On Sat, 29 Oct 2005 05:53:40 GMT, "paranoid" <none@noneya.com> wrote:
>My son is going to set up an area in the basement for LAN parties...I
>haven't figured out what I am going to do yet, but was wondering if there is
>a way to do this wirelessly...
>
>His LAN parties, although they probably want internet, mainly are for
>playing games against each other...but I do need to somehow get an internet
>wire into the switch they are going to be using...
>
>A few years ago I bought a wireless into Ethernet adapter. I did have some
>problems with it ( it was for a client).... and I don't think I could run
>that into a switch? or could I? and do they still make these?
>
>What would you do? Is there a way to setup another router to accept wireless
>as the WAN, and then act as a router serving up the internet from the
>wireless?
That's a wireless bridge. Some clue as to the manufacturer and model
number would be a big help.
However, I don't think he'll be happy with any type of wireless
arrangement for gameing. I helped setup a similar arrangement for the
local game freaks. It was all wired using common 100baseTX switches.
Upon arrival, everyone complained about the "slow" switch and the
effect is was having on latency, as if a few microseconds would make a
difference in a reaction time type of game. Most of the gamers had
gigabit ethernet cards installed. So, someone found two new Linksys 8
port gigabit ethernet switches and the festivities proceeded with
minimal complaining[1].
I haven't tried exactly this, but if I planted the same number of
wireless computers in the same confined area, there would be so much
mutual RF interference that the packet loss would be horrible. It
might be made to work with perhaps 3 wireless devices, but not with
the dozen kids we had to deal with. Game servers also use quite a bit
of broadcast traffic which tends to really slow down wireless networks
where such traffic must be individually sent to each user. Also, to
reduce latency, the system might be setup as an ad-hoc game network,
where everyone talks to everyone else directly, and not with a central
access point. I don't know if your unspecified wireless bridge would
work in such an ad-hoc arrangement. Connecting an ad-hoc network to
the internet might require ICS or some similar derrangement.
Incidentally, if this is a typical gamers party, be prepared to have
all your ethernet and USB cables walk away after the festivities.
Also, be sure to stock a few spare keyboards as they tend to attract
drinks and food.
[1] One kid insisted that he use his shielded CAT5 cable to insure
that none of the others would "interfere" with is data traffic. Sigh.
--
Jeff Liebermann
jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D
http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060
http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
wireless into wire 
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