Desert Station: The Portable LAN Party Crate

One day, I had a need. I found something on eBay that I needed an excuse to purchase.

That thing is a military rackmount equipment case. Large enough to hold servers, these cases can be found for quite reasonable prices. But what to do with such a case?

Enter Desert Station.

The name, coined long ago in a story which has attained mythical status, adorns the case and embodies its core mission - provide a full LAN party experience in a quick to transport, setup, and tear down format.

LAN parties are always difficult to organize computational power for. Who runs servers for what games? How are people getting files? Who brought the network switch? This project aims to solve most common issues I’ve run into over the years, though tripping on cables will remain unsolved in order to properly capture the essence of a LAN party.

The case is simple enough. Opening the front and the back reveals a network switch and a server. The server contains virtual machines and network routing such that it can provide games, voice communication, and a way to transfer things like mods and updates back and forth between attendees.

The core goals I have with this project:

• A drop dead simple to use setup
  • This means that anybody, with instruction provided by a laminated single sided sheet, should be able to get a LAN party well underway.
• Add mystique
  • What’s the point of having this locking flight case with all sorts of equipment inside it without also building a mythos around it. Adding patches/badges is encouraged for each LAN party.

Future goals include:

• Shipping the damn thing. Find some appropriate locks to place on the clasps and slap a label on it. Basically “air drop” it to a remote LAN party and show up independently. Then just ship it back after.

This series will dive into the hardware assembly (including some minor Dremel work) and the basic software setup which powers the crate, concluding with its first operational mission.