Lan Party: Hosting the Ultimate Frag Fest,9780764558955

Lan Party: Hosting the Ultimate Frag Fest

by
ISBN13: 9780764558955
ISBN10: 0764558951
Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 2004-04-01
Publisher(s): WILEY
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Summary

LAN Party is the first and only book to tap into the growing popularity of LAN parties-literally thousands gather each and every week across the country to duke it out, computer to computer, playing games like Quake, Diablo, and others Players are tired of the slow response of playing games over the Internet, and are gathering in garages, basements, and even large convention centers to play their favorite games head to head Throwing a LAN party is not as easy as it might sound, but author William "The Ferret" Steinmetz knows all the tricks, from setting up PCs to blocking cheaters, managing power drain, and debugging the network No matter if the party is with a few friends, the whole neighborhood, or a large convention, LAN Party will transport the reader to gaming nirvana

Author Biography

William "The Ferrett" Steinmetz is an avid and eminently qualified gamer and LAN party participant, planner, host, and author. His gaming philosophy? "If it moves, shoot it."

Table of Contents

Introduction ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Chapter 1: The Elements of a Good LAN Party 1(8)
LAN Party Basics and Some Common Misconceptions
2(3)
Not knowing enough about computers to hold a LAN party
2(1)
Knowing how to set up a LAN is the same as knowing how to hold a LAN party
3(1)
LAN parties attract dangerous, Columbine-style antisocial people
3(1)
I'd be embarrassed at a LAN party because I don't play the games well
4(1)
What You Need to Hold a LAN Party
5(3)
Friends
5(1)
Networking hardware (and friends)
6(1)
A place to play with enough tables
6(1)
Prep time
7(1)
Some technical know-how
7(1)
Time and effort
7(1)
Summary
8(1)
Chapter 2: Setting Your Party's Parameters 9(24)
The Biggest Question: How Many People?
9(5)
Is this party open, closed, or capped?
10(1)
The three types of parties
11(3)
Other Questions You Must Answer
14(13)
Hardcore or casual?
14(3)
What games will you be playing?
17(2)
Do you want speakers? (Hint: No!)
19(1)
Do you want Internet access?
20(1)
What should your guests bring to the party?
21(2)
Do you need to serve food and drink?
23(1)
Will you require a viral scan before logging on?
24(1)
Will you allow drinking?
25(1)
Will you allow smoking?
25(1)
Will you allow minors?
25(1)
Will you allow nonparticipants?
26(1)
Should you charge an admission fee?
26(1)
What side events will you hold?
26(1)
Will you need a lost and found?
26(1)
Setting Ground Rules
27(4)
Making your ground rules effective
27(1)
A reasonably complete selection of sample rules
28(3)
Summary
31(2)
Chapter 3: Choosing a Site for Your Party 33(24)
Locations by Party Size
33(1)
You and a few friends (up to 10 people)
33(1)
Inviting the whole neighborhood (10 to 30 people)
34(1)
The megaparty (30+ people)
34(1)
The Most Common LAN Party Locations
34(8)
Your house (or a friend's house)
34(2)
Cybercafes: The quickest route
36(2)
Existing networks
38(1)
Churches, Shriners Halls, and Veterans' Administration Halls
39(1)
Convention centers
40(2)
Going Outside the Home: How to Rent without Getting Ripped Off
42(12)
Preparing to look for a location
43(2)
Hunting Down a Location
45(2)
Dealing with the Columbine aftermath
47(1)
Casing the location
48(2)
Making the offer
50(3)
Getting ripped off
53(1)
Laying Out Your LAN Party
54(2)
Summary
56(1)
Chapter 4: The Complete Preparty Timeline 57(12)
One to Six Months Before: Establishing the Guidelines
57(3)
Setting your parameters
57(1)
Finding a place to play
57(1)
Setting the date
58(1)
Requesting the equipment
58(1)
Figuring out who's on your staff
59(1)
Looking for sponsorship
59(1)
