WinXp only supporting 5 pc network!?

Ok currently ive got 5 pc's hooked up to my small home network. I mainly used the little wizards to hook them togther to save time, and their all just on the same workgroup with file, printer, and internet sharing. The Pc's Os's are 1 WinXp Home, 1 WinXp Pro, 1 Win2000Pro, and 2 Win98's. Now I was thinking about haveing a few people over so we could play games via LAN and getting another switch and hook their pc's into the network, Well I heard somthing about how WinXp home can only like be in a network with 5 pc's or less.. is that true? Then I also heard somthing where WinXp pro can only be in a network with 10pc's or less! I would like my network to support somewhere around more like 16pc's but this doesnt seem like its gonna work! Can somebody help clear this up for me and possibly come up with a solution or somthing.. I mean if thats true than WTF!.. I mean how is microsoft planning on getting bussinesses with more than 5 or 10 pc's (which most bussinesses would probely have) to use windows xp if it wont support a bigger network!.. thanks!

LOL.. that would probably be XP limiting the # of simultanious connections. there may be a setting to increase this.. though knowing MS.. probably not

I'm familiar with the WinXP Home limiting the number of network users to 5, but Pro was supposed to remove the small limitation. XP Pro was supposedly designed for office use, so it wouldn't make any sense to have its limitation set at 10.

Remember Home and pro are not server editions so its no surprise that MS limits the # of connections so you have no choice but to use the server version

There isn't really a limitation to the number of Windows computers you can have in a workgroup. Although Microsoft recommends you only use workgroups for up to 10 computers, the limitation for Windows XP Pro (same for NT4 Workstation and 2000 Pro, not sure about XP Home Edition) is 10 simultaneous connections to a single computer. That means that if you have a file shared on one computer, only ten computers can have the file open simultaneously across the network. Anything over that won't be able to access the file until one of the other computers closes it. I think this would limit you to ten players as far as using NT4 Workstation, 2000 Pro, or XP Pro as a game server. I'm not sure since i've never set up a game server for more than six players.

Ok.

Windows XP Pro has no limit on connections. However, XP Home does. And regardless of what flavor of XP you have, XP is still built on a server OS backbone. Regardless of what flavor of XP you have it is still considered a HOST OS.

This is what is holding you up. It doesn't matter if the Pro machine is the server in your eyes. Any XP machine is the server in the network because that is the threading that XP is built upon.

Now, take that XP home system off the network, and you'll see that you can add as many as you like.

XP Home is limited to 5 connections. It's a server OS that is a host on the network (regardless of what you see it as, and what you tell it to be). And that is what is stopping you from adding more than 5 computers to your network.

ah damn WindowsXp.. why did microsoft wanna limit the connections!.. I mean like on our school network we got lots of win98 pc's runining without this prob so I dont see why microsoft did this for xp. So if I connect lets say 16 pc's to my network all with any other os other than xphome I can play games via lan? Does anyone know Of a way to get past this whole winxphome restriction thing.. I mean I wonder how places like QuakeCon get all those pc's connected into a network to play games on when people bring thier own pc's.. and im sure their must have been some xphomes in the mix too.. To me this problem is just around cause microsoft is way to greedy and wants more money. haha.

Ok I found this little paragraph from some website that seem to clear up these theories:

"Misconception:
- A network with Windows XP Home Edition can have a maximum of 5 computers.
-A network with Windows XP Professional can have a maximum of 10 computers.

Fact: There’s no limit to the number of computers that can be connected to a network.

Explanation: Windows XP Home Edition allows a maximum of 5 other computers to access its shared disks and folders simultaneously. Windows XP Professional allows a maximum of 10 other computers to access its shared disks and folders simultaneously."

So do you think that would apply to a game server running on one pc and having more than 10 people connecting into it? If it does than if I have another pc with an OS that doesnt have a set limit (or one thats limit is realy high) than would I be able to have other pc's with OSes like winxp home connect into it to play a game? If so then what OS can support lots of connections to play a game and share files?

Windows XP Pro has no limit on connections.

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This is from Microsoft TechNet:

Inbound Connections Limit in Windows XP

I've not used XP in an enterprise environment so I can't say I've actually seen the inbound connection limit in action. I have used NT4 Workstation and 2000 Pro extensively in the enterprise and know for a fact that 10 is the limit for simultaneous inbound connections with these OS's. It's unlimited of course for NT 4 and 2000 Server OS's.

Ok I found this little paragraph from some website that seem to clear up these theories:

"Misconception:
- A network with Windows XP Home Edition can have a maximum of 5 computers.
-A network with Windows XP Professional can have a maximum of 10 computers.

Fact: There’s no limit to the number of computers that can be connected to a network.

Click to expand...

That sounds like it was poorly quoted from Microsoft's documentation.

There is no limit to the number of computers that you can connect to a network. By "connect" I mean physically hook up together. You can take 48 Windows computers (OS doesn't matter), hook them all to a Cisco 3548 switch, configure them with IP's from the same subnet, put them all in the same Microsoft workgroup, and they should all see each other and communicate fine.

What you can't do is have more than 10 of those 48 computers simultaneously accessing a single Windows NT4 Workstation, Windows 2000 Pro, or Windows XP Pro computer. By "simultaneously connnected to" I mean simlutaneously copying files from, printing to, or (assumedly) playing games from, the same computer.

Here is a direct quote from Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - Q314882:

For Windows XP Professional, the maximum number of other computers that are permitted to simultaneously connect over the network is ten. This limit includes all transports and resource sharing protocols combined. For Windows XP Home Edition, the maximum number of other computers that are permitted to simultaneously connect over the network is five.

