Xbox Wireless

GWC Community GWC Hive Mind
#1

Ok, so I have begun my research in preparation for the arrival of my Xbox 360 when I stumbled across the little fact that the frakking thing doesn’t have wireless built in. Adding insult to injury the little Microsoft wireless adapter costs $100 dollars.

Seriously. What the frak.

I have seen a couple do-it-yourself solutions of taking wireless routers and converting them, or plugging directly into laptops and sharing the connection. What do people here do? Pony up for the wireless? Design their own solution?

#2

You have a couple of realistic options here:

[ol]
[li]Just wire it. This is by far the best option because a) you won’t have to enter your network key with a controller, b) it won’t ever cause issues during online play, and c) it’ll work far better when you start streaming multimedia from your computer to the TV via 360. (Plus, if you live in a house with a basement, you can easily pull the wire.) This, BTW, is what I did.[/li][li]Buy the unit. Seriously, you’re going to have less problems with this then you will others. It’s designed to work with the 360, and it’s about as painless as 360 wireless can be.[/li][li]Buy a wireless network bridge. This used to be the solution before the 360. It essentially connects to your wireless network and gives you a jack you can connect to your console or a hub or switch. It’ll likely work, but you’ll spend more time configuring it than you will the 360 wireless, and you may need to tweak settings to get it right. I had one for a printer a number of years ago, and it was finnicky. That said, they’ve probably gotten better (and cheaper) over the years.[/li][/ol]
Hacking together some kind of temporary solution isn’t going to cut it. You fire up your console to relax, not to play “network support.”

FWIW, the no-built-in-wireless isn’t an insult. Mine’s wired, so why would I want to pay extra to have wireless capability that I don’t need? And $100 isn’t really injury for this. It’s a specialized piece of equipment that makes life easier.

BTW, it’s available almost everywhere for far under $100. Amazon lists it for $77 and you can find 'em used at GameStop and the like cheap, too. :slight_smile:

#3

Thanks man, that makes sense. I only need 30 feet of Cat6 and a window of time when the wife isn’t around so I can drill another hole in the floor. :smiley:

#4

Wish you lived closer. I have at least 500 feet of Cat5 in a box around here left over from when I wired the house. :slight_smile:

#5

I am pleasantly surprised to find the price of cable has dropped significantly. However I think I need to bite the bullet and buy a box of network heads and a crimper. I haven’t had to make network cables since my first job and slightly dread it as a stupidly painful process. I do know that not going this route will require me drilling a much larger hole in the floor, so I think it is a fait acompli.

#6

You must do it to keep your Geek Street Cred! :smiley:

#7

I can’t guarantee it will work when entering the network key, but when I was signing up for XBox live and entering names of charachters I just plugged in a regular USB keyboard and it worked no problem. I hate using a controller to enter in text. Now if only it would support the use of a mouse and keyboard for FPSs :smiley:

I have mine wired directly to the router. But unfortuantly my internet connection isn’t great so I imagine it won’t be great for online gaming.

#8

Wow, great tip on the keyboard! I am sure that will come in very handy! :smiley:

#9

I wired mine, Solai. It’s a small hole (what, 5/16 inch drill bit? Easily filled with a dab of plastic wood if you decide to move things around,) if you run the wire first and then put the end on once it’s through the floor. BTW, if you’re installing near a Sat. DVR box that you’ve already wired for internet, that box may have a second linked port you can just connect to the XBox with a short cable, with no drilling required.

#10

So I drilled the hole, ran the cable, chopped the end off and snaked it through. Sat down, rewired the connection, tested it and…

…nothing. Dead. After shouting a bit I slowly realized it appears that the RJ-45 connectors I purchased appear to be defective. They are really difficult to plug into normal network ports, including my network cable connector.

Slightly morose I sat down to play when I had an epiphany. I grabbed a laptop, shared the network connection and plugged the Xbox 360 into it. Voila! Success! At least, short term success, but success none the less! MightyPoohbah is in the house! I have a fresh pack of connectors, perhaps tonight I will finally put this whole thing to bed.

Thank you everyone for your help.

#11

I’m a little late to this, but here’s the best tutorial I found on configuring a router to work in client bridge mode:

http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/3639271

Sounds like you’re close with a wired solution and have a temporary one working with your laptop. I’d recommend the wireless solution if the router you already have can run dd-wrt firmware (www.dd-wrt.com), then you can pick up another dd-wrt compatible one for relatively cheap, less than half the Xbox360 wireless adapter.