LAN Party

culexor

Daemon Poster
Messages
1,132
Ok, so I've been DYING (spelling?) because I've been wanting to go to a public LAN Party but they're all really far away (the next one is 4.5 hours away) most are in that area, and I don't want to go that far! There was one that I just missed! It was 3 days ago, when I found out I was PISSED! (It was like 10 minutes away!) So I decided that I should create my own. But theres one small problem. I HAVE ONLY ONE GOOD COMPUTER! I've got a couple of friends with good computers but I don't want only a couple of people to come to my LAN party! I wan't this to be HUGE! Like those 50 person ones with tons of sponsors. Where everyone can bring their own rig, and they can be complete strangers. I don't care, I just want to have some good fun. What do I need to make this big? And how much is this gonna cost me? .....I also have NO CASH! (well like $200 but thats supposed to be going towards a flatscreen) So if I can make some kind of profit it would be AWESOME! Thanks ahead of time wether I get no help or all I need.

-Thanks,
cornholio101
 
oh by the way....you are welcome to come if this works out (if you live in the st. louis area)
 
well u really need a budget. Some stuff that will help to make it big.
1. U need a good place. A nice hall or something with lots of room, preferably quite close to a shop so people can go and buy food etc. Also would be good to have a separate place to sleep.

Also need to equip this place well, enough tables, nice chairs, some place to make some food, toilets ofcourse, showers would be nice too. Also the networking is something that has to work. U need a few good routers/swiches so everyone can be connected to eachother, and to the internet. And I said a few, not because one wouldn't have enough ports, but so that not everyone has to have a 50m network cable. Or if u have just one big router/swich then make sure that there is enough cables for everyone, most people don't own an extra long network cable.

2. ADVERTISE. People need to know that it's there, and know something about it. Maybe just going and tell people about it in local irc channels, forums etc. If u are in a school put an ad on the school message board etc. But this is probably one of the most important things.

3. Security. Okay this is kinda going to be hard. But if there are strangers coming to the lan party u need to make sure that security is good. That means that people who have not payed are unable to come in. Also u need to make sure that no one will steal other peoples hardware.

4. A good price. Ofcourse u need to ask a little money for every participant. Ofcourse a too high price will drive people away, but then again this is the only income u will get. So it needs to cover the price for renting the place etc.

5. Also some tournaments. And it would be great to have a prize for the winner of the tournament. A good prize would definitely be great, and would also encourage people to come and try to win it. Though then again a good prize costs more and that could bumb up the participation costs.

Thats just a few things, I'm quite busy so can't write alot more now. Also I'm not an expert with this kinda stuff, we just usually have like 20 people. I can loan a swich for free so all we really need to pay for is the area, so usually it ends up costing like around $5 for everyone. So the price won't be a problem. But then again we don't need to worry about security because everyone knows most of the people.

So all in all, there is alot to think about.
 
Thanks a TON! One thing I was thinking about was a sponsor, they usually contribute some stuff (e.g. BAWLS prolly gives you some of their drink or even helps with the cost). Looks like I'm gonna need to save up some cash in order to do this.

One more thing, do you know where I could rent some of that equipment (the routers/switches)?
 
Whats a good way to find out if there is a Lan Party around my area? By the way, I live in Staten Island, NY.
 
cornholio101 said:
Thanks a TON! One thing I was thinking about was a sponsor, they usually contribute some stuff (e.g. BAWLS prolly gives you some of their drink or even helps with the cost). Looks like I'm gonna need to save up some cash in order to do this.

One more thing, do you know where I could rent some of that equipment (the routers/switches)?

Well a sponsor would be great, and ofcourse u can ask for some sponsors, but I don't think that they will be too interested unless there is going to be alot of people participating.

And about the renting, I'd just ask some local pc store. I always get everything I need from one, but I know the owner so I just ask for what I need and get it if they have any extra ones.
 
mammikoura said:
Also need to equip this place well, enough tables, nice chairs, some place to make some food, toilets ofcourse, showers would be nice too. Also the networking is something that has to work. U need a few good routers/swiches so everyone can be connected to eachother, and to the internet. And I said a few, not because one wouldn't have enough ports, but so that not everyone has to have a 50m network cable. Or if u have just one big router/swich then make sure that there is enough cables for everyone, most people don't own an extra long network cable.

First off for networking, you want a router which can handle many many TCP connections with nice powerful hardware. Most routers that cost more than $200 will suffice.

Second off, file sharing is very common at lan partys, people trade porn and games. I'd recomend running a gigabit backbone, but 100meg would be good enough to bring to the users, but if the switches all talk at a gigabit that's great.

EDIT: You will also probolly run wifi, however if you do this I highly recomend multiple access points running QOS or else their going to get bogged down.
 
Back
Top Bottom