The Upstate Life

Monday, August 18, 2008

Nerd Post of the Week

So I moved to a new apartment last weekend and we have not had the Internet installed as of yet. Thankfully, you can always count on some poor sap to leave his wireless network unsecure. Here's a hint: it's always a dead giveaway when the SSID is left as the default value such as "linksys", "netgear", etc.

Anyway, I have an Xbox 360 and the thing is pretty useless without a Live connection. After I finished most of the unpacking I had an itch to play some video games but without the Internet installed I was going crazy. I had a wireless bridge (Asus WL-330) that I used at my old place that worked like a charm, but when I tried to configure it at my new apartment, the thing went on the fritz and essentially died. Apparently the firmware somehow got corrupt when I tried to reset the settings back to their default values which subsequently resulted in immediate brickage.

Now what? There was no way I was going to spring for the absurdly overpriced wireless adapter ($99) after using a device that cost a third of the price for so long. Yet without a bridge (and my own Internet) how was I to get online? After a little Google search, I came across this.

First, I ran an Ethernet cord from my 360 to my desktop's NIC card. The desktop, I should add, was connected to this dude's aforementioned network via a wireless USB adapter. I then bridged the wireless and LAN connections together under Network Connections (in XP).

Then I went into the Xbox Live settings and manually set the IP to an unassigned address and specified the subnet mask and default gateway (these are the same values as the ones assigned to your PC from the wireless router it's connected to). Tested the Live connection and viola! My desktop now acts as the Xbox's wireless adapter.

The result? Hours of Halo play ensued and many cans of Fresca consumed.

Posted by Brett at 3:48 PM |