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LAN Party

Playing games locally in a network requires some preparation and some tools help get organized. Here are some notes I made on the topic :)

Preparing:

  • Make a list of all games that will be played and make sure all have downloaded, updated and started the game atleast once prior to the LAN party (see games for example)
  • Send a list of things to think about e.g. Equipment, Snaks, Sleeping bag
  • Make sure everyone is clear on when it starts and ends and where to show up
  • Make sure everyone helps setup and clean up

Gamers Equipment

  • Power supply
  • Headphones
  • Mouse
  • Keyboard
  • Screen
  • PC
  • Cables for PC

Gamers Equipment

  • Snacks and drinks
  • Sleeping bag

On Site:

  • Use power from different rooms and check for enough poweradapters
  • Check for enough chairs and tables
  • The LAN cables are long enough and you have enough free LAN ports

Scan and Test Network

Have a look if you can see everyone in the LAN:

  • You can scan the network to see who else is already visible: nmap -sC -sV 192.168.178.0/24
  • And/Or run a simple ARP command to see who you already see: arp -a
  • Test a connection to a given IP e.g.: Test-NetConnection -ComputerName 192.168.178.41 -InformationLevel "Detailed" (optionally add a port e.g. "-Port 3389")

Games

A list of games that are free and fun:

Game Notes
Trackmania Host requires standard membership and maps
CS GO
Blobby Volleyball Setup a tournament and distribute the zipped game prior
Rocket League
StarCraft II
Warzone 2100
armagetronad
xonotic
Minetest
The Battle for Wesnoth
SuperTuxKart Racing game simular to Mario Cart
Tee Worlds 2D Jump and Run Shooter

Modern games that work well in LAN

  • Age of Empires II Definitive Edition

Nice old games

  • Quake III Arena
  • Counterstrike 1.6
  • Unreal Tournament
  • Warcraft III

Share Files

Easiest way to share files ist by ziping whatever you want to share first.

You can run a simple webserver using python: python -m http.server 8080

Windows Firewall

Check your inbound rules and possibly add a rule/remove a restricition:

Get-NetFirewallRule | Where { $_.Enabled -eq 'True' -and $_.Direction -eq 'Inbound' } | Select-Object DisplayName, Direction, Action, Profile | FT

Alternativly, add firewall rules to allow all local traffic (same subnet):

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Allow LAN Party OUT" -Direction Outbound -LocalPort 1-10000 -Protocol TCP -RemoteAddress LocalSubnet -Action Allow
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Allow LAN Party IN" -Direction Inbound -LocalPort 1-10000 -Protocol TCP -RemoteAddress LocalSubnet -Action Allow

Remove the rules from above:

Remove-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Allow LAN Party OUT"
Remove-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Allow LAN Party IN"

Or, if nothing helps, disable the Firewall for your current profile during the LAN event: netsh advfirewall set currentprofile state off

You can reset your firewall settings as follows. Windows will then ask you whenever you start an application what to do with this currently blocked application.

(New-Object -ComObject HNetCfg.FwPolicy2).RestoreLocalFirewallDefaults()

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