xbix 360 wireless connectivity on the cheap

Zonkytonkman

So what are my options? There's a wireless router that my landlord haas that he gives me access to. I'd like to get my frag on back on live. What can I do? I've heard rumors of wireless bridges being cheaper and easier than the real xbox adapter, but i can't find any examples of such a product.

Also, i picked up some shitty 3rd party vga adapter for the ol xbox, am I sacrificing quality by not going first quality?

My monitor supports 13something by 768

Error

I ran into the same problem. I heard about the bridges but finding one in brick and mortar stores is impossible. I broke down and bought the microsoft adapter but thats going back, it doesn't support WPA2. What you can do, and what I'm going to be doing, is getting a second wireless router for cheaper than the cost of the wireless adapter, setting it up next to the 360 and running it as a wireless access point...effectively using it as a bridge.

RepoMan1023

Theoretically, any wireless access point connected to the 360 will allow it to connect to a wireless router. I have asked several times and no one has yet confirmed if you can use any security (WPA etc.) with the 360. Considering the official MS one doesn't support any, I think the answere will be "no." You can also hook it up to a laptop and bridge that wireless connection. That was the only way I found to connect to my parent's wireless connection without having to turn off their security features.

Error

I don't see why you couldn't set the bridge to wpa 2, as it's only acting as an access point. it's connecting to the 360 using the lan port and acting as a lan cable. The 360 isn't controlling the security, the router/bridge is.

meatflower

ANY wireless bridge will work. Once that cable comes out of the bridge, it's just a standard LAN connection. Don't fall for this "xbox 360 certified" crap. It's all bullocks.

Find one that does the security you want for the price you want and hook it up.

Zonkytonkman

meatflower wrote: »

ANY wireless bridge will work. Once that cable comes out of the bridge, it's just a standard LAN connection. Don't fall for this "xbox 360 certified" crap. It's all bullocks.

Find one that does the security you want for the price you want and hook it up.

could you point me at one? i think the router the have is standard wep

Qorzm

I am getting a 360 soon, and I was also wondering about this because the official ones we sell at GameStop are for 100 bucks, and I really don't think that's worth it.

How does the official one work anyways? Does it just plug into the system itself or what?

meatflower

Zonkytonkman wrote: »

could you point me at one? i think the router the have is standard wep

Well that depends on what flavor of WiFi you have. A/B/G/N? If you are still using B you might be able to find one cheaper, since that technology is now "antiquated" though still perfectly adequate.

Either way I'd look for a product from D-Link. I have one of their routers and wireless bridges and have found them to be a quite reliable brand with decent web interfaces. They may not be the best, but I've had much better experiences with them than Linksys which are quite popular.

http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=1&pid=333

That's the D-Link DWL-G820. As the model name implies, it works with 802.11G networks. They want $89.99 for it, I believe the official Xbox adapter retails for $100 so that's not much of an improvement but I'm sure you can find it cheaper if you look around.

Actually I just looked.
http://www.3gplaza.com/estore/control/Computer3G/productdetails?id=33271

There it is for $63.49. $5 shipping.

Probably the best you'll do, wireless bridges are ridculously expensive for what they do (the innards are quite similar to what you'd find in a wireless router and those are usually available in the <$50 range).

On another note, I recommended D-Link but you might want to go with something that is made by the manufacturer of your wireless router if you want less chance of any hiccups. I've found D-Link to behave quite well with other vendors though so it shouldn't be a problem.

Let me know if that works for you or if you need something else (different kind of wireless or manufacturer).

blanknogo

If you look hard enough, there are actually routers out there that can act as a wireless bridge. I actually use a GigaFast Wireless-G Broadband Router (WF719-CAPR) that I purchased from Best Buy Canada (on sale at the time for 20 dollars and regularly 50 or so, but it's often on sale) and set it up to act as a wireless bridge. This was the cheapest solution I could find. I strongly recommend this solution. It worked great for me and it sure saved me a bundle.

vonPoonBurGer

I would say the best solution to this is to buy a router that has open source firmware available for it. It's not for the faint of heart, or the technically disinclined, though. If you're game, check out their list of supported device, find the cheapest one (a LinkSys WRT54G can be had from NewEgg for $49.99), and replace the firmware. The open source firmware will let you run it as a bridge, plus do a ton of other stuff besides.

