Network bridging and me and some pain

Iriah

I've got a Local Area Connection between my 360 and my PC trapped in a network bridge, only there's no network bridge icon to delete and there's no second connection that it's supposed to be bridging to. Right clicking gives me option of bridging the connection.

short backstory

I decided that I didn't want my Moderate NAT on the 360 and that I wanted Open. To do that I found I'd need to bridge the connections rather than use ICS. Incidentally, my network is shaped like this:

Internet -> Internet Gateway -> PC -> Wireless Router -> Network Adapter -> My PC -> Ethernet Cable -> 360

It's convoluted and frequently headache inducing and the only positive is that it occasionally works, and not very well, but it's the best solution I've got.

Anyway, I tried bridging the connections and that disabled my adapter. Ok, I said, I'll unbridge them. And then the adapter wouldn't connect to the internet anymore, although it could get 36mbps from the wireless network.

Ok, I said, I'll update my drivers. The adapter then refused to reinstall.

FUCK, I said.

Eventually it decided that it wanted to install. Yaaaay!

Then, because I'm an idiot and never happy, I tried bridging them again.

This time, the screen said "Please wait while the network forms a bridge" or whatever but for a long long long time so eventually I killed the process and started a new explorer.exe. Then they were in a bridge. But the 360 didn't get a connection of any sort. Then I killed the bridge. Then my PC crashed.

To cut a long, confused, misremembered story short from there I now have my LAN stuck in the bridge and wireless connection outside and working after I prematurely killed the bridge from devmgmt.exe.

I don't know what the fuck to do.

I don't know what the fuck to do. If there is a way to bridge the connections that would be cool but to be honest I just don't care and I'd be happy to have ICS again, only I can't because the fucking LAN's bridged.

Any computer wizards got some spare time on their hands?


Edit: And now the ICS option has disappeared

MKR

I guess my first question is "Wait, what?".

Internet -> Internet Gateway -> PC -> Wireless Router -> Network Adapter -> My PC -> Ethernet Cable -> 360

I'm assuming the wireless router is a fancy broadband router, so why not set it up like this:

ISP -> broadband router -> everything


Your current setup looks like something out of a horror movie, and I don't quite understand why it would be like that for a home LAN setup.

If you want your 360 to be wide open, just add it to the DMZ (should be in your router's config page). You won't get any security out of it, but as long as no LAN-aware 360 worms show up you should be fine.

Iriah

I'm not entirely sure how the internet comes through from the PC upstairs, but it does. I'm sure I'm mixing up parts 2-4 there.

If you want your 360 to be wide open, just add it to the DMZ (should be in your router's config page). You won't get any security out of it, but as long as no LAN-aware 360 worms show up you should be fine.

The router is not on this PC. I get the internet from it from the PCI network adapter on this PC. The router wouldn't be able to find the 360.

It's times like these I'm tempted to drop how ever much it is for a 360 wireless adapter.

MKR

Iriah wrote: »

I'm not entirely sure how the internet comes through from the PC upstairs, but it does. I'm sure I'm mixing up parts 2-4 there.

If you want your 360 to be wide open, just add it to the DMZ (should be in your router's config page). You won't get any security out of it, but as long as no LAN-aware 360 worms show up you should be fine.

The router is not on this PC. I get the internet from it from the PCI network adapter on this PC. The router wouldn't be able to find the 360.

It's times like these I'm tempted to drop how ever much it is for a 360 wireless adapter.

"Wireless router" and not knowing how things move about your network is a bad combination. It might be a good idea to figure out how it's put together first, because right now your wireless router might be wide open, making it a target for wardrivers.

Iriah

For clarification;

what I've ended up with is this:



I'm wondering what the hell do I do with that LAN connection...



What I want to end up with is this:




Edit: Alright I'm off to bed for a few hours. Thanks for helping MKR. More would be appreciated!

MKR

I guess I'm not sure what you're trying to do. Are you trying to connect your 360 directly to your PC? I'm not sure if the 360 is even capable of using a crossover cable (or what it would do with one), but that's what you would need. Crossover cables are a normal cable, but with one end reversed (if I remember correctly - haven't made one in a while). It's an uncommon thing (usually used to set up a high-end router) so you probably won't find one in an electronics store.

If you're trying to share the connection (which I think is what you're trying to do), you would need to hook the 360 and PC up on the same router, set up ICS on the PC, and have the 360 use the PC as its gateway. I don't know anything about the 360's networking, so you might have to wait for someone who uses a 360 to tell you how to do it.

Iriah

MKR wrote: »

If you're trying to share the connection (which I think is what you're trying to do), you would need to hook the 360 and PC up on the same router, set up ICS on the PC, and have the 360 use the PC as its gateway.

That was my original connection. Then I decided I want bridging instead. Unfortunately it didn't work and it's left me in the current predicament, where the 360 is trapped in the network bridge all by itself and ICS not being an option.