# LAN Switch



## Snake05 (Feb 13, 2008)

Myself and a couple of friends are going to be hosting a small lan part the end of this month.  I just started looking today into getting a switch for the party.  I am needing about 10 ports, 12 to be safe.  I'd prefer Gigabit, but do not know if I can find one for the price range I am looking for.  I'd like to stay under $100.  Any ideas?  Also, I am considering setting up a dedicated server on the lan, how important is gigabit transfer in game, not just for network sharing?


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## thoughtdisorder (Feb 13, 2008)

The switch below is an excellent switch and falls in the price range you mentioned. I've seen this switch in action at LAN parties and the "Auto" link capability keeps the speeds flowing nicely.

See what you think: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122122


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## newtekie1 (Feb 13, 2008)

You don't need Gigabit for gaming.  I've been to huge LAN parties(150+ people) that ran on 100Mb/s.  I've been to smaller parties(50 people or less) running on 10Mb/s.  10Mb/s is really enough for gaming, most of these games run perfectly fine over internet connections in the 1.5Mb/s range, usually even less considering the crappy upload speed of most internet connections.

Now, if you are sharing files over the network, obviously gigabit is nice, but still not needed.  100M should be more than enough.

You probably want to go with a 16 port switch(12 is kind of an odd number).  You should be able to pick a 100M 16-port switch for ~$40-50.


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## techbuzz (Feb 13, 2008)

You aren't going to find something "good" with your price range.


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## newtekie1 (Feb 13, 2008)

pcgolfer85 said:


> You aren't going to find something "good" with your price range.



Sure he will, there are plenty of good unmanaged switches in his price range that fit his needs.  Nothing in the Gigabit range, but he doesn't really need that.

Edit:  I've personally used this switch, and it did the job perfectly.  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122004

It has a nice $20 rebate on it too.


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## Thermopylae_480 (Feb 13, 2008)

Snake05 said:


> Myself and a couple of friends are going to be hosting a small lan part the end of this month.  I just started looking today into getting a switch for the party.  I am needing about 10 ports, 12 to be safe.  I'd prefer Gigabit, but do not know if I can find one for the price range I am looking for.  I'd like to stay under $100.  Any ideas?  Also, I am considering setting up a dedicated server on the lan, how important is gigabit transfer in game, not just for network sharing?



LAN?  I haven't heard about a LAN?


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## Thermopylae_480 (Feb 13, 2008)

Did you consider an 8-port router with two additional four port routers acting as routers or switches?  Would that be to complicated? I can think of five four port routers that people you know already own.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124022


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## Snake05 (Feb 13, 2008)

How did you not hear about any LAN yet?  You are a part of the discussion on FB about the details, guess you haven't been on there in a while.  I have 2 four port routers right now as well as the one I left at school for Matt, so thats 3 of mine I know of.  I just figured if we got a large switch for the group that it would simplify things for now and the furute as well.


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## Deleted member 3 (Feb 13, 2008)

Just get 2 cheap 8 port fast Ethernet switches for $15. Unless you plan on sharing hundreds of gigs of files you're fine with fast Ethernet.


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## Snake05 (Feb 13, 2008)

Link to cheap switches?  Is "fast Ethernet" the same as 100Mb?


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## Thermopylae_480 (Feb 13, 2008)

DanTheBanjoman said:


> Just get 2 cheap 8 port fast Ethernet switches for $15. Unless you plan on sharing hundreds of gigs of files you're fine with fast Ethernet.



That sounds like a decent idea.


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## Snake05 (Feb 13, 2008)

Thermopylae_480 said:


> That sounds like a decent idea.



I agree.  Have you caught up to speed with the conversation on FB yet?  Most of it is bashing your brother, but there is a lot of information thrown around in there.


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## Beertintedgoggles (Feb 13, 2008)

This is kind of obvious but just thought I'd say it anyways....  remember with a switch you have to manually configure the network ports on all your machines, which is easy to do.  With cascading routers, you can let the routers assign addresses to each connection.


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## btarunr (Feb 13, 2008)

For 12 nodes, an el-cheapo 10 Mbps hub would be more than sufficient (including voice chat).


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## Deleted member 3 (Feb 13, 2008)

btarunr said:


> For 12 nodes, an el-cheapo 10 Mbps hub would be more than sufficient (including voice chat).



For just gaming and voice chat yes. However sharing some vids or copying a game to another user is better with 100Mbit. Then again you can use some USB disk for that as well. Whatever is available and/or preferred.


