LAN party logistics

[Tobeman]

Organising a small get together for me and a few mates, probably about 6 including myself to play some games this weekend. What I need some advice on is how to go about setting it up. Currently I have a 4port linksys router with WAN port and a Linksys 5-port switch. If a switch is plugged into a router will it provide DHCP to the switch or will those connected to the switch have to manually set IPs?

Im tempted to pickup a cheap 8-port router. Also, will a switch on its own auto-set IPs (have its own DHCP server) if not connected to a router?

Never quite got this malarky

[directhex]

If a switch is plugged into a router will it provide DHCP to the switch

yes.

will a switch on its own auto-set IPs (have its own DHCP server) if not connected to a router?

no.

you should bear in mind, however, the bandwidth available - gaming will be fine on daisy-chained links, but if you have large file transfers going on, you'll be bottlenecked by the link between the two network devices.

[Tobeman]

Excellent, I'll get myself an 8-port switch, get a 20m or so long ethernet cable plugged into my router, run that downstairs to the switch (where we'll be playing) then all feed off that yeah?

Genius. Used networking kit goes for nothing on the Bay

[badass]

Excellent, I'll get myself an 8-port switch, get a 20m or so long ethernet cable plugged into my router, run that downstairs to the switch (where we'll be playing) then all feed off that yeah?

Genius. Used networking kit goes for nothing on the Bay

That may or may not work. According to the specs, you can only connect 2 switches/hubs (the router in this case is acting as a switch) together and they must have no more than a 5 meter cable between them.
That said, I have had 2 connected together by a 30 meter cable without problems before aswell as having problems in the same situation using different hardware.
Its a bit hit and miss!

[directhex]

That may or may not work. According to the specs, you can only connect 2 switches/hubs (the router in this case is acting as a switch) together and they must have no more than a 5 meter cable between them.
That said, I have had 2 connected together by a 30 meter cable without problems before aswell as having problems in the same situation using different hardware.
Its a bit hit and miss!

actually, i think the spec is 100m on 100basetx, not 5m

god knows no business or educational establishment would work if they had to shove in a repeater every 5 meters

[Tobeman]

Cat 5e cable is an enhanced version of Cat 5 for use with 1000BASE-T (gigabit) networks, or for long-distance 100BASE-TX links (350 m, compared with 100 m for Cat 5). It must meet the EIA/TIA 568A-5 specification. Virtually all cables sold as Cat 5 are actually Cat 5e. The markings on the cable itself reveal the exact type.

100m seems more like a safer bet to me

[badass]

I'm talking about the uplink cable which according to 100baseTX specs cannot be longer than 5 metres.
Patch cables to nodes may be up to 100m long with IIRC 100mm of untwisted cabling the length of the cable. There is also a restriction on the cable lenght between 2 nodes (i.e. the length of cable between 1 node, the switch and another node and the switch added together) but I cant remember the length for that.
The Wikipedia article makes no mention of this either because teh author thinks it is irrelevant or because tehy simply didn't know this.
The vast majority of IT pros I know also do not know this. That does not make it incorrect however

[Moby-Dick]

ah , but does it make *that* much of a difference

edit: in the context of the OP !

[badass]

ah , but does it make *that* much of a difference

edit: in the context of the OP !

TBH I cant understant what you're talking about
OP?

[Splash]

Original or Opening Post

[ultim8um]

Well AFAIK ports on modern switches have full repeater capabilities (I have an old 10baseT 3Com hub with this ability) and thus regardless of how they are marked (e.g. Uplink specific port) they are capable of linking to another switch up to 100 metres away...

Even if the "Uplink" port was different and didn't have the same range, you could always use another port in combination with a crossover cable to achieve the required result.

I have linked switches and routers together before with distances well over 5 metres without issue... Can't see it being a problem for you.

[badass]

Well AFAIK ports on modern switches have full repeater capabilities (I have an old 10baseT 3Com hub with this ability) and thus regardless of how they are marked (e.g. Uplink specific port) they are capable of linking to another switch up to 100 metres away...

Even if the "Uplink" port was different and didn't have the same range, you could always use another port in combination with a crossover cable to achieve the required result.

I have linked switches and routers together before with distances well over 5 metres without issue... Can't see it being a problem for you.

As I said originally - it can be a bit hit and miss. Some kit lets you get away with it, other kit does not

[ultim8um]

Just done some checking (to appease my own sense of curiosity!) and found this article: http://www.ethermanage.com/ethernet/.../ch14qr_6.html

This shows the inter linking distance between repeaters (class II) is 5 metres but comments that this can increase (to 10 metres for example) as long as the whole run doesn't exceed the maximum of 205 metres!

The last paragraph states that a switching hub (or a switch to most people) is treated the same as a station (PC). Therefore the distance between two switches shouldn't be a problem as long as it a) doesn't exceed 100 metres and b) the maximum distance isn't also exceeded...

Well thats it as far as i understand it anyway!

[badass]

Just done some checking (to appease my own sense of curiosity!) and found this article: http://www.ethermanage.com/ethernet/.../ch14qr_6.html

This shows the inter linking distance between repeaters (class II) is 5 metres but comments that this can increase (to 10 metres for example) as long as the whole run doesn't exceed the maximum of 205 metres!

The last paragraph states that a switching hub (or a switch to most people) is treated the same as a station (PC). Therefore the distance between two switches shouldn't be a problem as long as it a) doesn't exceed 100 metres and b) the maximum distance isn't also exceeded...

Well thats it as far as i understand it anyway!

When it talks about a switching hud it has bridge in barckets afterwards. Bridges and switches are different in the way they work (but what they do is essentially the same)
A switch is more or less a bunch of ASIC's while a bridge is software based in a similar way that a router is.
Depending on how the ASICs in them work they may or may not have to obey the 205 metre rule.
It is a bit hit and miss....
As said earlier, I have had problems before when using 2 switches caused purely by the uplink being more than 5 meters in length.

[Trippledence]

http://forums.hexus.net/showpost.php...9&postcount=95

Did something similar myself, however my router was about 6 mtrs away from the swtiches.. I expect 20m would be fine tbh, but you could just move the router downstairs and use a telephone extension.

[Howard]

Excellent, I'll get myself an 8-port switch, get a 20m or so long ethernet cable plugged into my router, run that downstairs to the switch (where we'll be playing) then all feed off that yeah?

Genius. Used networking kit goes for nothing on the Bay

It'll work fine