1. Update your operating system.

2. Make sure your drivers are up-to-date. Do not do this at the last minute, do it several days ahead of the LAN. It is very important that you test them out thoroughly before deciding to use them: new drivers can often end up causing problems, so always be ready to rollback to the previous versions.

3. Next, make sure you’ve installed and updated all the games you might want to be playing and you’ve made sure they work. There will be patches for most big games available from our fileservers, but doing this ahead of time gives you more play-time at the LAN. We will be posting all games, versions and patch lists prior to the LAN.

4. Once all of your software is up-to-date and you’ve restarted your PC to ensure their activation, check for viruses, trojans, worms and spyware.

5. Clean out your temp files, cache and recycle bin as well as clean out any unnecessary files from your hard drive. There’s nothing worse than running out of virtual memory in the middle of a match.

6. Defrag your computer even if Windows says you don’t need to.

7. Disable any unnecessary programmes you have set to run on start-up such as Messenger programmes, Skype, etc.

8. Turn off File Share for any files and folders you don’t want being accessed by others on the network.

9. Check all of your cords and hardware to make sure everything is running well.

10. If possible, label everything that is yours, even if it’s on the underside of your system.

11. Clean the dust bunnies out of your computer and off your fans. They are not related to the Duracell Rabbit, they won’t make your system run faster.

12. Make sure you have all cd’s, discs, validation keys, etc. you might need at the LAN.

13. If you use a wireless keyboard and mouse, make sure your batteries are charged, you have your charger and spare batteries. (Note, you could have wireless frequency conflicts with other wireless peripherals, so corded mouse and keyboard might be a better choice.)

14. Take your time packing everything up for the LAN. Double-check to make sure you have absolutely everything, including some twist-ties or cableminders to keep your cords in order.

15. Do not forget your tower’s power cord. Or any other cables and cords. Especially your CAT5 cable.