Wireless setup

Hi

my son wants to get his xbox connected to xbox live. Our broadband connection is in a spare bedroom while the xbox is locate downstairs. I was going to setup a wireless network and purchase the microsoft xbox wireless card until i priced it( its 99 euro). This got me exploring other options.

My question is, does a wireless modem router need to be hardwired to the computer that will connect to the isp. My plan being to locate the router at the rear of the xbox and hardwire to the xbox. Then fit a wireless network card to my pc.

Hardwiring both is not an option (better half wont allow it)


Thanks for any help.

The wireless router needs to be wired to a computer to set it up and after that can be accesed wireless-ly. What the router does in effect is adopt the IP address that that your ISP assigned to your computer. Therefore as far as the ISP is concerned one machine with the assigned IP address is accessing the service, while you have 2/3+ computers running off the one connection.

Ensure the Xbox wire will fit in to a LAN port on the router i.e. no specialist fitting.

Thanks Itchy.

I think that my computer has a different ip address everytime it is connected to the internet. Does this mean that i would need to keep the connection permanently on?

Thanks

If the computer has a dynamic IP address then it simplifys a little bit. No you dont have to have it always on but , obviously, you cant access the web with it switched off.

Basically, the router connects to the web via the ISP with the settings that your computer has (now). Then the other devices connect to the router. All the instructions will be in the box.

Again just make sure you dont have to buy the Xbox router because of a special fitting.

Thanks Itchy.

Sorry, I'm not as familiar as i should be, with the terms you are using. I have just purchased the xbox live wireless adaptor and 3mths gold membership, for my son for xmas. Will this work ok with vodafone broadband?
do I actually need the adaptor, or would the vodafone plug directly into the xbox?

Muleo if you are talking about 3g broadband you might have problems! Aside from the issue of getting it physically connected, 3g broadband will likely give poor experience for gaming. In any case if you are using a usb modem it will not connect directly to x bmw without a special router.

thanks wexfordman! I'll give it a try anyway.......

The ethernet connector on the xbox is the standard RJ45 connector that you see on most twisted-pair ethernet. It will plug into the LAN ports on your router no problem.

muleo, if you have vodafone ADSL broadband over your home phone line -- only offered since mid-2008 -- it should work (aside from a minority of routers have problems with xbox, and I can't say for the Vodafone-supplied one). If you are talking about Vodafone's mobile broadband via that little compact USB modem they sell, no it will not work because a) it is a modem, not a router -- you would need a quite complicated (and expensive) setup using a separate computer as a router and bridge between your USB broadband connection and a wired/wireless network, b) even if you did that the latency on a mobile broadband connection is usually much too high for gaming -- I've measured it as being approx. a factor of 4-20 higher. Plus, mobile broadband throughput is dependent on where you are, how many other users are using it, and can be highly variable at different times even in a single location.

For someone with a normal wired router or the common wireless ones which also have 4 wired LAN ports, another option instead of buying a wireless adapter for the xbox is to buy a wired extender kit, which will let you run ethernet over the electrical wiring in your house. You have two devices which plug into electric wall sockets. One connects to your wired router in one room, the other to the xbox in another. In houses with not-so-good wiring it is possible to have noise on the electric wiring which interferes with this type of signal, but it should work for most people.