Most people using an Xbox 360 have Xbox Live in some way. You want to get online with your 360 but you have no way to connect except a wireless connection. The Xbox 360 wireless adapter costs about $100 (MSRP). But you also have a laptop (or just about any computer with a wireless adapter). In this article, you will learn how to set up ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) with your Xbox 360 and save that $100 that could be used to buy another game.
Step 1 Determine if your PC has a wireless adapter
Virtually, every modern laptop within the past few years has a wireless adapter built-in. This doesn't exclude desktops from this but its much more unlikely its built-in and its probably an add-in. If you don't have one, you can still buy a wireless adapter at many stores such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy.
Step 2 Find an Ethernet cable
It can be any Ethernet cable. The Xbox 360 automatically does a cross-over process so you don't need a special cable. Plug one end directly to your Xbox 360 and plug the other into the PC. Almost every PC has one of these. If you have both your PC and Xbox 360 on, you will see a green light on the PC connector and possibly an orange (data) flashing light. This means the connection is working.
Step 3 Use your PC,go to Start, Control Panel
Then click network connections. Look for the Local Area Connection. Right-click and go to Properties. Scroll down the list of things in the box down to "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" and click it and click properties. Click the Use the following IP address button and the boxes will become ungreyed. In the first box, type "192.168.0.1". The next box should default to "255.255.255.0". That is normal. The other boxes should be left empty. Your not quite done yet. Click OK on both option boxes to go back to the network connections window. Right click the wireless connection and go to its properties window. Click the Advanced tab and go to the "Internet Connection Sharing" section. Check the top box, uncheck the bottom box. Then click ok. We have finished setting up the PC.
Step 4 Now for the Xbox
Go to the Settings blade and go to Network Settings. Go to edit settings and go to section for IP addresses set it to manual. Input "192.168.0.2" as the IP address. Type in as the subnet mask 255.255.255.0. Then "192.168.0.1" in the Gateway Address box. Don't test the settings yet. For each DNS, type "192.168.0.1". Now test the settings. Everything should pass if set up correctly. The PC should say that it found a local area connection. Your internet on your PC should also work. If none of these work, something was probably not set up right. Go back and double check your settings and steps and keep retrying until it works.
Step 5 If done correctly, you should be connected to Xbox Live
- Another method is to simply select both your wired and wireless connections, right-click, and select "Bridge" as stated below. This will automatically route the connections without the need to set your IP address on Windows XP.
- Using this method and a router, you can connect multiple Xboxs to the router, and the laptop as well, and have them all connected to Xbox Live.
Tips
- When buying a wireless adapter, go for internal ones if you're buying one for a desktop computer. They generally give better performance and don't take up a USB port.
- Your PC should be running at a fairly decent speed. If you if computer is acting sluggish, your game might become laggy since your PC can't send the Xbox Live information fast enough.
- When you connect the ethernet cable to the laptop be sure to locate to the network connections folder on your laptop and bridge the two connections together, this is a common mistake people make when trying to use a laptop as an xbox wireless adapter.
Warnings
- You must have your PC on at all times while you are playing. Your PC basically relays the information from the Xbox 360 to the internet. If your PC goes to sleep, shuts down, or restarts for a Windows automatic update, you will lose connection.
- Be cautious because you might not be able to receive game or video content from the market place
Things You'll Need
- A computer (with ICS) Windows XP has this for sure.
- A wireless adapter installed on the computer. Laptops have this built-in.
- An Xbox 360
- Ethernet cable.
- Xbox Live.