Zonkytonkman

RepoMan1023 wrote: »

Theoretically, any wireless access point connected to the 360 will allow it to connect to a wireless router. I have asked several times and no one has yet confirmed if you can use any security (WPA etc.) with the 360. Considering the official MS one doesn't support any, I think the answere will be "no." You can also hook it up to a laptop and bridge that wireless connection. That was the only way I found to connect to my parent's wireless connection without having to turn off their security features.

my pc is communicating with the router via a USB wireless connection, there's a free ethernet port, could i just buy a crossover cable? What then?

RepoMan1023

Zonkytonkman wrote: »

RepoMan1023 wrote: »

Theoretically, any wireless access point connected to the 360 will allow it to connect to a wireless router. I have asked several times and no one has yet confirmed if you can use any security (WPA etc.) with the 360. Considering the official MS one doesn't support any, I think the answere will be "no." You can also hook it up to a laptop and bridge that wireless connection. That was the only way I found to connect to my parent's wireless connection without having to turn off their security features.

my pc is communicating with the router via a USB wireless connection, there's a free ethernet port, could i just buy a crossover cable? What then?

Yes, then plug that into the 360. There are several ways you can get the connection to be shared. You can run the Network Connection Wizard and tell it that other computers will be connecting to the net through that one. Or you can go to the Network Connections window in the control panel and bridge the two connection. Select the wireless connection and the ethernet port and right click on it and select "add to bridge" or something like that. Then wait a bit for things to connect and there you go. You may have to run the 360 Live connection troubleshooter again to get things connected.

TheGreat2nd

Kinda off topic, but on topic as well.
I have a wireless B bridge for my 360, and when I try to stream transcoded video through TVersity, it stutters, audio or video or both.

Is this because my computer sucks at transcoding or because a B bridge is too small?

Mr_Grinch

I'd suggest B is WAY too slow for the bandwidth needed to transfer most video. Try moving the 360 nearer and hooking it up wired (just temporarily) and seeing how the streaming goes then. It'll at least eliminate the network from the equation.

Vincent Grayson

Qorzm wrote: »

I am getting a 360 soon, and I was also wondering about this because the official ones we sell at GameStop are for 100 bucks, and I really don't think that's worth it.

How does the official one work anyways? Does it just plug into the system itself or what?

The official one clips onto the back of the system, and plugs into the USB port back there....nothing else is required. I went with the official one and have had no problems from the 360 end of things.

Azio

Zonkytonkman wrote: »

Also, i picked up some shitty 3rd party vga adapter for the ol xbox, am I sacrificing quality by not going first quality?

Well, that depends. A third-party VGA cable could, in theory, be just as good or better than the official one, assuming it is well-constructed. I have a 360 VGA cable by MadCatz and the quality is horrendous, but only because the cord is extremely thin and poorly shielded, resulting in ghosting. As long as your cable is at least 1/4" thick all the way to the end, and the picture is not visibly shitty (ghost images, fuzzy text, low color saturation), you should be fine.

Azio

Zonkytonkman wrote: »

RepoMan1023 wrote: »

Theoretically, any wireless access point connected to the 360 will allow it to connect to a wireless router. I have asked several times and no one has yet confirmed if you can use any security (WPA etc.) with the 360. Considering the official MS one doesn't support any, I think the answere will be "no." You can also hook it up to a laptop and bridge that wireless connection. That was the only way I found to connect to my parent's wireless connection without having to turn off their security features.

my pc is communicating with the router via a USB wireless connection, there's a free ethernet port, could i just buy a crossover cable? What then?

Just use the "System Link" LAN cable that came with your 360. Plug one end into your 360 and the other into your PC's ethernet port. Go to Network Connections in the Windows control panel. Double-click the connection that corresponds to the ethernet port to enable it. Then right-click on your wireless connection, go to Advanced, and check the box to share it. You may need to use "Test Connection" on the 360 to get it in gear.