[Dunhamzzz]

I've found an extremely good use for my Mini, albeit maybe a bit patronising for it!

For those of you who don't know, the Xbox 360 doesn't come with built in wireless for connecting to the internet. The official endorsed Xbox 360 Wireless adaptor, which plugs directly into the back of of your Xbox costs a whopping £60 from some retailers.

The 360 does however have an Ethernet port, allowing various possibilities for bridging connections, shared connections or whatever way you wish to deliver the internet to your Xbox.

So with my setup I'm connecting my Mini 9 to my Xbox via a crossover cable (not standard Ethernet), these are available in all good computer shops or if you have the resources they can be easily manufactured from a standard Ethernet cable.
The basics of the networking configuration is to set the Xbox's IP address to Gateway of the Dell Mini (or of course, any laptop) and vice versa with the Gateway of the Xbox to the IP of the Mini.

On the Xbox (NXE) this can be achieved by going to My Xbox > System Settings > Network Settings > Configure Network. Select the IP address settings on the "Basic" tab. Select "Manual" and enter the following IPS:

• IP address: 192.168.1.2[/*:m:3tdyhd5o]
• Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1[/*:m:3tdyhd5o]

(these IPs may conflict with other devices on your network, fiddle around with the numbers if need be)

This is all the setup on the Xbox you need to do. For your Mini you need to set the IP and Gateway to the opposite of above. In XP goto Start > Connect To > Show All Connections. Right click on your Ethernet Connection and select properties, then select TCP/IP and click properties again. Then fill your settings in like so:


The important part is that the IPs relate to the ones you put in the Xbox earlier, with the gate way matching the IP of the other device and vice versa.

Now we need to setup Internet Conenction Sharing (ICS). Change to the properties of your wireless adaptor and navigate to the advanced tab. Check the box for "Internet Connection Sharing" then select your Ethernet connection (Local Area Connection 2 in my case) and click Ok.

Now plugin your crossover cable and everything should work fine! There's a chance you may have to set the DNS servers on your laptop as well to the same of the Xbox, but I've had different results.

Some games also complain about firewalls/NAT, I have tried to open up my NAT to get rid of the errors to no avail, if anyone has any ideas, please share!

Obviously you have to keep your Mini on the whole duration you want to use your Xbox online, so you'll want to plug it in the mains. I also found it handy having my Mini close by for guides for the achievement hoarder in me
If someone can post a how to do this in Ubuntu that would be great!

Annoyingly, my xbox broke last night .

[DXP]

REALLY?? Will these work with any netbooks?

[WolfKeeper]

Originally Posted by DXP

REALLY?? Will these work with any netbooks?

Well, conceivably any netbook running Windows, since it's using Internet Connection Sharing.

[bigboicee]

This will work on any computer with WinXP and up acutally. I use this in my dorm so that I can get XBL because they don't let it through the ethernet so I use ICS (I have two ethernet adapters). There are some somethings that I have to correct you on though.

1) They dont have to be crossover cables. You can just use a standard cable.
2) You dont have to specify an IP address for your Xbox. Just enable ICS to the specified connection and it does the work. It pretty much just turns your computer into a router.

[DavidCarrington]

A stumbling block I came across when trying to set this up a while back is that ICS wants to use the IP address 192.168.0.1. Your router must therefore not use this IP address - it should be fairly easy to change in the administration.

[Manutd10]

good post, now I don't have to carry the 360 into my living room to play online.

[flimflan]

This is a cool idea if you are looking for a temporary solution using the items you have on hand.

But I want it to be clear to people that this is not the only solution aside from buying the Microsoft Wireless adapter. You can buy non-gaming branded bridges to accomplish the same thing. You can also buy any wireless router that supports DD-WRT firmware and turn it into a bridge. I'm currently using an old Linksys WRT54G that I got for less than $40 (a couple years ago) as a wireless bridge for my 360. For just a little money, you can get full time functionality, without having to use a $200+ netbook.

[bramlet]

my xbox360 got rrod and i fixed it with what they call the "penny trick" I had already voided my warranty so I had to fix it myself.

but basically you put two pennies wrapped in electrical tape and use some heat sink compound to stick them to the 4 ram chips...worked for me so far... good luck

[Dunhamzzz]

Originally Posted by flimflan

This is a cool idea if you are looking for a temporary solution using the items you have on hand.

But I want it to be clear to people that this is not the only solution aside from buying the Microsoft Wireless adapter. You can buy non-gaming branded bridges to accomplish the same thing. You can also buy any wireless router that supports DD-WRT firmware and turn it into a bridge. I'm currently using an old Linksys WRT54G that I got for less than $40 (a couple years ago) as a wireless bridge for my 360. For just a little money, you can get full time functionality, without having to use a $200+ netbook.

This is exactly my situation, I just used what I had instead of getting the next best option which would have been a wireless bridge.

[KrisPeezy]

microsoft also has a guide setup for connecting to Xbox Live through ICS, here it is:
Connect to Xbox LIVE using Internet Connection Sharing: Xbox 360 | Xbox Support