Wireless Gaming, help!

[BarryB]

If this is the wrong section don't worry, I can move the thread myself

Have a neigbour with two 360's connected wirelessly to a Belkin Mimo G+ router and Sky Broadband. Both 360's are upstairs with the router in the front downstairs room of the house. One of the 360's is in a room directly above the router and seems to work OK, but the other is in an upstairs room at the rear of the house, this 360 is not receiving a strong signal (1 red bar) and keeps getting the 'connection interrupted' message in online games, for a 16 year old lad this is pissing him off no end!

Router is working OK as the internet on his wireless laptop in the same room works, but the signal to his 360 is very low. So, can you get an aerial extender for a 360? Something he can trail outside his bedroom onto the landing to see if the signal improves, or failing that, can a standard USB extension lead be used so he can trail the 360's antenna outside his room?

I assume the 360 has a 'PC standard' type USB port so we can use a PC USB extension lead!

His dad is 'considering' putting a phone extension socket in his room and putting the router in there as a last resort (lots of work and cable into the loft etc!!), but he wants to know if there are any alternatives to see if the wireless reception can be improved on his 360.

Any ideas you 360 Gurus?

[Quall999]

First off, a usb extension cable would work lol, would be funny though. Do not go more than 10ft, unless you buy a cable that boosts the band signal.

Some routers allow you to do a wireless-wireless bridge, but I am going to go ahead and tell you no. In order to do what you are asking, it either requires hacked firmware on specific router models, or hundreds of dollars to buy hardware made to do that.

If you don't mind using extension cables, an alternate to what you are asking is to forget the usb wireless adapter on the 360, and go with something like this $50 device.

IMO, the 360 USB adapter is over priced. It is plug-and-play, that is the only reason for its price. For anyone who is a tiny bit techy, they can use a standard wireless bridge which works with anything that has an Ethernet port, so it is not limited to a single device. Basically, you connect that to your 360's Ethernet port with an Ethernet cable. Then, you can use any. Then, use a long ethernet cable to extend the wireless instead of a USB port.

[BarryB]

I thought it might not be as straight forward as it sounded

The belkin does have bridge support so that D-Link bridge you linked would seem ideal plugged into his 360 (and Belkin do sell a Range Extender too!) but it's more expense, plus it would need external power which is a problem as there are no power points on the upstairs landing where it would ideally be located (i.e outside his room). There is also no place for it sit, like a shelf, so it would either be on the floor (in peoples way) or somehow mounted on the wall which would look odd (his mum would have a fit), but it would be well outside his room and would probably work if it wasn't for the lack of power points and a suitable place for it to sit, not to mention hiding the power cable and Ethernet cable!!

So it leaves the USB extension lead as the only viable alternative unfortunately as it looks to be the tidiest and cheapest method! The antenna only needs to outside his room so it could be stuck onto the door frame! Even if it doesn't work the cable only costs a few £'s so not an expensive experiment! In this case he'd have to put a phone extension socket in his room, which would probably be the best solution!

To be honest I'm not a fan of 'wireless' gear, his house just seems to have too solid walls to let the signal propagate properly hence the weak signal and the disconnects!

Anyway, thanks for the help and suggestions Quall, in light of all the messy cabling, expense and fiddling about that bridges would entail I'm going to recommend the phone extension in his room, seems the most sensible (if a bit troublesome) solution!

[TippeX]

you can get wireless extender adaptors, they connect into a plug, and sort of make the electricity wire, carry the signal, wireless->wired->wireless sort of, could do the job, and they're relatively cheap, saw some for about 30euro recently

[BarryB]

I've heard of mains networking (One of our Eletricity companies was trying to give Broadband via the mains!) but I've never seen any kit, just googled a bit and found some nice info:

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/06...owerline_pack/

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...C=SO&U=strat15

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...C=SO&U=strat15

Perfect solution, except for the price, I think these will be too expensive for him! I will tell him about them though, they could go back and see if they could swap the Belkin router for one of the mains networking kits though, that would probably be better and he'd get one of those extenders as part of the kit!

Cheers Tip

[Quall999]

Sorry, I did not notice what region you are in. Anyways, I am a cheap bastard. I would not spend more than 50 bucks on additional hardware lol. I am proud to admit that I am a Jerry Rigger for all sorts.

[TippeX]

maplin are always expensive m8, shop around, you might even find something cheaper on ebay etc... maplin have more or less a 50% markup on their prices

[BarryB]

I went round and told him about these mains thingies, he must be a distant relation of 'cheap bastard' Quall as he's putting in an extension socket £10 tops

[kayanat]

How is the XBOX 360 Pelican Wireless Gaming Network Adapter? I need wireless internet for my XBOX 360 and i was wondering if anyone knew how well the XBOX 360 Pelican Wireless Gaming Network Adapter worked? Is it as good or almost as good as the official wireless adapter? Its $70 cheaper so as long as it doesn't cause lag while playing online it would be worth it. So does anyone own it want to tell me how it performs? Thanks in advance.

[Quall999]

Well, I don't have it but it is just like any other access point, except it contains 360 decals and coloring.

It is a different device than the 360 adapter. The 360 adapter is a USB wireless dongle that interacts with the 360 directly. The Pelican adapter is an access point, which requires a spare power outlet and hooks into the 360's Ethernet/network port. You probably won't notice a difference in speed.

I am not sure how much Pelican's adapter costs, but I wouldn't pay more than $50 for it. If you are going to spend more than that, then get something by Linksys or a first party PC company that specializes in making network devices.