Hubs, Switches, Gigabit Backbones and several miles of Cat5e cable...

[Dizzie]

ok...

I'm looking to setup a small LAN on the outskirts of Worcester and need some advice on Networking.
The Event is currently run in a village hall that can cope with 40 ish players, due to past power problems.

1) Switches or hubs?
2) Managed or un-managed?
3) Gigabit backbone?
4) Costs, etc?

If anyone could help me in this area then that would be helpfull. :)

Also, is there a way that we could get some more power to the event without having to do major alterations to the building? After all, it is a village hall 98% of the time we aren't there. :D
Costs, etc?

Many thanks.

[SmartMonkey]

to answer your questions
1) switches if you can, or at least a switch as top level cascading down to hubs.(if you use hubs from a central switch, keep them small. Once you go over 10 ports a 100Mbit hub is slower that a 10 Mbit switch)
2)Unmanaged switches will be fine with a 40 player lan, if you are looking at expanding into the hundreds of players latter managed is good for at least the top level switch.
3) gigabit backbone? no!, most multiplayer games are relatively low bandwidth and in fact run fine on 10 Mbit switches, however if you allow file transfers etc people will bitch that 10Mbit is too slow so 100Mbit throughout is a good compromise.
4) costs, new 16 port 100Mbit switches from www.scan.co.uk for approx £100, and 24 port unmanaged switches for approx £200
both Inc. VAT.
A set of cable crimps and a tester will set you back about £65 the pair, a 300M reel of cable (use stranded) about £45, and RJ45 plugs about 20 pence each (allow 3 plugs per cable, not 2 if you have never done cabling before)

As to the power, the venue should have several ring mains, make sure you distribute your users accross the ring mains evenly.
Have you a friend who is an electrician? If so the venue may have a 30 Amp cooker supply that you can borrow for the weekend (30 amps properly fused and distributed = approx 15 users)
however to do that is going to cost you a few quid (can be expensive) for wire, distribution board, fusing etc. But if you make it up on a board it's all reusable for future events.

(Blatent Plug) Oh and If you look at the costs and decide you cant afford to buy the hardware, MPUK do hire out their kit, the full range of services are available, all the way from just basic kit hire, to full event set up and management.(end Blatent Plug)

SmartMonkey

[Joey]

ph33r as even the non-staff members shamelessly p1mp all that is MPUK...

*FearHawk stands on a chair and pats SmartMonkey on the head

good lad, you've done well

[WhiteKnight]

but SM is an honerary Staff member anyway :D

[GeeDee]

Out of interest, roughly how much do mpuk charge for the hire of networking kit?

Or does it vary per person / amount of kit hired etc?

:D

-GeeDee-

[SmartMonkey]

I am unsure as to the costs of hiring kit off multiplay, as things like transport costs etc. all need to be taken into account, however the person to speak to is Wizzo (Wizzo@multiplay.co.uk).
He is also normaly available on the number listed on the contacts page of the MPUK web site.

SmartMonkey

[RK[CLL]]

what switches should I be looking to buy for my network?? and where is the best place to buy them??

I'm looking to do a 100 person network

RK[CLL]

[MONK]

100 person LAN is big.....

If you get a something like two 48 port switchs it will cost a bomb!

If you get smaller 24 port switches (and unless you want to do pure gamming then you probably will!) then you will need to run up links between them meaning you now need about 5 switches and really afaik they would need to be managed so you could run a few up links on each one.

Also you will need servers which is also going to take up ports.... You would have about enough room for 12 servers with two uplinks each switch. And remeber even if they have gigabit port you will need to plug them into something so that could mean a gigabit switch (for the expensive route!)

24 port switch though are not that cheap! The ones MPUK got cost about £500 odd.

If you are not going to do any file sharing then you have some options.....

[RK[CLL]]

which ones do MPUK use?? where can I get them?? how much??

I was looking at the 4-5 24 port switch route, but I dont want to go spending money on ****e equipment

file sharing will be allowed, but this will constantly be checked to make sure no dodgy files are flying round!!

[Dizzie]

I'd stick with 16 port switches myself. Scan.co.uk do some for about 85 ish or 24 port versions for 190ish. Might aswell buy 2 16's than 1 24port. That way you can spread them out more.

[RK[CLL]]

but that means the power useage would go up, and the less power I have to use for switches, the more computers I can cram in!!

[werewolf]

switches use very little power (i think my one is rated at ~15 watt).

you could probably get 10-20 switches for the equivilent power to a single PC (including monitor).

[Dizzie]

does it? Not much. Plus with 30 ports instead of 23 and the same cost. Work out the maths on that one. I think the 2x 16 port = 30 computers is a better option than the 1x 24port = 23 computers.

You can't cram people in if there aren't anymore free ports can you :rolleyes:

[RK[CLL]]

k, so where can I get some decent 16/24 port managed switches then?? how much??

[Dizzie]

try scan.co.uk (http://www.scan.co.uk)

[MONK]

24 Port 10/100 Switch Desktop Metal + 1 Uplink Port £193.88


16 Port 10/100 Switch Desktop Metal + 1 Uplink port £101.05


8 Port 10/100 Switch Desktop Metal + 1 Uplink Port £49.35


For 100 people and say 10 servers thats....

5 * 24 - Port = £970 (120 ports these could put into one)

7 * 16 - Port = £707 (112 ports remember you will need to plug all of these into anouther switch or something)

13 * 8 - Port = £642 (104 ports but nothing to plug the uplinks into)

All the uplink port are 100Mb not 1Gb or anything like that!

Then you have the cost of the cable and the venue!

[Dizzie]

thank you MONK

/me buys Monk a pint

[MONK]

ummmmm beeeeer :)

[SmartMonkey]

err.. those switches are Unmanaged, however for 100 players it should be fine, just remember to config them in a star config, not all in a line!

[Dizzie]

why not in a line. You could put all the lame campers on the end of the line and all the l33t people closer to the server. :D

Don't answer that. I know because off the people on the end of the line having to go though all the other switches to get to the server.

[SmartMonkey]

also because you will exceed the hop count and break the ethernet spec (3 hops, 5 cable segments end to end)!

[Fembot]

is that just because of attenuation? Because as far as I am aware the spanning tree protocol can easily cope with far more than the 3/5 rule?

(although star does make far more sense)