Starting the publicity
59(1)
Drawing up the party map
59(1)
The Week Before: Notifying Participants and Preparing Materials
60(3)
Reminding your lenders and setting a pick-up time
60(1)
Posting fliers
61(1)
Burning the appropriate CDs and creating welcome materials
61(1)
Making and testing cables
62(1)
The Night Before: Setting Up and Testing
63(4)
Picking up the equipment
63(1)
Checking into off-site locations
63(1)
Setting up your LAN
64(3)
Summary
67(2)
Chapter 5: Saving Money on Your LAN Party 69(26)
Three Ways to Lower Your LAN Party Costs
70(1)
Borrowing: Beg Before You Buy!
71(3)
Begging for services
71(1)
Begging beyond your friends
72(1)
Borrowing effectively
72(2)
Reducing Costs with Sponsorship
74(7)
Who can you ask for sponsorship?
75(6)
Charging Admission and Going Pro
81(12)
Figuring out how much to charge
81(3)
Publicizing your event
84(4)
How to give away a door prize
88(2)
Selling food at your event
90(2)
Handling cash
92(1)
Summary
93(2)
Chapter 6: Avoiding Power Failures 95(20)
Avoiding Brownouts and Blackouts
95(15)
How a computer gets power
95(3)
Mapping power circuits
98(6)
Distributing power evenly
104(6)
What to Do When the Power Goes Out
110(3)
Step 1: Stay calm
111(1)
Step 2: Make an announcement
111(1)
Step 3: Figure out which circuit just blew
111(1)
Step 4: Confirm that everything's plugged in correctly
111(1)
Step 5: Move things around
112(1)
Step 6: The triple-check
112(1)
Step 7: Get to the circuit panel
112(1)
Step 8: Reboot
113(1)
Summary
113(2)
Chapter 7: The Least You Need to Know about Networking 115(36)
Where Networking and Gaming Intersect
115(7)
A simple networked game
116(1)
The five things that connect computers together
116(2)
Your most likely network setup
118(4)
Network Interface Cards
122(1)
Topologies
123(6)
Ethernet
123(4)
Other options for network topologies
127(2)
The Medium
129(6)
UTP: The most common cable
129(3)
Other cable types
132(1)
Thoughts on cabling
133(2)
The Central Connection: Hubs, Switches, and Routers
135(6)
Hubs
136(1)
Switches
136(1)
Routers
137(1)
Router/switches: The perfect LAN party solution
138(1)
Connecting hubs and switches
138(3)
Networking Protocols
141(9)
The parts of TCP/IP configuration
142(1)
IP addressing and the challenges of TCP/IP
143(1)
How do computers get these IP addresses?
144(2)
How do IP addresses work in gaming?
146(2)
Binding protocols to network cards
148(1)
Protocols other than TCP/IP
149(1)
Summary
150(1)
Chapter 8: Networking for Large Groups and the Internet 151(18)
For Larger Parties Only: Routing
151(6)
Hooking several networks together via routers
152(5)
Ports: The Secret Sixth Part of Every TCP/IP Address and What Computers Do with Them
157(11)
Firewalls, ports, and Internet traffic
157(2)
Sharing a single Internet connection via Network Address Translation
159(4)
Making your own UTP network cable
163(2)
Creating a straight-through cable
165(3)
Creating a crossover cable
168(1)
Summary
168(1)
Chapter 9: Sample LAN Party Layouts 169(26)
Physical and Network Layouts
169(1)
The Five-Person Get Together
170(7)
The five-person network layout
170(3)
The five-person physical layout
173(1)
The five-person final layout
174(3)
The 17-Person Deathmatch
177(7)
The 17-person network layout
177(5)
The 17-person physical layout
182(1)
The 17-person final layout
183(1)
The 63-Person Megagame
184(10)
The 63-person network layout
186(3)
The 63-person physical layout
189(2)
The 63-person final layout
191(3)
Summary
194(1)
Chapter 10: The Least You Need to Know about
Configuring Your Computer
195(18)
Configuring Computers
195(1)
Binding
196(1)
Windows 95/98/SE/ME/NT
196(6)
Windows 2000
202(2)
Windows XP
204(4)
Macintosh OS 8.x and 9.x
208(1)
MacOSX
209(2)
PlayStation 2
211(1)
Xbox
212(1)
Ping, IPConfig, and Other Tools: How (and When) to Use Them
213(4)
Finding Ping, IPConfig, and Traceroute on your machine
213(1)
Using Ping
213(4)
