Windows XP in a lan party?

[Janetsky]

During the holidays we're having a lan party with some friends. I'm not going to haul my desktop over there, so my only option is to take my old windows xp laptop to the party. I've taken all the necessary steps to make it safe (limited user account, no flash, no java). My question is, would it compromise the safety of the others, having a windows xp machine hooked to the local area network? I also have linux mint installed, but getting multiplayer games to work on it would be a pain in the arse.

[_I_]

itll be fine
may need to do some tricks to make it see the windows 7+ pcs

[Bad 💀 Motha]

The trick is, on Vista/7/8 machines; disable HomeGroup on those PCs; this resorts back to "Simple Networking" methods. And XP supports IPv6 with all the later updates it had after SP2.

To do this easily with Vista/7/8 machines u don't want to go changing settings all around, simply to go Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center. There u should see "basic network info"; under active Networks, change Home to Work. Use of Work as a place will turn off HomeGroup until switched back to Home location.

With HomeGroup of any kind disabled now, reboot. WinXP and Vista/7/8 machines systems should all be able to see each other fine via Windows Explorer > Network

If that alone doesn't do it, check the Network Sharing options on all systems.
For example, Vista/7/8 machines support 128-bit file sharing; u may need to drop this down to the lower 56 bit setting in Network Sharing Settings in order to work and allow XP system to see Vista/7/8 machines.

[Janetsky]

Thanks for the quick replies! You've been really helpful! We're mostly going to play xp or pre-xp era games, like Warcraft 3, because of the tons of mods it has.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Yea games pretty much stopped being Local LAN after around Win2k/XP came around I suppose. But yea whatever u doing under Win2000/XP Network setup; u should be able to do with newer OS too.

However if you need to do any NetBIOS/DOS based networking; even XP might have troubles there. Something alot of older DOS/Win95/98 games required for LAN.

[_I_]

xp can support netbios and ipx good enough, just need to add the ipx protocol and give it a unique ipx address

7 does not support ipx at all
you need to use a wrapper for support
http://www.solemnwarning.net/ipxwrapper/

[Janetsky]

Ipx? You'd have to go very far back to find a game that didn't support tcp/ip. Ah, the null modem cable, now that was legendary. Still remember the first time I played c&c with a friend. You never forget the first time.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

IPX/NetBEUI
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/easy-install-guide-for-netbeui-and-ipx-in-windows-xp-pro/