I have recently purchased an 8-port Encore ethernet switch that can be found here.

I am wondering how to set ThinkTanks up for an upcoming LAN party which will involve playing TT on 9 PC's using the switch. I tried plugging it all in at first but no go.

How do I go about doing this? Perhaps someone that set up the ThinkTanks convention could help?

The first thing I would look at is wether this switch is doing DHCP. Is it assigning addresses or will you be required to assign static IP's?

BC brought his switches to the convention but it was plug and play.

A switch is considered a "dumb" networking device
If there is a router with DHCP in the circuit, the router hands out IPs
If you dont have a router and you have all windows machinces then
you could let them auto assign the default addressing scheme
Which they will do if no router or DHCP server is on line
Or as Nappy said you could configure all machines with static IPs
If you decide to do this then make sure the Subnet mask is 255.255.0.0
The ip should be 192.168.#.#
Note: If you want to reach the internet you will need DHCP!!!
The way we did it at the convention was to setup the router and hook up one pc to it(as admin)
Then plug the switch in to the router - then all other pcs plug into the switch

Last edited: Wednesday, September 21, 2005 at 9:55:09 PM

Thank you all.

I will pass this on to my dad when he gets home.