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How to set up a LAN

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slugger_2003

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 30, 2007
Messages
365
Hey folks. Me and my flatmate want to set up a LAN to play Civ 4 on amougnst other things like Rainbow 6 - Vegas...We currently both manage to play online separately but I was wondering if it was possible to just play via a LAN rather than via the internet?
Anybody got a link which contains instructions on doing this? I do have ethernet cables long enough to connect both our PC's together or should we play via our router (presume this can work as an internal switch?)?
 
I'm not sure of those specific games, but usually connecting a couple of computers either via a crossover network cable, or through a router that has a built in switch should work fine. The best way to do it, in my opinion, is to check to verify your router has a built in switch and have your flatmate plug into one of the switch ports. Then one of you needs to go into the multiplayer game options and select host a server, set up the options you want and launch the server (not a dedicated server, as you won't be able to play if you do that, unless you have a third PC to run the server). Then the other player goes into multiplayer, does a search on LAN servers and joins your game.

A group I belong to does LAN parties once a month and we connect through a separate switch (16 port gigabit switch). I also bring a spare PC to use as a server, which helps with the performance with 8+ players. The above should work fine for you, as long as your router has a built in switch. Otherwise, you can connect the PC's directly with a crossover cable, or you could buy a really cheap 5 port 10/100 switch and use that.

Good luck!
 
If you got a router with an integrated switch, thats the easiest way, because it will most likely have DHCP, which gives IPs automatically (i hear network experts crying already :p), so you don't have to assign IPs specifically to your machines.

If you use a crossover cable or seperate switch/hub and run into problems like not finding each others games, assign fixed IP adresses (system preferences -> navigate to lan connection -> TCP/IP settings) like 192.168.1.20 for one machine and 192.168.1.21 for the other, with both sub masks being the same, like 255.255.255.0 or something.

I don't know if thats ancient thinking or not, but knowing about IP settings in a LAN doesn't hurt at all.
 
wtburnette said:
I'm not sure of those specific games, but usually connecting a couple of computers either via a crossover network cable, or through a router that has a built in switch should work fine. The best way to do it, in my opinion, is to check to verify your router has a built in switch and have your flatmate plug into one of the switch ports. Then one of you needs to go into the multiplayer game options and select host a server, set up the options you want and launch the server (not a dedicated server, as you won't be able to play if you do that, unless you have a third PC to run the server). Then the other player goes into multiplayer, does a search on LAN servers and joins your game.

A group I belong to does LAN parties once a month and we connect through a separate switch (16 port gigabit switch). I also bring a spare PC to use as a server, which helps with the performance with 8+ players. The above should work fine for you, as long as your router has a built in switch. Otherwise, you can connect the PC's directly with a crossover cable, or you could buy a really cheap 5 port 10/100 switch and use that.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

What's the difference between a standard cat5e cable (that I use to plus my laptop into my router) and a crossover cable? Did a quick search on google shopping and it appears to be the same thing? So do I just plug the end that would normally go into the router, into his LAN port?
If the cat5e is the same as a crossover cable, would it not be better to directly connect the machines rather than through a switch as it means less distance between the machines and less protocols/interfaces?
 
slugger_2003 said:
What's the difference between a standard cat5e cable (that I use to plus my laptop into my router) and a crossover cable? Did a quick search on google shopping and it appears to be the same thing? So do I just plug the end that would normally go into the router, into his LAN port?
If the cat5e is the same as a crossover cable, would it not be better to directly connect the machines rather than through a switch as it means less distance between the machines and less protocols/interfaces?
Click to expand...

cat5 "standard" is straight through, pin1 on one end is pin1 on the other end, same for the other 5 pins.

Since one cable is dedicated for transmit and one for receive, and you hooked 2 pc's together you'd be sending the transmit signals to the transmit pin at the other end of the cable. Routers or switches deal with that by switching the pins inside the device itself, but if you're going to hook 2 PC's driectly together the trasnmit at one end needs to be wired to the recieve pin of the other end, hence the term "cross over"

If you're both hooked up to the internet through the same router you should already be networked, simply host a game on one machine and check the server browser in the other machine and see if theres a LAN option for either a filter or a source, whatever (i dont know this games game browser)

If you can't see each others PC's then just post back and I will try and help.
 
n3g471v3 d3c1b3l said:
with just two computers, it makes more since to run a crossover cable.
and no. they are not the same thing. looks the same, but the difference is two wires on one side
http://www.pcmobilehelp.com/support/cat5WiringDiagram.htm
Click to expand...


It actually doesn't make more sense to run a crossover cable. If they're both already connected to a router, why unplug and use a crossover when you want to game? I can't think of a router that doesn't have a LAN feature...
 
It should be quite simple, just make sure both are connected to the same router and just make a LAN game on one computer and join it with the other, very simple
 
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