006: How do I LAN?!

Octal FM

Jalada and Sefran talk further about what you need to think about when running your own LAN, as well as discussing some of the history of LAN parties and events and the state of the community today.

We cover a lot in the show, but there’s a lot more to it. Here’s some related reading from what we covered, and some bits we didn’t:

• Internet cafés.
• Copyparties and Demoparties.
• Revision is one of the largest Demoparties that’s still going in southwest Germany. Some demoparties have also morphed into LAN parties & gaming events such as The Gathering and Assembly which are both still going in 2016.
• The Demoscene.
• Some examples of modern demos. Check the file sizes!
• 1999 BBC article about the first Insomnia event.
• “Gaming has left the LAN party behind” by Ben Kuchera for Polygon.
• Dreamhack.
• Multiplay Insomnia Gaming Festival
  .

Running your own LAN:

• If you need a network switch, remember you need an extra ‘uplink’ port to your router. Example switches for small LANs: 8 ports for £21, 16 ports for £50*.
• To protect your attendees’ equipment you may want to think about providing RCD circuit breakers and surge protection plugs.
• Power supply calculator for calculating average attendee power usage.
• Running a ‘LANcache’ to save bandwidth and speed up downloads.
• More ideas and information from UKLP (some a little out of date).

If you have any more questions feel free to get in touch and ask, and let us know about your successful LAN party!

Intro & outro music: JACKS – Runaway Fashion

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