Setting Up a DHCP Server on Windows XP/Windows 2000
217(4)
Setting up Internet connection sharing (and a quick DHCP server) in Windows XP/Windows 2000
218(1)
Configuring client computers to use Windows XP's DHCP server
219(1)
Turning off Windows XP/Windows 2000 Internet Connection Sharing
219(2)
Summary
221(2)
Chapter 11: Staffing Issues and Common LAN Party Roles 223(14)
How Much Staff Do You Need?
223(1)
Common Staff Roles at LAN Parties
224(4)
The Techie
224(1)
The Backbone Person
225(1)
The Equipment Wrangler
225(1)
The Dedicated Server Host
225(1)
The Pizza Wizard
225(1)
The Receptionist
226(1)
The Floor Sweeper
227(1)
The Party Mom
227(1)
The Muscle Goon
228(1)
Getting and Keeping a Good Staff
228(7)
The importance of delegating
228(2)
The big problem with staffers and how to fix it
230(4)
Sucking up to techies effectively
234(1)
Summary
235(2)
Chapter 12: Setting Up a Dedicated Game Server 237(16)
What Kind of Computer Should You Use As a Server?
238(1)
Dedicated Servers
239(1)
Changing Settings on Your Dedicated Server Program
240(11)
Command-Line interfaces: Nonintuitive, but powerful
240(4)
Making long commands easier
244(4)
Graphical interfaces: Easier, most of the time
248(3)
Summary
251(2)
Chapter 13: The Complete Day-of-the Party Timeline 253(16)
The Three Types of Parties
254(1)
You and a few friends (fewer than 10 people)
254(1)
Inviting the entire neighborhood (10 to 30 people)
254(1)
The megaparty (30+ people)
254(1)
Before People Arrive: The Setup
254(3)
The last-minute double-check
255(1)
The preparty staff talk
255(2)
They're Heeere! (What to Do When People Arrive)
257(6)
Check-in procedures
257(1)
The check-in checklist
257(6)
The Daily Grind: Things to Do during Your Party
263(2)
The walk-around
263(1)
Handling tech support
264(1)
Handling visitors
264(1)
Giving out door prizes
264(1)
Taking photos
264(1)
Holding side events
265(1)
Taking meal breaks
265(1)
The End-of-Day Breakdown: Can't We Just Go Home?
265(1)
Breakdown
265(1)
Clean up
265(1)
Count the cash
266(1)
A Few Days After: Wrapping Up
266(1)
Update your Web site
266(1)
Thank your lenders
266(1)
Discuss future events
266(1)
Summary
267(2)
Chapter 14: Legal and Safety Issues 269(12)
The Legal Issues of LAN Parties
269(6)
Liability and the LAN party
270(5)
Alcohol and LAN Parties
275(4)
Private residences
275(1)
Rental properties
276(3)
File Sharing, Pirated Music, and LAN Parties
279(1)
Summary
280(1)
Chapter 15: Something Just Went Wrong! Fixing Party Problems 281(14)
The Basics of Troubleshooting
281(4)
Assuming every problem is nontrivial
282(1)
Staying calm
282(1)
Keeping people informed
282(1)
Narrowing down the problem
283(1)
Being methodical
283(1)
Reading the documentation
283(1)
Calling the manufacturer
284(1)
Narrowing Down the Problem
285(7)
Using ping to isolate network breaks
285(4)
The common areas of LAN party breakdown
289(3)
Noncomputer Problems
292(2)
Power outages
292(1)
People outages
292(2)
Summary
294(1)
Chapter 16: Cool Things to Do at Your LAN Party 295(42)
Environmental Bonuses
295(10)
Screen excess: Showing the game
296(2)
Adding console games to a computer network
298(5)
DVD breaks
303(1)
Music, both canned and DJ'd
304(1)
Add a party to your LAN
304(1)
Room decorations
305(1)
Sharing Files
305(20)
Sharing folders under Windows XP/2000
307(3)
Windows 95/98/SE/ME
310(10)
Accessing an FTP server via Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator
320(1)
Sharing files with Mac OS X
320(3)
Sharing files with Linux
323(2)
LAN Party Activities
325(12)
Mod parties
326(4)
Map design parties
330(1)
Real-life fragging
330(3)
Troubleshooting parties
333(1)
The LAN party drinking game
333(1)
Triathlon
333(1)
PC destruction
334(1)
Embarrassing contests
334(1)
Other party games
335(1)
Summary
335(2)
Appendix: The Party Checklists 337(6)
Index 343

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