XBOX connected through a PC?

[DeeKnow]

Our XBOX is in the study, where the family desktop accesses the web over 802.11B.
I cannot run a cable from the SMC router (which is 2 rooms down).
So I want to have the XBOX connect to the net via the PC (which is powered on most times anyway, no issues there)

The Windows 2000 PC can access the net without any problems over wifi and all applications work flawlessly. The PC has an ethernet NIC, which has also been tested to work perfectly.

I have tried sharing the internet connection, but gave up after a frustrating 2 hours. I guess ICS is just half-baked MS crap...

Is there a good open source / freeware solution to having the ethernet NIC traffic routed to the wifi NIC?

my router is set to x.y.z.11, and the wifi NIC on the PC is set to x.y.z.13. I have the PC ethernet port set to x.y.z.20 and the xbox to x.y.z.21. I cannot quite figure out what the gateway should be for the xbox and the ethernet NIC on the PC...? can anyone point out a good explanation of how this should work...? I have already read through the official xbox site and googled a few dozen help sites, but am still confused...

 

[OvErHeAtInG]

First of all, the PC in the study and the xbox should both be attached to a hub (or switch). Is this how you have it set up? You could probably plug the Xbox directly into the PC's nic but you would need to do this with a crossover cable, not a regular ehternet cable.

Secondly, you are basically going to make the PC into a router. So for the xbox teh default gateway is the IP of the PC's NIC. For the PC the default gateway is the SMC router like normal. You do have to explicitly define routing on the PC between the two network interfaces. Make sure you subnet properly. I hav eot run I'll post back later.

 

[DeeKnow]

the cable between the PC and the xbox is a crossover cable, and the xbox does report detecting a connection when i ask it to test the connection...

i kinda figured that the pc will have to route ip packets between the two nic's, but how do i define this...??

 

[OvErHeAtInG]

In order to enable routing on a w2k pro machine, you need a registry hack: There's more info here:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters, look for value IPEnableRouter. Change that to 1. Reboot an dyou should be able to route.

Secondly, your 2 NICs need to be on different networks, and they both need static IPs. Let's ay your wireless network has an address of 192.168.1.0/24. (The /24 means the netmask is 255.255.255.0). Let's say your wireless NIC has an IP of 192.168.1.5 which it gets from the wireless router. You need to disable DHCP and statically give it an address. (it might route with dynamic address but I doubt it). Give it a higher address or something excluded form the DHCP range: 192.168.1.100 or osmething.

Give the wired NIC an addy on a different subnet: e.g. 192.168.2.100. This will be the Xbox's default gateway.

I think there are a few other steps but hopefully this will get you started. I have to go to class again

 

[DeeKnow]

well... duh.... not sure what i finally did, since i changed settings and rebooted about two dozen times, but now it all works falwlessly, and I am not using the EnableIProuting registry hack even

I have simply shared (ICS) the wifi connection and set the xbox to automatically receive the IP address from the LAN NIC. I am pretty sure I tried this combination of settings before, but i could be wrong... it may just be th emysterious combinatio of settings, seconds since last reboot, and the phase of the moon.... who knows?

if anyone is stuck in a similar situation, i can give you my exact IP adress settings for each NIC etc

cheers

 

[yukichigai]

It would be simpler if you can hook up the XBox through the NIC in a Windows XP system, using the Network Bridge option. The only downside is that you usually have to manually specify an IP address for the XP computer, since the Network Bridge feature still cannot query DHCP properly over wifi. (Here's hoping they fix that in SP3)