Streaming disc images

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Gawd
Joined
May 3, 2003
Messages
545
For our next LAN party, my mother (yes, you read that correctly) had a really good idea which I've since implemented, but only on a small scale.

Basically, we've used Alcohol 120% to image all the discs we need to run games onto the file server. We also have a primitive database of CD keys. People can mount the images off the server, and use them to install and play, while marking in the database that their CD key is in use.

Everything is running at 100MBps. The server has two 100MBps NICs, and even though my game box has gigabit, everyone else's won't when we go to the party.

We've tested it with Quake 3 and Raven Shield, with two computers (mine and my brothers, his is only 100MBps) mounting the same image off the server at the same time. They run pretty well with just two machines, but there's going to be 8-10 people at the LAN party.

Server is a 1.6GHz Pentium 4, 768MB RAM, and like I said two 100MBps NICs. It runs Windows XP Pro.

Also, do I need to create some kind of link ("duplex") between the server's two cards to make them run faster? How would one do this in XP Pro?
 
Im not trying to be mean here, but based on most EULA's, this would probably be condidered illegal. Now, as for networking, to achive FULL duplex, you need a switch. As for getting the nic's to work together, you should be able to bridge them in the network connection settings, select both of them and tell it to make a bridge, this might help out with network speed.
 
Well, for most of the games, they are older and so I was able to get several copies at a reasonably price. I only have two copies of Raven Shield and one of Halo, so I should really get more.

I have a switch. Both NICs are connected to a 16-port.

I will try bridging the connections, although doesn't that relay the data from one to the other (to form a makeshift wireless access point, etc)
 
One is on-board 3com, one is PCI Accton 10/100. I just found another one, it's a 3com PCI.

It occurs to me that my school used to stream Microsoft Encarta images off a server on 10mb Ethernet. If I remember correctly, they weren't even images, they were actually sharing the physical disk out of a 2x CD-Rom. That got really slow after about 10 people started using it.

I guess it depends on the game and whether it actually uses anything off the disc or just checks that the disc is there because it has all the shit saved on the HD anyway.
 
If you could pick up some flavour of the Intel Pro/100 series you should be able to use Advanced Networking Services to team with a 3Com. The Intel software is the most flexible of the vendor offerings I've seen, you would still need a fairly high-end switch to use the more advanced teaming methods though. I think 3Com's port trunking only works with specific switches. Broadcom has BASP and BACS.
 
what you're thinking of is port trunking. You'll need a high end managed switch as best buy crap won't do it. I don't know if this is the best way to do it but here's my idea.

you'll have to have everyone use static IP's (all lan parties should/do do this anyway). Then setup two different networks on the nics. 192.168.1.0 and 192.168.2.0 etc. That way, half will access the images on one nic and the other will access the images on the other nic. This way the only limiting factor in speed is your hard drive(s). Most CD's aren't used that much during gameplay but your network will hammered during installation (assuming everyone installs at the same time).
 
I had considered two completely seperate networks, but remember that people need to be able to play together as well. I supposed I could have the server bridge them.

I really don't like Static IPs because that really means that I, the host, spend more time keeping track of IPs. As it is I have a DHCP server.

As far as hard drive speed being the limiting factor - I just threw another 256mb stick in the server, let it cache more junk. Also, would a RAID array help? I just got about four 20gbs off a friend, and I'm thinking if I did software RAID striping I could increase the efficiency.

I also have a copy of Windows 2000 Server, right now the server runs XP Pro SP1.
 
If I were you I think i'd just give it a shot and see how it works... I don't see any point in messing with software raid and bumping down to Windows 2k.

It sounds like an interesting system you worked out, and it sounds like the most legit way i've heard of distrubting the stuff, good plans.

Give it a try with what you have now and let us know how you made out. I bet it'll work pretty sweet. :)
 
I would hope so.

Another idea I had was to continue using the DHCP and dynamic IPs, and then take down the IP of the two NICs, and instead of connecting to the server through "My Network Places" like most people will want to, I can use "Map Network Drive...", have half the people use one IP and half the people use the other. My switch is a cheapy Unmanaged, so I don't think any of the high-end duplexing//port trunking stuff is going to happen.
 
that sounds like it could work as well. Let us know how this works because the disk image thing is a great idea.
 
Yoblad said:
that sounds like it could work as well. Let us know how this works because the disk image thing is a great idea.
Click to expand...

Yeah, mad props to my mom for thinking of it.

Thanks for all the great ideas, guys.

Now I need a CD key database that allows people to easily mark which CD key they're using. But that's another question for another place.
 
You could always try Nic Express, it will do NIC load balancing with multiple NICs, even if they're different models, and from different manufacturers. It always worked well for me.

NIC Express
 
I would second the vote on nic express that is what I have one of my fileservers running right now and it works wonderfully... and I am using a linksys router and 2 generic nics from wal-mart..... :rolleyes:
 
This little project seems to be a slick way to meet the needs of yoru users, and appears to be an amicable solution in regards to copyright. I'll have to keep this one in mind next time I have a LAN party.


<disclaimer>
Oh, and Xipher, from a legal standpoint breaking an EULA != illegal, regardless of the propaganda spewed out by the media (who are not a neutral party when it comes to copyrighted material). However, as fundamentally skewed as it seems, the DMCA does provide them a loophole that can bite you in the ass if you're not careful. This is usually where the misconception you've fallen prey to stems from.
</disclaimer>
 
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