Gaming Lan Management..how??

[SmackAHobo]

Hey guys,
I'm going to be running a rather large LAN party soon (50+ people) and i was wondering if there is any software that i can use to monitor the network?

What i mean is, we all know what happens at LAN partys (Gaming & File sharing, right?). Obviously the main intention of the LAN party is to game, so I don't want some people to be playing games while others lag the network because they're trying to get the next season of family guy.

Is there anyway or any program to stop people from being able to share/download at certain times while people are playing games?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Don't connect the network to the internet, then they won't be able to download or stream anything.

 

[Leros]

The issue is people sharing between computers. At the LAN's I've been to, people open their mp3s and videos to the network so people can share.

Use QoS to prioritize gaming and don't worry about sharing. If you don't know about Qos... it basically prioritizes certain packets (gaming, VOIP, etc) to make sure other network traffic doesn't slow it down.

 

[RESmonkey]

Explain it beforehand, as well.

 

[SmackAHobo]

@Leros, is there any software to do this? How do i achieve QoS? I really want a main computer that can control everything, is there any software to do that?

Thanks again

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: SmackAHobo
@Leros, is there any software to do this? How do i achieve QoS? I really want a main computer that can control everything, is there any software to do that?

Thanks again

I don't know. I know you can do QoS on some routers. I know some of the third party firmwares for the Linksys routers do it.

I can't help you any more than that. I've never used QoS.

 

[alevasseur14]

Disclaimer: I've never done this. Any advice is to be taken with a grain of salt. Or six.

There are two things I would look into. The first would be to convert an old computer into a router running one of the Linux routing programs. I think that could do your QoS and then you could connect everyone to a dumb switch. Maybe? Second would be to find a managed switch that has QoS built into it. I'm assuming it'd have to be managed because you'll need to administer the QoS somehow.

Now that I think about it, you may be able to get away with running DD-WRT on a router and then hooking all the machines into a dumb switch. Now, I'm not sure if this would even work or how stable it would be. Check out http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page They have forums there where I'm sure you could ask what the software is capable of.

Admittedly, this post lacks detail but like I said, that's because I don't have a lot of experience in this field. I just threw some ideas out to maybe help you figure out what you're looking for. Good luck and have fun!