AdzTechBlog

Having had my PC next to my Xbox 360 for some time now, I decided it was about time I found a way of connecting my the 360 to the internet without having to spend a fortune on wireless connectors or switches.

Heres my setup, I currently have a custome built pc woth two LAN ports on the montherboard (the Asus Striker Extreme). One of the LAN ports is connected to a Netgear Powerline adapter (with another connected to my router downstairs). This allows for a decent internet connection while not having to run new cables round the house or use the pretty poor wireless connection my router has. Also my PC is running Windows Vista x64 (I am assumeing the same instructions will apply to XP, and there is most likely similar options in OSX and Linux).

So, how to link the 360 up, well, this took me all of about 2 minutes and was alot easier than I could have imagined. The first step is linking the PC and 360, for this you will need a Cat5e crossover cable, available from places like PC World (infact any shop selling computer equipment), this cable then needs to be plugged into the LAN port on the 360 (next to the USB ports at top of the console), the other end should be connected into the spare LAN socket on your PC.

Now power on your PC, and go to Control Panel -> Network And Sharing Center -> Manage Network Connections (located in the left task pane). This will show you the network connections on your PC. You should see the two LAN connections showing in blue without any red crosses. If theres a red cross, then theres a problem with the cable, if one of the icons is greyed out (disabled), the right click it and click enable.

Now for the final bit, highlight the two LAN connections (so both are hightlighted together), and click Bridger Connections. After a minute or so another icon should show labelled Network Bridge.

Now turn on your 360 and test your network connection for the System tab. You should get an internet connection straight away.

Well I hope this helps some people out. This should also apply if the PC is connected wirelessly to your router, althought I haven’t tested it this way.