Re:Malfunctional card (Score 0)

make a card that detects when another player on the LAN is broadcasting and make a deliberate "collision" so that the data packet needs to be resent thus creating more lag.

First of all, ethernet collisions only occur when an ethernet NIC is operating in half-duplex. (Half-duplex is when all the NICs talk and receive on the same wires. Full-duplex is where the Ethernet is using seperate wires for sending and receiving.) Generally, the only time your NIC is operating in half-duplex is when you are directly plugged into a hub or repeater. (Or if you're still using coaxial ethernet, in which case I pity you.) If you're plugged into a switch, you're probably running in full duplex. The only time when your idea would work is if both you and your opponent are plugged into hubs, and there are no switches (or other OSI Layer 2+ devices between you and him).

Second, half-duplex ethernet works by listening on the line to make sure nobody else is sending. If the line is clear, the NIC will then send its frame. Collisions (should) only occur when there are two or more NICs listening on the line, waiting for it to clear. When the line clears, they all simultaniously transmit, and you get a collision. This design makes it difficult to deliberately collide with your enemy's first frame, since you can't predict when he's going to send it. Of course, you could listen to see when he's sending and trash the rest of his data stream. But you're going to cause collisions that are going to cause delays and latency for everyone on that network segment.

Finally, you don't need specialized hardware to accomplish something like this. You just need hacked NIC drivers.

-- GoldenWolf