Large LAN Party Setup

[Oneos]

I didn't read the whole thread, but what happened to the wireless in the revised diagram?

Also, I'd put the servers behind a firewall and only limit access based on the ports/services absolutely required. If someone's system is acting up or has something it shouldn't it'll help keep the servers up and running without any issues.

What purpose will the admin machines serve? (no pun intended) You may want them firewalled off as well. At a minimum the servers and admin systems should be on their own VLAN away from the user systems. Do NOT make the file server your DHCP server. I've had nothing but problems with that in the past. People come in, start grabbing files, and then those that show up later can't get to it to pull an IP. It's just not a good idea.

Well in the 2nd revision I removed the WAP since now the internet isn't seperated from the res of the network. So in this case I would just manage it where the Admin PCs and Servers have unmetered access, while the rest a severely capped.

Well the admin PCs would be those of us running it, would need something to do when not running around, and it would be a bad idea to just have it at the regular tables.

In the 2nd revision, the firewall could also easily act as the DHCP server no problem. I've changed it a bit more still, but I'll post that later.

 

[goodcooper]

Count me out of this thread. It's being plauged by bad advice from YeOldeStonecat (he's turning this into an ego pissing match)

opinions are like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥s... everybody's got one and they all stink!!!

but he is absolutely right about the CALs, you certainly don't need to purchase any additionals for gameservers...

if you just look, you'll see you two don't have all that much you're disagreeing about... basically just this and that that has more to do with the place you're renting (planning) and how much capital or what type of hardware you have available....

i mean if you havn't got the money to put server hardware in, you havn't got the money... and if anybody doubts it is "better" to use hardware designed to do exactly what we want... then you're kidding yourself... servergrade NICs are probably worth the investment here... everything else is gravy

 

[TopGun]

And to think when I was getting bruteforced there were 3000 connections
hitting my server which has an integrated 10/100 nic...then the router crashed LOL.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

how much capital or what type of hardware you have available....

i mean if you havn't got the money to put server hardware in, you havn't got the money...

Exactly....I'm not saying to go out and spend 8 grand on an ML360 G5 with dual quad core Xeons and a massive RAID5 array of 15krpm scuzzers. What I'm talking about....is, well, others can probably attest to this. We have a group of people who want to get a LAN party going. Great...now, out of this group of people..chances are pretty good that a handful of them...who are local to wherever this LAN will be built..are into computers. Taking a look at this concept...there is usually a good pool of hardware available from this group of people. A group of hardcore gamers...there's always a big pool of available hardware to utilize. What we've always done in the past....is utilize this resource pool. Joe works as IT at a big office...and can borrow a big business grade switch or two or three. Steve works doing servers for a living..has access to TechNet or MSDN for the server OS. You ask around to see who has what hardware available. You'll find you can gather the hardware together and build a server for the LAN quite easily. Mike has a honking server at home..it's running linux...but he can take out his hard drives...and we can use Bobs Adaptec controller and his spare pair of 18 gig SCSI hard drives. Alan has a nice 3COM 990svr NIC available we can borrow. Great..look at this...no money spent so far, just spend a Saturday 2 weeks before the LAN getting together at someones house having a few beers and building the server ahead of time.

Utilize your resources..plan ahead of time...you'll find you can get a good setup, and spend very little..if not any...$$$.

 

[metallicafan]

He has presented some sound advice. Some of it you agree with. Blatantly calling them misconceptions with out hard evidence supporting your or his point is not really constructive. I don't see anywhere in your or Stonecats posts, benchmarks or performance studies to support one side or another (in a gaming server situation). Quite frankly i don’t see any really "bad" advice, just attitudes.

The UPS for the servers is NOT a bad idea. Figuring out power before hand is critical, but even if you get all the calculations and loads correct that won't account for a weak breaker tripping, or a power surge/outage even if you have tested live. And yes I have seen that at a few events.

Couldnt have said this better myself. Mark another vote down for UPS on the servers. Ban users from having them but having them on the servers is just good sense. Also I agree with keeping this simple. If you dont have a big budget to spend on server grade material just add more servers to the mix. Maybe have 2 or 3 game servers instead of placing all your eggs in one basket. This is a lot of work to do for one person but if you and two or three friends get together and pool your resources like mentioned above you can have a good LAN on average hardware. One more thing: HAVE FUN!!! If its not fun its not worth doing.