Setting up a switch to game

[TUK101]

I am in the process of setting up a network for gaming. What I am wondering is when I get it together, how do I set up a game on it? I know that I need NIC cards on each comp set up to the network. Do I have to set the comp that will be hosting the game on a designated slot on the switch? From what I understand, in the game I just start the game in multiplayer and then set the multiplayer to LAN? I know that I am not quite ready yet, but I like to cover all of my bases and get as much info as I can before I venture into new things, so any help will be muchly appreciated. Also, are there better, or faster switches available? Is there a type of cable that will help keep things moving better than a lower quality cable? If so, what kinds should I try to get?

 

[Krieger]

any slot on the switch should be fine, you should look at 10/100 switches for nothing other than compatablity. no many just plain 10mbit cards kicking around but you never know. you should just be able to set up the dedicated server for the game and then everyone shuld be able to connect to it. every game is different so I really can't tell you how you would set it up. Any kind of cat5 cable that terminates with an rj45 connector should fine. Other than that yu should be fine. just make sure that your switch has enough ports for al the computers you want to run. Also make sure that if you are having a decent number of players that the system that is hosting the game is powerful enough to do it. In FPS games most times anything over 12 or so starts taxing the systems.

 

[h20link]

ok after you have all the computers hooked up to the hub for gaming here's what you do:

On each computer find the network properties box. There should be a list of networking components. You need to find the TCP/IP properties for the NIC card on each machine. select it, and then hit "properties". find the page that says:

obtain an IP address automatically:
Specify an IP address:

click on "specify an IP address."

Enter 192.168.0.2 as the IP
subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

(note: the IP does not have to be 192.168.0.2 but that's the one I usually use.)

On each machine the IP's should be in the same "range", but different: what I mean is the host can be 192.168.0.2, the next computer can be 192.168.0.3, the next one after that 192.168.0.4, etc. the subnet mask should stay the same.

save this configuration and then restart your machine. If you're using XP i don't think it asks you to restart but you should anyways.

basically this puts all the computers on the same network, instead of having them on various different IP ranges.

when you're done gaming don't forget to go back and change your network properties to "obtain an IP address automatically" otherwise you won't be able to go on the internet.

 

[TUK101]

Cool guys, thanks for the information. I am sure that I will forget it all when I go to do all of this, but at least when I am reading up on it, it wont all seem foriegn to me. It sounds a lot like going onto the internet, except that the switch takes the place of the internet. Thanks again