What's a Lan Party? LAN stand for Local Area Network which pretty much means that it's a network of wires and cords right in a community so you can easily just plug up your system and play online games. But in truth, when you sit up a LAN party strictly for gaming, you can't really go online, but actually your on the networks line. It's a little tough to figure out but your get it.

One purpose these parties have become such a hit lately is cause of Halo's System Link capability's. Since the game never made it on LIVE, no one could really fight there friends while staying at home so what happen was they made there friends come over and play while they had a network set up in there house so it would feel as if your playing against them far away. All you would need is 2 tvs, 2 xboxs and 2 rooms and your set.

This method is the most widely used way on Halo and other good xbox games (see system link games). Most games today have a four-player screen that allows four people to play on one tv. Even though this is fun, the screen can get really tiny and it's hard to spot out other players. The solution is to hook-up two xboxs together using a cable so that 2 on each tv can play while having 4 players all together.

The cable is called a system link cable that you can buy at your local walmart for . It's actually a crossover cable that moves information back and forth between xbox's. A standard crossover cable can be used as well.

 To use it, just plug one end of the cable in the ethernet jack on the back left side of the xbox. It looks like an oversized telephone jack. And then do the same for the other side. Pop in both copys of the game (u must have 2 copies of the same game for this to work) and go to system link menu in the game to begin. Cheers

4 System Hook-up

I recently just got into this method and it is the best idea for gaming to date, only besides LIVE. All of this surrounds a little box called a Network Hub. It has either 2, 4, 5, 8 16, 32, or a monster 50 ethernet jacks in the back. This allows you too hook up as many xboxs to this network using the correct cables and video games.

One good reason why this is the best route to take is that it's very reliable to use and has potential in the future. *think halo 2*. There are many kinds of networks out there but the best I've seen (and bought) is the SysLink hub. These things are everywhere and can sell for reasonable prices depending on how many ethernet jacks on in it. I bought it (with the help of Nathaniel Reeder) at my local radioshack for 30 smackers. Not to bad when it includes 5 jacks of play.

It's also a switch which is the best cause it free's up memory to every jack of use so that the bandwidth is steady and stable for each xbox. A hub would not do this but it has a dedicated bandwidth for every jack thus making realiability an issue. You can still use a hub but it's not the best money can buy. Another thing you'll need is cables. Instead of using crossover cables for 2 systems, you won't be transferring data back and forth between two xboxs. So you'll need a patch cable. A regular CAT5e cable will work only so make sure that it's a CAT5e and patch all in one.

Once done, hook up each xbox with the cable (read above in 2 system link if not sure) in ethernet jack then the other end in the network hub. Do this to as many xbox's you want to link up and then start the games! It's that easy