LAN PARTIES 05/11/2004

JOIN THE PARTY

The growing popularity and affordability of broadband Internet access is prompting industry experts to contend that the age of multiplayer gaming is truly upon us. Forget those frenzied four-player sessions of GoldenEye on the N64 back in 1997, or tense one-on-one Quake deathmatches the year before – these were mere warm-ups for the massive multiplayer extravaganzas we now have at our fingertips: role-playing games set in Tolkien-inspired fantasy realms involving thousands of players; and first-person shooters featuring enormous 16-player versus 16-player gunfights.

And it’s all thanks to the growth of high-speed Internet. But, impressive as the phenomenon of online gaming is, many people feel that it’s missing a certain something: physical proximity. A big part of what made those old school Quake and GoldenEye frag-fests so enjoyable was that gamers could actually see the look on each others’ faces as they pummelled each other, and hear each others’ howls of delight as they won a tightly fought round. Console gamers can get together easily, with many multiplayer games allowing players to share one screen. PC games are another matter entirely, the rule of thumb being that each player requires his or her own computer.

This has meant a rise in local area network (LAN) gaming. Linking up a bunch of PCs for multiplayer games is far from a new trend – it has been popular since the days of Doom – but the increase in the affordability of high-speed networking gear means that it’s enjoying its most successful period yet.

LAN parties are organised events where players show up with their PCs, hook them up to a LAN, and start competing with and against other gamers. They can be huge affairs featuring hundreds of networked PCs in a large hall or conference room, or alternatively they can be more intimate affairs set up in a dining room or office. In the past, it was not uncommon for those taking part to arrive at a LAN party weighed down by their desktop PC – risking damage and the occasional hernia. Enter the humble laptop. The form factor is ideal for gaming and the arrival of graphics that are now only one step behind those of a desktop makes the platform the perfect portable play station. Here we guide you through the process of setting up a party.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

Obviously, you won’t be able to use just any laptop for the latest 3D games. The required specifications vary from game to game, but generally you’ll want at least a 1.4GHz Pentium M processor or a 2GHz desktop processor (or the equivalent Athlon), 512MB of RAM and a fair bit of hard disk space. A 64 or 128-bit graphics card is also a must: ATi’s Mobility Radeon 9600 and nVidia’s GeForce FX Go 5600 are both powerful and common video solutions, but if you’re lucky enough to own a recent top of the range laptop, then you may have the current creams of the crop: the Mobility Radeon 9700 and the GeForce FX Go 5700. For those who are looking for the latest in cutting-edge gaming power then you will need to opt for the ATi Mobility Radeon 9800, which offers a 60 percent performance boost over previous cards.

A network connection is clearly another requirement, whether it’s 10/100 or Gigabit Ethernet. All laptops come with an Ethernet port, and those that don’t can be upgraded with a CardBus network card that fits in the PC Card slot (companies like Belkin and Netgear make these – expect to pay around £30 inc. VAT for one).

Wi-Fi, while fine for sharing an Internet connection or distributing smaller files, isn’t recommended for a gaming LAN: it’s still some way behind wired networking in terms of speed, and there are a number of household appliances and gadgets that can interfere with the strength of the signal. CAT 5 cable is also a must-have, and this comes relatively cheap from any decent components supplier; again, Belkin offers a wide range of lengths and even several different colours. Obviously you’ll want enough of it to reach the switch or hub from each laptop you’ll be hooking up to your network.

This brings us to the final thing you’ll need (aside from a willing group of friends and a good selection of games): a hub or switch with enough ports to connect up each laptop. Getting a switch rather than a hub is highly recommended if you want to get the best pings – this refers to a program used to determine whether another computer is presently connected to the network, which is done by sending a packet of information to the machine, to check the speed of the connection – as it allows data to transfer at its full rate both ways (that is, 100Mbit up/100Mbit down simultaneously); this is called full duplex.

Switches also use bandwidth far more effectively than hubs, as they send packets of data only to the relevant port on the switch rather than to all of them. Having said this, if you’re only building a small LAN and are on a tight budget, then you could probably get away with using a hub. These are generally cheaper than switches, but lack full duplex and will cause more latency problems – which means slower pings for you and your mates.

SETTING IT UP

Setting up a small network with Windows XP is extremely simple. Firstly, making sure all devices are switched off, you need to plug each laptop into the switch/hub with CAT 5 cable. You’ll now need to assign each laptop its own IP address (unless your LAN includes a DCHP Server, which hands them out to each machine automatically). After booting up the computer, go to Start > Control Panel > Network Connections. Here, if your laptop’s Ethernet connection is properly installed, you should see the entry ‘Local Area Connection’ under the ‘LAN or High Speed Internet’ heading. Right click on this and select ‘Properties’ from the drop-down menu.

This opens up a new dialogue box, featuring a list of items used by the connection in the centre of the ‘General’ tab. You’ll see an entry called ‘Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)’. Double-click on this to open up the properties pane, then click on ‘Use the following IP address’ and type in a new IP. We recommend using 192.168.0.? for each laptop on the network, replacing the ? with a number unique to each PC – the simplest option is to use 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on. Don’t worry about the subnet mask, as this should be filled in automatically.

Each laptop must also be given an individual name, and all must be assigned to the same workgroup. You can do this by clicking Start > Control Panel > System, then opening up the ‘Computer Name’ tab, selecting ‘Change’, and entering names for the computer and the workgroup.

This whole process shouldn’t take more than half an hour, although obviously its recommended that all players pre-install any games (and relevant patches and Windows updates) before turning up at the LAN; waiting around while your friends frantically download essential bug fixes isn’t most people’s idea of fun. You may also want to ensure that all Firewalls are disabled, as these can interfere with the network. And with that, you should be able to get started with some serious close quarters multiplayer gaming. One final word of advice: don’t scrimp on the snacks and drinks – no-one likes to frag on an empty stomach.