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Sadly enough, no matter how cheesy some of the questions
sound, they really have been asked by alot of people when I approached
them about an invitation to WinterLan 2000
Basic Questions
What is a LAN? What is a LAN party?
Why do you play on a LAN? Can't you do that
on the Internet?
I don't know anything about networking...
I can't bring a computer, can you let me borrow
one?
Will my 486DX/2 be enough to bring?
How fast does my system need to be?
What games are you gonna play?
I am great at this game, can we play this?
I am really good at this game, I am gonna beat
you all...
Network Questions
What speed is the network running?
Will we have internet access? How fast?
Basic Questions
What is a LAN? What is a LAN
party?
A LAN is a Local Area Network. It's basically a few
(it can be alot) of computers hooked together and talking to each
other. A LAN party is when people get together and play games on
a network. For more information go here.
Why do you play on a LAN?
Can't you do that on the Internet?
Yea, you can play games on the Internet. But there
are alot of things that you don't control on the Internet. The Internet
is actually really slow for most people and at best unpredicatble
at times. We play on a LAN instead of just on the Internet because
it is fast and we control what happens. It's more fun to play with
people who you know and are right beside you as well. Anyway who
wants to play on something that was invented by a politician?
I don't know anything about
networking...
That really isn't a problem. We are going to use this
protocol called DHCP, which will automatically set up alot of stuff
for you. Even if you don't know much about computer, nothing that
we do is really gonna be complex for you to do. It's just installing
and playing games. If you have problems with something there are
quite a few certified and very experienced people there who
would be glad to try to help you.
I can't bring a computer,
can you let me borrow one?
Alot of people have asked this of me, and at times
before I have let people borrow computers. This time however I am
not letting people borrow computers for several reasons. The first
being that you really should bring one. You don't show up at a hockey
game asking to borrow someone else's stick. You bring your own if
you expect to play. Another reason being that I am going to run
a dedicated server with my spare computer, which really isn't mine,
but my dad's. Since the computer will be dedicated, it can't really
be used for game playing. He kinda got a little pissed last time
that I brought his computer to a Lan Party and some odd stuff happened
to it. It wasn't anything damaging, but he doesn't like his computer
settings being changed, and some things were added to his computer
that he didn't want. The person who borrowed it didn't do anything
wrong, just some things that I didn't want done to the computer.
If you bring your own computer, you can do whatever you want to
it, and you know you did it and how to undo it. If you need a computer,
call me or email me. I can build you a great computer for
really cheap. Do you realize how much profit IBM
and Compaq make off selling
computers? Even more so with Gateway
and Dell. I can undercut them
and provide quality components. I built a computer for Bryan Rogers
last year, and he got to use it for the first time at WinterLan
99. He has been immensly satified with the computer. It is still
running fast and crashes very very rarely.
Will my 486DX/2 be enough to
bring?
Man I feel sorry for you if you are still using that.
Just joking. While computers such as a 486 were fine in the olden
days for gaming, and may still serve you well for typing reports
or perhaps checking email, they just can't stand up to the new games
that we will be throwing at them. If you need a stronger computer
contact me and I will build you one for less than just about any
computer company will.
How fast does my system need
to be?
With a few exceptions I think I should set down these
guidelines:
Intel Pentium II 266
and up. If it is AMD it should be 400 mhz and up (We have had problems
with AMD systems at WinterLan 99)
64 MB RAM
10/100 Network Interface Card ( If you don't have one tell me. I
will buy one and install it cheap)
Monitor of your own that you can bring
All of your cables and interfaces
2 GB of hard disk space for games
CDROM drive
Speakers or headphones
3d video card HIGHLY recommended
Some of these things can make up for the others. If
you have a barebones 266 PII without a 3d card, forget it. Your
processor will not be able to keep up at all. When you bring a system
that is weaker you must understand that you won't be able to play
all of the games. We will keep up some Quake
servers and HalfLife servers for everyone to play on that will
work for everyone. Just don't expect to be able to run Tribes 2
smoothly. If you need to improve a part check out Pricewatch
for parts. If you have a lower end system, you should really get
a Voodoo 2 if you don't have one. Two of them would be even nicer,
and seeing how cheap they are today, it shouldn't break the bank.
If you want a little better go for the Voodoo 3 2000, I have one
and so does Bryan, and they seem to be really solid cards and are
only about 40-50 dollars right now. I might see about ordering a
10-Pack of NIC cards if enough people need them. I need to get another
for myself.
And if you bring a laptop computer, expect to run
a little slow unless you have a great system. Chris's laptop works
pretty well, but runs about the same speed as my system even thought
the processor beats mine to shreads. Laptops are great, just the
video card is normally really weak on them. If you have a choice,
bring you desktop, unless it really blows. I have some SCSI 2 GB
external hard drives that I might let people borrow if they need
them, but I do not have any extra SCSI interfaces, and I really
can't take the time to show you how to set one up, as they can be
really fussy.
What games are you gonna
play?
The games that we normally play tend to be FPS (first
person shooters), but we do play other types as well. If you are
opposed to gore and blood in games, then just stick with your Solitare
and don't come. We do play strategy and we might even perhaps play
some Role Playing games this year. It's all up to you guys. There
is a big push for HalfLife:
CounterStrike. I am cool with that because it will be something
that everyone's computer should run equally as well. Last year it
became us playing Quake 3
at times, but mainly just Rogue Spear. It's a great game. If you
have played the N64 game only, then you don't really know how cool
it is. We played Soldiers of Fortune at the last one at Chris's
house. We normally like to try out new ones each time. We bought
Ground Control and Rich got Diablo
2 at the last one too. Ground Control was a flop, but we didn't
really try out D2.
I like this game, can we play
this?
We might, if enough people want to, then sure.
I am really good at this
game, I am gonna beat you all...
Too many people say that and then get their faces
smeared on the walls of the game..
Networking
What speed is the network
running?
We are going to run a 100MB network with a Dedicated
server running Windows 2000 Server
and a server running Linux RedHat
7 with Kernel 2.4 dev.
Will we have internet access?
How fast?
We will be hooked up to at least one Cable Modem with
service from Road Runner in the
Triad. The maximum download speed of a cable modem is 1.5 mb/s and
the max upspeed is 300kb/s. We normally get about 300K/s downloads
and 30k/s uploads. It is alot faster than your AOL
dialup is all I can say.
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