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## Snake05 (Feb 13, 2008)

The plan is to torrent all of the large data to everyone before that day, so most of what will be done there will be just gaming.  We will have a usb external though at our despense if we need it.


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## btarunr (Feb 13, 2008)

I thought they only game at LAN-parties. But yes, using a 2 GB stick is very convenient. Students pack a lot of these sticks these days thanks to humane pricing.



Snake05 said:


> The plan is to torrent all of the large data to everyone before that day, so most of what will be done there will be just gaming.  We will have a usb external though at our despense if we need it.



Nice idea. We would just have the dedicated server do resource-hosting where say 5 users connect to a server with a map, all its scrips, resources are downloaded to each of the participants. But yes newer games have heavy resources and torrent helps.


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## Snake05 (Feb 13, 2008)

Well, since Thermopylae brought it up, I currently have 3 routers available (2xwrt54g-one flashed with DD-WRT and also a cheap Belkin F5D7230-4 from walmart).  We also have 2 D-link 4 port switches available.  Given this information, would it be easier to use what we have and rig it up (if so, recommend how), or get a stand-alone unit that can do it all.  Thanks a bunch!


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## Polaris573 (Feb 13, 2008)

We have four 5-port routers counting my WRT-150N and someone is bound to have a switch.  Why do you want a 10 port switch?  Just because you're getting large paychecks doesn't mean you should waste your money 

Although gigabit would be fun.  Fun isn't worth $100.


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## Deleted member 3 (Feb 13, 2008)

Lol, I never noticed Polaris and Thermo were from the same place. 

The issue with using multiple 5 port routers is that you effectively only have  N*3+2 ports available. If you have them it's a good free solution though.


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## Snake05 (Feb 13, 2008)

I just remember in the past when we used two of our switches combined that it lagged like crazy (remember 2 years ago Zero Hour?).  Trust me, I am trying to find the cheapest alternative.  I have already blown more money in one week this year than I had on my computer the past 2 years.  No more!  I just want this one to be easy to set up and without many problems throughout.


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## Snake05 (Feb 13, 2008)

I'll let you in on a secret. Polaris and Thermo are not only from the same place, but from the same mother.  Twins at that.  (Polaris is the nice one, just to let you know. Thermo truely is evil.)


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## btarunr (Feb 13, 2008)

Snake05 said:


> I'll let you in on a secret. Polaris and Thermo are not only from the same place, but from the same mother.  Twins at that.  (Polaris is the nice one, just to let you know. Thermo truely is evil.)



Yin-Yang Revelation


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## Polaris573 (Feb 13, 2008)

Snake05 said:


> I'll let you in on a secret. Polaris and Thermo are not only from the same place, but from the same mother.  Twins at that.  (Polaris is the nice one, just to let you know. Thermo truely is evil.)



Lies.  I should delete your post and ban you.



Snake05 said:


> I just remember in the past when we used two of our switches combined that it lagged like crazy (remember 2 years ago Zero Hour?).  Trust me, I am trying to find the cheapest alternative.  I have already blown more money in one week this year than I had on my computer the past 2 years.  No more!  I just want this one to be easy to set up and without many problems throughout.



Zero hour lags because it's crappily coded software and the laptops that some people were running on are slow which bogs down the whole game.


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## Deleted member 3 (Feb 13, 2008)

Snake05 said:


> I just remember in the past when we used two of our switches combined that it lagged like crazy (remember 2 years ago Zero Hour?).  Trust me, I am trying to find the cheapest alternative.  I have already blown more money in one week this year than I had on my computer the past 2 years.  No more!  I just want this one to be easy to set up and without many problems throughout.



Don't connect routers with 2 cables. Otherwise it should be fine. However I would recommend 2 dirt cheap fast Ethernet switches or buying a 16/24 port used one. You can get them quite cheap. Specially a nice option if you plan to organize more lans. In fact, in that case you could look for one with 1 or 2 Gbit uplinks for the server.


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## Deleted member 3 (Feb 13, 2008)

Snake05 said:


> I'll let you in on a secret. Polaris and Thermo are not only from the same place, but from the same mother.  Twins at that.  (Polaris is the nice one, just to let you know. Thermo truely is evil.)



Doubt it, if he was truly evil I would have known. I have some experience in that area.


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## Snake05 (Feb 13, 2008)

Polaris573 said:


> Lies.  I should delete your post and ban you.



Haha.  Thats great.  Of course I was kidding.


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## Polaris573 (Feb 13, 2008)

If you truley have your heart set on a switch I would get a cheaper one.  I doubt you'll get much more performance out of a $100 one than you would a $50 one.


