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    Show HN: I built a(nother) house optimized for LAN parties

    (lanparty.house)
    1071 points kentonv | 21 comments | 16 Nov 24 15:52 UTC | HN request time: 1.379s | source | bottom

    I wasn't quite sure if this qualified as "Show HN" given you can't really download it and try it out. However, dang said[0]:

    > If it's hardware or something that's not so easy to try out over the internet, find a different way to show how it actually works—a video, for example, or a detailed post with photos.

    Hopefully I did that?

    Additionally, I've put code and a detailed guide for the netboot computer management setup on GitHub:

    https://github.com/kentonv/lanparty

    Anyway, if this shouldn't have been Show HN, I apologize!

    [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22336638

    1. Multiplayer ◴[16 Nov 24 21:02 UTC] No.42159307[source]▶
    As the former proprietor of LanParty.com (which I mistakenly included in a sale to IGN) I must salute you. The absolute genius of the provided lan equipment and particularly the management thereof is an inspiration.

    I think the lack of any standing offerings of variations of Quake is a glaring mistake but easily rectified. :)

    It's really heartening to see lan gaming continued and offered in such a way that the amount of hassle and setup is minimized and the gaming is maximized. We spent far too much time in the 90's and 2000's dealing with driver issues, etc etc. Bravo.

    replies(2): >>42160766 #>>42161972 #
    2. leptons ◴[17 Nov 24 00:12 UTC] No.42160766[source]▶
    Quake is still so much fun. Been playing for years with a group and it doesn't get old.
    replies(1): >>42160853 #
    3. ethbr1 ◴[17 Nov 24 00:27 UTC] No.42160853[source]▶
    What changes after years of playing? I assume everyone has every inch of the maps memorized?
    replies(1): >>42161869 #
    4. leptons ◴[17 Nov 24 03:59 UTC] No.42161869{3}[source]▶
    >What changes after years of playing?

    New ways to exploit the physics to do things your opponents don't expect and can't easily reproduce. As the skill level of regular players increases, I always look for new ways to approach the maps.

    replies(1): >>42162114 #
    5. zamalek ◴[17 Nov 24 04:30 UTC] No.42161972[source]▶
    I remember our biggest issue being IP addresses. We had no router, or expertise, so we were at the whims of automatic addresses (254.x... as far as I recall?). Good times.
    replies(5): >>42162489 #>>42162967 #>>42163272 #>>42163495 #>>42174227 #
    6. system2 ◴[17 Nov 24 05:05 UTC] No.42162114{4}[source]▶
    Download it from tastyspleen.com and play online too. I play quake2 online almost daily.
    replies(1): >>42162563 #
    7. hunter2_ ◴[17 Nov 24 07:10 UTC] No.42162489[source]▶
    Windows will self-assign from 169.254/16 in the absence of a DHCP server.
    replies(1): >>42163236 #
    8. Ringz ◴[17 Nov 24 07:28 UTC] No.42162563{5}[source]▶
    Domain for sale?
    replies(1): >>42162821 #
    9. pentagrama ◴[17 Nov 24 08:29 UTC] No.42162821{6}[source]▶
    I think it may be http://tastyspleen.net/
    10. mattbee ◴[17 Nov 24 09:11 UTC] No.42162967[source]▶
    I've definitely been to a LAN party where IP addresses were written on clothes pegs by the entrance. You take a peg on your way in, clip it to your ethernet cable, configure that IP statically!
    replies(1): >>42167227 #
    11. tossandthrow ◴[17 Nov 24 10:19 UTC] No.42163236{3}[source]▶
    Also 15 years ago?
    replies(1): >>42163476 #
    12. animal531 ◴[17 Nov 24 10:27 UTC] No.42163272[source]▶
    Oof. Back in the day friends and I would get together to LAN and the first few hours would just be fiddling with network cards, cables, terminators and software.

    There was always someone who would just be totally unable to connect with someone else.

    13. Symbiote ◴[17 Nov 24 11:15 UTC] No.42163476{4}[source]▶
    Yes.

    The idea was specified in 2005, and there's a related question about Windows using these addresses in 2011 [1]. I haven't tried to find older evidence.

    [1] https://superuser.com/questions/238625/why-is-windows-defaul...

    replies(1): >>42164663 #
    14. albertzeyer ◴[17 Nov 24 11:20 UTC] No.42163495[source]▶
    I remember the first time, we bought some 10BASE2 ethernet cards and BNC connector cables, and spend hours to figure out why it does not work, only then to learn the next day that we also need cable end terminators (if I remember that correctly). But then it worked and we had lots of fun.
    replies(1): >>42163668 #
    15. Moru ◴[17 Nov 24 11:50 UTC] No.42163668{3}[source]▶
    Yes, you need terminators for them :-)
    replies(1): >>42167994 #
    16. amichal ◴[17 Nov 24 15:28 UTC] No.42164663{5}[source]▶
    https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3927

    "Microsoft Windows 98 (and later) and Mac OS 8.5 (and later) already support this capability."

    And https://www.techrepublic.com/forums/discussions/win-98-fails...

    17. dividuum ◴[17 Nov 24 21:03 UTC] No.42167227{3}[source]▶
    Aka Peg-DHCP (RFC 2322) - https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2322.txt
    18. eps ◴[17 Nov 24 22:36 UTC] No.42167994{4}[source]▶
    ... unless you make it into a ring ... IIRC. It's been a while.
    replies(1): >>42168693 #
    19. Moru ◴[18 Nov 24 00:48 UTC] No.42168693{5}[source]▶
    The terminator creates a ring I think, so it should be possible to just connect end to end. But then you need to have more cables running around the place.

    No, I realy don't miss those times :-)

    20. WorldMaker ◴[18 Nov 24 16:51 UTC] No.42174227[source]▶
    I remember the parts of the 90s where the most reliable LAN party connections for the games we were playing were IPX/SPX or worse, as I recall, and they didn't really have automatic addresses at all, so trial and error configuration tweaking in DOS config files, DOS Game UIs, the Windows 3.11 UIs, and then Windows 95 UIs was way too much of the process.

    It is amazing to think how much IPv4 and IPv6 "just work" in comparison.

    replies(1): >>42174536 #
    21. kentonv ◴[18 Nov 24 17:17 UTC] No.42174536{3}[source]▶
    Oddly enough, my memory of IPX/SPX was that it "just worked" by default whereas when we switched to IP we started having to manually configure IP addresses and make sure no one chose the same address.

    That said my first LAN party was 1996 and we were running Windows 95 by that point, which probably helped.