Easiest/Cheapest way to wirelessly network my 360?

[UglyCasanova]

$99 for the Microsoft wireless adapter seems absurd. What is a good cheaper alternative that would be fast enough for me to play games. My xbox is maybe like 30 feet from where the wireless router would be, but that is a really rough guess.

I have my old Apple airport router, but I have no idea what frequency (or whatever you call it) it is, not even if I will be able to find it. So in this case I will probably need to purchase a router as well as whatever I will need to hook the xbox up to.

Thanks a bunch.

 

[HaxorNubcake]

I've used my laptop before. You can just bridge the wireless and wired connections and then plug your xbox into your laptop

 

[UglyCasanova]

I have no laptop.

 

[Tom]

a 50 ft cat5 cable is only about $6.

btw, there are SD memory cards with built in wireless, pretty lame the 360 doesn't have it.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Wife for sure wouldn't let me run cable across the house. Yeah, not including wireless in the 360 is pretty stupid.

I did find my Airport Extreme base station deal. Been outside for a couple of years so no clue if it even works. I looked up online and it is 802.11g, so is this fast enough?

 

[Spoooon]

a 50 ft cat5 cable is only about $6.

btw, there are SD memory cards with built in wireless, pretty lame the 360 doesn't have it.

This is what I did. Wife doesn't like it, but I only hook it up when I'm on the 360.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Wife for sure wouldn't let me run cable across the house. Yeah, not including wireless in the 360 is pretty stupid.

I did find my Airport Extreme base station deal. Been outside for a couple of years so no clue if it even works. I looked up online and it is 802.11g, so is this fast enough?

Damn women always ruining things.

 

[Kromis]

Damn women always ruining things.

:awe:

 

[smackababy]

If you want to void your warranty, you can open the Xbox and attach a USB wireless device to the motherboard.

I am not sure if unofficial devices are supported though.

 

[mugs]

Wife for sure wouldn't let me run cable across the house. Yeah, not including wireless in the 360 is pretty stupid.

Not including wireless wasn't stupid, prohibiting third-party wireless adapters was.

 

[herkulease]

your airport base station will work fine assuming you can use as a bridge.

 

[Xellos2099]

Buy a cheap router and ddwrt it.

 

[Sahakiel]

802.11g is definitely not enough bandwidth for HD streaming. Otherwise, it'll work, though somewhat slow in general. (I'm spoiled on gigabit, might be biased)
If your airport extreme is functional and supports bridging, that'll work. Otherwise, the cheapest method I know is to buy a low end Asus or Buffalo router (usually runs $20-30) and flash to DD-WRT or Tomato.

Another option if your house runs carpet throughout is to lift up the edge and shove an ethernet cable down there.

I've also heard of people using powerline adapters.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Buy a cheap router and ddwrt it.

Yep. I got in on the T-mobile deal last year and got 2. One as my main router and one to use as a bridge for the Xbox. Works great. Just check the list of routers supported for DDWRT and find a cheap one at Newegg/etc.

 

[UglyCasanova]

your airport base station will work fine assuming you can use as a bridge.

So I would need it plus another router? I don't understand, my computer skills are a bit rusty. I might just break down and buy the freaking adapter. If my airport router works then I can just hook that up and plug the adapter in and I should be good to go?

And someone else something about HD streaming. This is something that I've never thought of, but is this possible through the xbox? I do have some movies (some hd, some not) on my computer, and if I could play it through on the tv wirelessly that would be phenomenal. You said the g wouldn't be fast enough, could the n handle it? I don't want to buy a home theater pc, so if this gets too pricey then oh well.

 

[Queasy]

And someone else something about HD streaming. This is something that I've never thought of, but is this possible through the xbox? I do have some movies (some hd, some not) on my computer, and if I could play it through on the tv wirelessly that would be phenomenal. You said the g wouldn't be fast enough, could the n handle it? I don't want to buy a home theater pc, so if this gets too pricey then oh well.

You would need N to stream HD reliably. G can do it but only if the connection is of really high quality with little interference.

I've got a G Xbox adapter and wireless router and it works fine for Netflix HD Instant Streaming. Trying to stream HD movies from my PC though gets iffy at times.

 

[UglyCasanova]

You would need N to stream HD reliably. G can do it but only if the connection is of really high quality with little interference.

I've got a G Xbox adapter and wireless router and it works fine for Netflix HD Instant Streaming. Trying to stream HD movies from my PC though gets iffy at times.

It is a feature though? If I have some avi files or whatnot on my computer I can stream them to the xbox and thus play them on my tv? What program do I use to do this?

 

[Queasy]

It is a feature though? If I have some avi files or whatnot on my computer I can stream them to the xbox and thus play them on my tv? What program do I use to do this?

You'll need codecs like ffdshow or cccp installed on your PC and your videos will have to be encoded in xvid, divx, or vc-1 (wmv).

If you have Windows 7, you can use media center to support almost any codec (including mkv) but it is still touchy on getting them to work correctly 100% of the time.

 

[DarkThinker]

Easy fix, get a cheap router that has the capability to turn itself into a Wireless Ethernet bridge. WET

I don't know which routers by brand and model have this feature and which don't. However, I know for sure Linksys WRT routers (almost all of them) once third party firmware is installed, end up having WET capability. Mine has HyperWRT and it sure has WET capability.

Grab yourself a used WRT on Ebay or somehting and install the HyperWRT thibor firmware on it and you should be set. And with the rest of the ports being free, you can use them to hookup a PC or what have you when you need to.

Or alternatively, a cheaper solution would be to buy a Wireless Ethernet Bridge. I am finding them on Ebay for less than $20 shipped, it can't get better than that.

Or you can buy a powerline ethernet bridge. I like this solution the most BTW, as long as everything in your house is on the same box you should be good. I have used this before to avoid having ethernet cable all over the house and it worked great, especially if all you need to do is to get internet access. Great deals on Ebay on those too.

 

[Ayrahvon]

Pick up an AP if you already have a wireless router. The main reason for the 360's wireless expense is because it requires an access point and not just a wireless card.

This is the one I've been using for a year http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...odlist=froogle

Another popular one at a decent price... http://www.provantage.com/asus-wl-330ge~7ASU9035.htm

These will require some configuration on your computer first, but once you have it set up your 360 will act like it's plugged right into your router.

 

[Justinmac]

You can use a normal Wireless Access Point. This is sort of like a ethernet switch with an antenna on it. The access point communicates with your router using wifi, while allowing you to connect PCs, laptops, game consoles, etc. to it with normal ethernet.

They're about $60-80 though... Not quite as bad as the $100 360 adapter, and as a bonus, the access point can handle multiple devices simultaneously, as opposed to the 360's adpater which only works with the 360.