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Hi

I want to play Quake 3 and Counter-Strike against my brother on his computer by connecting my computer to his computer with a cable so we can play Quake 3 or Counter-Strike.

Can you tell me what cable I need to buy from Special Reserve to play head-to-head in Quake 3 and Counter-Strike?

I don’t want to buy any network cards, I just want a cable so we can play head-to-head in Quake 3. Does head-to-head gaming require a network card?, or can you make do with a cable connecting the 2 computers together?

How would you access the multiplayer head-to-head games in Quake 3 and Counter-Strike with 2 computers connected together by a cable?

Thanks if you can answer some or all of my questions.


Andy

Hi

Thanks for your help.

I will buy a PCI network kit from Special Reserve after your advice.

I thought a USB kit would be good because I could network my PC to my brother's laptop, and when it isn't networked to my brother's laptop I could have the usb network networked to my other brother's PC. Also I was worried about opening my PC but after the advice given in this topic I think I will be able to install the PCI network cards OK.

Thanks for all your help.


Andy

I know! It's like lego with sharp edges!

Really? Gah!

Disconnect the power. Use a screwdriver. And, place the network card in one of your PCI slots.. I am dumb on Hardware technolagy but hell man, this is easy. Its all plug and play anyway. Just install the drivers from the cd-rom then we're all happy. AINT WE..

Yeah, but the wuss is scared of operating on his comp. Wimp.

You need a h2h network card kit thingy. SR used top sell them, bout 40 quid. for 2 cards. Cables and all. And they even chucked in a free game :o)

AndyJackson wrote:
> Hi

I tried to buy "Unex USB network Kit for two PCs" yesterday but
> they are no longer selling it.

Does anyone know where I can the Unex USB
> network kit or a similar product from?

You COULD just connect both PCs to the internet at the same time, then connect though some wierd place like Yahho or something, but that isn't the best thing to do.

Keep looking for the network kit, that's your best bet, I reckon.

Hi

I tried to buy "Unex USB network Kit for two PCs" yesterday but they are no longer selling it.

Does anyone know where I can the Unex USB network kit or a similar product from?

Thanks if you can help

AMD_MAN wrote:
adrian this is correct, i was making the
> point that you will only get a transfer rate of 100 mega bits per second on a
> 10/100 lan card if you are using a 100 mega bits per second hub (about 50 quid i
> think) you CANNOT have a transfer rate of 100 mega bits per second if you only
> use a crossover cable between 2 100 mega bits per second network card's.
you
> are right that network cards do slow the boot time of your pc, but a 100 mega
> bits per second network has alot of cons, i.e fast file transfer between pc's,
> very quick gaming without any lag at all.


Didnt know you needed a HUB to get 100MB. I dont think gaming would lag at all with 10MB network rate. 10MB = 1.25 Mega Bytes per second. If you play games over the internet with a 64K ISDN it offers 0.08 Mega bytes per second and the lag isnt that bad. Use a cable connection that has 0.064 Mega Bytes per second any lag more or less disappears. So with 1.25 Meg a sec you should have perfect gaming with no lag.

adrian wrote:
> AMD_MAN wrote:

> USB 1 has a max transfer rate of 12 mega bits per second
> and 2 netwrok card
> using a cossover cable is only a max of 10 mega bits
> per second so you might
> have slightly better performance on the usb
> network but order it quickly as it
> will not be in the next
> mag.

adrian this is correct, i was making the point that you will only get a transfer rate of 100 mega bits per second on a 10/100 lan card if you are using a 100 mega bits per second hub (about 50 quid i think) you CANNOT have a transfer rate of 100 mega bits per second if you only use a crossover cable between 2 100 mega bits per second network card's.

you are right that network cards do slow the boot time of your pc, but a 100 mega bits per second network has alot of cons, i.e fast file transfer between pc's, very quick gaming without any lag at all.

AMD

AndyJackson wrote:
What are the pros and cons for a USB network and PCI network
> cards?

Will I be able to transfer data between the two computers?

Thanks
> if you can help

In my experience PCI network cards slow the computer down when loading up. If you were to use networks all the time then the 100 Mega bit a second compared to 12 Mega Bit a second of USB would be much quicker. With the PCI card you wouldnt use a USB port and you would have a fast connection all the time.

USB can easily be plugged into the computer when needed. I would imagine that the USB network is the same as a PCI network but slower. 12 Mega Bits is still 1.5 Mega Bytes per second, so would be fine for games. Transfering data would be slower but it would get there.

As I said before in my experience network cards slow the computers time in booting up. My friends all have network cards and there better spec PC's take longer to load up than mine. I fitted a network card in my PC once and noticed the differenc in load up.

If you only need a network to play games on and share the odd file, then a USB maybe for you. It will be easy to set up and it doesnt have to be connected all the time.

If your going to be networking, all the time, playing games, sharing data e.t.c then a PCI network card is better.