Standard Hub or Hub-switch for OFP LAN party?

[Nuku]

Okay, no secret, OFP eats bandwidth like candy.

If I wanted to put together a LAN party of 10-20 guys on a 100Mbit fast ethernet LAN, would OFP bring a stacked "repeater" hub to it's knees with massive collisions?

Would I need to get myself a hub-switch and break em up you think?

I've always wondered, with multi-player gaming with data constantly streaming, at what point it makes sense to put hub-switches between "repeater" hubs. Anyone with experience in the matter?

[KAS Stace]

I've run a 10 player OFP game on a 10mps lan with no problems at all, all running from 2 hubs 1x8 port 10mps and 1x4 port 10mps.

no lag at all. That was on version 1.20 as well.
Gonna try again this weekend with the latest 1.30 version.

Excellent fun over a lan.

[tlx]

You should go for a 100 MBit Switch. They're cheap these days. A Hub-Switch is mainly a switch with can auto-negotiate Line speed. I'd always go for a real switch since you can afford them and it has the better concept than a hub by far. Also only switches can go into Full Duplex mode which comes in handy when you're moving files over the switch (Fileserver etc.). I agree that 10 MBit might be enough for OFP though, but maybe you have other applications for that device too.

[zovirl]

And with 10-20 guys you should get the fastest comp you can for a dedicated server...

[PlanetLAN Dave]

Hi,
Go for a dedicated switch. With prices being upside down at the moment you can get a 24 port unit for around Ł100 - Ł150 new or for Ł100, or under, second hand.

Get all the players to install 10/100mb cards! No 10mb cards.

Check out our site @ www.planetlan.co.uk for lots of LAN party information.

Hope that helped a little.

[Sergant San]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Quote: from Nuku on 7:40 am on Dec. 5, 2001
Okay, no secret, OFP eats bandwidth like candy.

If I wanted to put together a LAN party of 10-20 guys on a 100Mbit fast ethernet LAN, would OFP bring a stacked "repeater" hub to it's knees with massive collisions?

Would I need to get myself a hub-switch and break em up you think?

I've always wondered, with multi-player gaming with data constantly streaming, at what point it makes sense to put hub-switches between "repeater" hubs. ***Anyone with experience in the matter?

[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

Hi,
Definately go for switch. SMC does a spetial offer at the moment on EZ Switch 24. You should get 10 or 12 nic's free with it. I got that switch for the office, nice switch, a bit noisy ( small fan in side panel ) bit works great together with Intel Manageble Switch.