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"Windows networking"

5 of my mates and I are planning a LAN party to take place very soon but have a small query. We're all using Windows, obviously, but different versions of Windows. While I'm using XP, 2 are using 98 and 3 are using ME. Will this matter??
Also, if one person is using a 10mb/s card while the rest are using 10/100 cards on a 10/100 network, will we all be dragged down to 10megs?

On small LANs, 10mb is fine, there aren't enough packets being thrown around to cuase significant numbers of collisions and it's easily enough for gaming - I ping around 30ms on a cable modem, always get sub-20ms on a LAN. You'll be fine unless osmeone saturates all the bandwidth with a file transfer.

*goes off to be jealous of Mulitplay for having Gigabit switches on the backbone and hundreds of 100mbit switches for tables..*

Right, got me Netgear 10/100 network card this afternoon along with the appropriate cable. Now, just one more thing to get...the hub.

There's a 10meg 8-port Netgear hub for £50 and also a 10/100 8-port Netgear one for £100. As much as I'd love the 10/100 one, I'd rather not stretch to £100 (meant to save some dosh for Gamecube). Will the 10meg one be ok? What kind of pings can I expect on games like CS (near in mind we'll have a dedicated server).

Yup, that's right, IP address in the top box...should automatically fill in the subnet mask for you (if not, use 192.168.1.x IP range and 255.255.255.0 as the subnet mask). Shouldn't need any others unless you want to set up internet access.

OK, I think I've found what needs to be altered. However, I'v taken a screenshot just to check with you guys.

http://www.geocities.com/kingklik/ip1.JPG

Rito, cheers Reaper (and YH, ofcourse).

Hum..well, I've set up several small LANs around here, and if all you're having is a few mates around for a night, then yes, just assign each box an IP address manually (always used 192.168.1.x or 10.0.0.x myself). Never used WinXP for anything more than 10 minutes playing Rune, but it must be in the networking setup somewhere, perhaps under a different name.

After this, ping between the boxen to check they can all find each other (DOS prompt, then ping 192.168.1.1, or whatever IPs you've assigned). As long as it can find the other pcs, games should run fine - if not, come on here and shout at us for help abit ;).

I can't for the life of me remember how to set up a network manually on win xp although i have done it, DOH but the home networking wizard is pretty good, if you do find out how to set them up manually then you should choose and IP address of 192.168.0.1 (the "1" can be anything from 1 to 255) also you might need to install differant protocals apart from TCP/IP (Transmision Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)you may need netbuiy and ipx/spx, i think thats right.

c.b.

Can't help with XP mate, I've never used it before, sorry.

If you had NT it would be easy, I use that all day at work and I could sort you out straight away!

Thanks for the help YH, although it's a little different in XP and I can't seem to find where I can change this computer's IP.

To be honest, depending on what games you're playing, you may not need to set the network up in Windows at all.

We had a 3way network in my house when I was at uni, and managed to play UT over it, without Windows recognising the network.

Essentially, if you're not going to be online at the same time, all you need do is give each of your computers an IP address.

Just right click on network neighbourhood -> Properties -> Click on TCP/IP then properties again.

If you use something like:

17.4.1.1
17.4.1.2
..

etc, then there shouldn't be too much of a problem.

There's probably something I've missed though that Reaper will let you know about :-)