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## Snake05 (Feb 13, 2008)

DanTheBanjoman said:


> Doubt it, if he was truly evil I would have known. I have some experience in that area.



Oh but he is.  I myself have evil tendencies, and he is right there along with me.


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## Snake05 (Feb 13, 2008)

Polaris573 said:


> If you truley have your heart set on a switch I would get a cheaper one.  I doubt you'll get much more performance out of a $100 one than you would a $50 one.



Agreed.  Thats why I was looking into the cheaper 100Mb and 200Mb ones.  I have nearly ruled out gigabit for now, because its not worth it at this point.


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## Polaris573 (Feb 13, 2008)

8 ports 10/100/1000 Should be more than enough along with the routers.


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## Snake05 (Feb 13, 2008)

Well if we looked into a 16/24 100Mb then we wouldn't need multiple routers.  Like I was saying, we won't need to do a whole lot of transfering, so gigabit isn't completely necessary.


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## Polaris573 (Feb 13, 2008)

Might check ebay for a cheap used switch.  I know companies are always upgrading and throwing out their old equipment.  Just don't get a professional one since I don't think any of us could program a switch adequately.

Might be worth watching


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## Deleted member 3 (Feb 13, 2008)

Snake05 said:


> Agreed.  Thats why I was looking into the cheaper 100Mb and 200Mb ones.  I have nearly ruled out gigabit for now, because its not worth it at this point.



There is no such thing as 200Mb. 200Mb is another way to say full duplex. Gigabit is very much affordable if you're talking about 8 port switches, though mostly overkill unless we're talking about storage sharing.


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## Deleted member 3 (Feb 13, 2008)

Snake05 said:


> Oh but he is.  I myself have evil tendencies, and he is right there along with me.



There is a huge difference between lies-to-his-mom-about-the-age-of-his-girlfriend-and-her-actually-being-his-teacher kind of  evil and the planet-devouring-omnidimensional-present kind of evil.


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## Polaris573 (Feb 13, 2008)

When did you become omni-dimensional dan?  Last time I checked your were only a multi-dimensional evil.


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## newtekie1 (Feb 13, 2008)

Polaris573 said:


> Zero hour lags because it's crappily coded software and the laptops that some people were running on are slow which bogs down the whole game.



Amen to that!!!  I've played it on Gigabit, it still lags, with just two people playing, on my computers, which are very much up to the task.


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## Deleted member 3 (Feb 13, 2008)

Polaris573 said:


> When did you become omni-dimensional dan?  Last time I checked your were only a multi-dimensional evil.



I deny the existence of the other 98% of the dimensions. Quite an effective strategy I must say.


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## Snake05 (Feb 13, 2008)

I agree with EA doing a horrible coding job with the game, but the example I was using earlier was refering to the two switches getting their transfers crossed, and it would take about 5-10 seconds per frame.


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## Snake05 (Feb 14, 2008)

Thanks for all of your help guys.  I ended up getting that D-link from ebay that Polaris mentioned for a third the price as newegg.


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## lemonadesoda (Feb 14, 2008)

BARGAIN.  Good purchase.

For anyone else looking at this thread... I recommend getting a bigger hub/switch (ie. 8, 12, 16, 24 ports) just as snake did, rather than joining multiple smaller switches (e.g. 4, 5 ports). Why? Fewer wall warts. Less cables.  Lower power consuption in total. And faster "backbone"/bandwidth within the device.

I would also recommend spending a bit more on a gigabit. Why? Because if you want to share files, copy updates etc. it will be significantly faster on the giga. Also, if people are playing, and someone drops out to do some file transfers, with the giga there is plenty of headroom not to cause the LAN to lag.

However, as people noted, if everyone is "in the game" then even "10" is fast enough.

The giga is also useful as future-proofed. Use the switch for other installations/uses after the LAN party.

Take a look at the GS108T. This is a MANAGED switch. If you want... you can even go in and LIMIT someones bandwidth. LOL ;-P


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## Snake05 (Feb 14, 2008)

I agree.  I am shocked someone did not snipe that thing away from me, but oh well.  I actually got it for about $15 under my max .  I would have loved a giga switch, but after I started looking, I drastically dropped my budget.  For out purposes, this one should be awesome.  Many reviews of it from newegg actually mention its use in a LAN, which makes me even happier.


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## craigwhiteside (Feb 14, 2008)

, i have a 48 port cisco 2950 series switch going to waste next to me 
i wish people in liverpool like or even know about lan parties


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