Making a Mini LAN Party.

Im wanting to maybe make mini LAN party for about 8 friends.I was wanting know what I would need for the networking.From the sounds of it a router would be hard,and Ive never work with networking computers before.A hub Ive seen people say there slow, but dont requier much work.And swicthes, can i just gat a swicth and it work out.Im also wanting to know how to get connect to the internet, hopefully my friend will get DSL before we do this so we could use his DSL to all play WoW or something.I know we couldnt just have a swicth and connect to the internet, im thinking it would requier a router.
Games
Warcraft 3
Starcraft
possibly (hopefully)
some Halo CE
UT2004
but my friends dont really play FPS on comp...
and WoW (thats if we can get a internet connection)

 

Ok, Ive learned that I atlest need a router and a 8 port switch form rescreahing.I been looking and need this to stay pretty cheap,Its a LAN for only >=8 comps, so I have found a cheap router and 8 port switch.Zonet ZSR0104DE 10/100Mbps Broadband Router 1 x 10Mbps WAN Ports 4 x 10/100Mbps LAN Ports - Retail Zonet ZFS3008P 10/100Mbps Ethernet Switch w/Auto-MDIX / Plastic Version, would these run a LAN party?

 

Yes! Providing you wire it together correctly, and all the PCs are set up

 

Ok, to make sure I know what im doing im going to ask how to wire this what I was thinking...Get all the comps to connect to the 8 port switch with a ethernet cables.Then connect the 8 port switch to the router.Now what dont what to is config the router, like how you get it to give every one a IP Adress.Router part seems confusing.

 

Any router you buy will have a quick start guide that will step you through all that. Its easier than you think. All computes set to Obtain an IP Automatically
and the router set up as a DHCP server......done !!!

 

Awesome thanks for the advice.

 

Ok Ive diecide not to go with the router.I going to go with just a 5 port switch ABS NW-100-5P 10/100Mbps 5 Port FE Switch 5 X RJ-45 Ports 1K MAC Address Table 1MB Buffer memory - Retail , with these cables....I really dont know if the cables really matter but I saw somewhere where said dont get crossover ones, I really dont thats why I thought I ask GENERIC 10X5-83710 10Ft Cat 5e 350Mhz Orange Crossover Cable - OEM.Thanks in advance.

This is for a 4 person LAN.

 

OK, lets see if I get this straight...... Cross over cables are for like devices! In other words, if you were connecting two switches together or two routers or two computers point to point... even a switch to router. If you confused now there is more. Some higher-end switches have an auto detect and will work with either, and some have an uplink port that is shared. But for your application, use straight through!!

 

You'll definitely need a router...coz router is use for internet sharing and switch is for internal networking only...unless you will use ICS(internet connection sharing)software which needs to be configured in each computer, then u dont have to use a router.

u dont have to worry about the configuration of the router or the physical connections you have to do. i suggest u call the technical support of your router to guide u and make sure you tell the technical support about the games and other application softwares you wanna use coz the tech will help you enable those in the router. like you and the tech will need to do port forwarding in the router's software to make your games work properly.

One more thing...if you already have chosen a brand and model number of the router that u want to buy, please call the tech support to verify if that model number supports all the games and application u wanna use.

 

But im not wanting to connect to the internet, I just wanna connect computers cause i have dail-up and speading dail-up between 4 ppl wouldnt be good.

 

If you dont want internet sharing then you dont need a router coz internet sharing is the main purpose of the router that's why it's more expensive that the switch. But if you worry about where the computers will get IP address for the network gaming, then you can just use a switch and assign an Static IP address in each computers with the same range...so that they can see each other in the network and play games in the same network.

Example of Static IP address of same range: computerA= 192.168.1.1, computerB=192.168.1.2, computerC=192.168.1.3

In this way you dont need a router to get dynamic address.