Will a 10 baseT be good?

[splatfreak]

I just got three NETGEAR EN116 16 Port 10 BaseT Ethernet Network Hubs,for a LAN party that I would like to have. The hubs only have 10 Mbps transfer rates.Will I run into problems with lag if I network 40 some users to play games?Will I need some kind of Gbps switch or bridge?

[sechs]

Depends upon the games.

10base-T is plenty of bandwidth for a large number of uses; few households have anywhere neat this throughput on their Internet connection.

You're more likely to run into issues due to the fact that you're using hubs rather than routers or switches.

[splatfreak]

Originally posted by sechs
Depends upon the games.

You're more likely to run into issues due to the fact that you're using hubs rather than routers or switches.

We will play Far cry,Battlefeild 2, and Counter Strike source.What kind of issues do you think I'll have?The hubs don't need software and I can just daisychain them.

[sechs]

Hubs share bandwidth to all ports. This is to say, 16 ports on a single hub will have 10 megabits to share between them. Also, one computer on one port can cause lag for all computers on the same hub.

Switches have a dedicated path to each port. If you had a 16-port 10base-T switch, then each computer on each port would have a full 10 megabits available to it. The uplink port will also have full bandwidth.

Neither switches nor routers need software and can be daisy-chained.

Chaining a number of hubs in series is not a good idea, as the number of computers sharing bandwidth increases as you move from one end of the chain to the other. You would be better off using a central router or switch, and maintaining a star configuration.

[splatfreak]

Ok thanks.I'll have to get a router or switch then.