well.

Hubs Only

If a router is not available, you will just use ethernet hubs. The hubs the Academy provides work great here. If the number of participants is equal or less than the number of ports on the hub, set the hub on "normal" and plug the cables in. If you are useing more than one hub then they must be connected together, to do this plug a crossover cable from one hub to the other. If no crossover cables are avaliable you can also set one of the ports on hub 'a' to "uplink" and plug a regular cable from that port to a 'normal' port on the hub 'b'.