Knowledge Base Article q3124882

If I were to use a pc with an OS like Nt4 Server or 2000 Server to host the game server could all 16 (Or whatever number over 10) pc's connect to it to play games? I wonder how a place like QuakeCon got thousands of people on their network to play with each other and i asume had it so once people where connected could make thier own playable (not dedicated) serevers to play games on with 16 people each. And a bunch of pc's must have had winxp home or pro on them.. Actualy I think some of the pre-setup pc's they had had winXp on them.

raventy said:

If I were to use a pc with an OS like Nt4 Server or 2000 Server to host the game server could all 16 (Or whatever number over 10) pc's connect to it to play games? I wonder how a place like QuakeCon got thousands of people on their network to play with each other and i asume had it so once people where connected could make thier own playable (not dedicated) serevers to play games on with 16 people each. And a bunch of pc's must have had winxp home or pro on them.. Actualy I think some of the pre-setup pc's they had had winXp on them.

Click to expand...

That is correct, provided that you mind the licensing for the maximum number of users. If you have the liscenesfor 2000 seats then 2000 seats may connect to the server. You can set as many licenses in the licensing manager as you want but, be aware that you may incur the wrath of the dreaded "SOFTWARE POLICE" may come to take you away for violating the "Honor" system used for seat licensing. In theory the amount of connections for a server is unlimited, hardware restrictions not withstanding.

...or set up a Linux box for the game servers.

ok I even wrote to this guy at www.winxpnews.com about this issue and he actualy responded to this in his newsletter saying "The limitations you're thinking of have to do with the number of simultaneous connections that can be made to shared files via the SMB/CIFS (Server Message Block/Common Internet File System) protocols. For example, if you are sharing a folder on a Windows XP computer, the limitations apply to the number of people who can connect to that folder. What you want to do is allow a bunch of people to access the Internet through ICS. There's no limit on the number of computers that can access the Internet through ICS since the computers aren't accessing any files on the Windows XP computer. They're just going through the computer to get to the Internet." I think he might have missunderstood me and thought for some reason a LAN party involves all the pc's connecting to the internet or somthing... yea... all I want to do is be able to play with like 13 freinds via lan at some games but with all these damn new os's this aint workin out so well... hmm maybe a linux server would work... A linux server could comunicate with a windows network with no probs right? Anyone got any other sugestions that wont involve using some 3 billion dollar server OS like NT Server ed as the game server?

1) I like linux. Linux is free. Linux is so much more powerful than anything MS has, its like WOW.

Linux rules serverdom. PERIOD.

Linux has very poor game support.

2) Linux takes time to learn.

3) I'm still not sure what you are trying to do, in otherwords, what is a "game server"?

4) Senario A = one DHCP + internet connection sharing "server" = XP home. As many computers as you want can connect to the internet and play games. You can set up your own, "internal net" games, with as many players as the game will allow. For example, you can have 8 computers + the dhcp server, and ALL 8 can join a warcraft III game created by any ot ther other 8.

In this scenario, there is no real "game server" or game server software. You simply play the game, and any number of people can join. WarIII for example, only allows 8 people in one game. You could, however have an XP dhcp server, and have 16 people on your network, playing in 2 8 player games of wariii no problem.

5) Scenario BSome sort of "game server" where the game server runs some software. I am not familiar with this scenario. If the software really resides and runs on the server, and the game players need to run the software on the server, then I think you're hosed, as you can only have 5 folks run that software under XP. If, however, the server software simply sends stuff to the clients (position updates, etc.) and so the clients don't actually run the same sofware on the server, then you are OK.

My guess is quakecon runs linux or NT servers, probably multiple ones with some type of load balancing.


6) If this is the case, that the clients need to run the same software on the server, AND if there is a linux version of the server, THEN your best bet is linux.

7) I recomend you go to some gamers forum, and ask around there. It looks like not too many folks here at overclockers.com have set up a game server for more than 5 folks. There has to be a gamers forum where folks do this all the time.

Don't forget about us, if you do get an answer from a gamers forum, please keep us filled in.

My GUESS, is that xp will do what you want just fine.

Good luck

FlypSyde said:

That sounds like it was poorly quoted from Microsoft's documentation.

There is no limit to the number of computers that you can connect to a network. By "connect" I mean physically hook up together. You can take 48 Windows computers (OS doesn't matter), hook them all to a Cisco 3548 switch, configure them with IP's from the same subnet, put them all in the same Microsoft workgroup, and they should all see each other and communicate fine.

What you can't do is have more than 10 of those 48 computers simultaneously accessing a single Windows NT4 Workstation, Windows 2000 Pro, or Windows XP Pro computer. By "simultaneously connnected to" I mean simlutaneously copying files from, printing to, or (assumedly) playing games from, the same computer.

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Thankfully we have another admin in the house who has the correct answer

Why don't you just install a win2k server or unix/linux on one of your computers and eliminate the problem all together with a real server.

He probably cant afford win2k server
win2k pro is £200 in itself

You can get something like Suse 8.0 pro for 70 quid and home for 50. Its not to difficult to set up and has plenty of support on how to get it working.

although this can be daunting if you havent used linux

Then go to the games companys website and see if it has a linux server host.

Alot of recent games support linux server ports.

Set up your server and you should be able to connect with little problem.

The guy in charge of our local lan group (http://www.kat5kaos.com) works about 50 feet from me. I'll go over and ask him in a few minutes about this for you.