Adding Wireless Router to Wired System
 

My son wants to connect his XBOX to the Internet. The XBOX is at one end of the house; the computers are on the other - about 70 feet away as the crow flies. (Although I try to discourage it from flying in the house.)

I have a wired Linksys router for the computers. I would run a wire, but it would be a big PITA where the TV is located.

1) Can I hook up a wireless router to a free port, and then use the XBOX wireless adapter on the XBOX?

2) Do I need anything else?

3) Does this open my computers to Wifi access from my neighbors? (My area is not high density - lots are 1-1/2 acres, with fairly substantial setbacks.)

4) What should I consider in a wireless router? I see them ranging in price from $50 - $150 and more.

5) Should I go with Linksys to avoid problems?

Sorry for all the questions - As you can see I don't know a lot about this stuff.

When the wireless part of my Quest modem failed, a just plugged in a Linkys wireless router to the modem and it works fine.

From your discription it seems you have the right idea. You are opening yourself up to being piggybacked by your neighbors though. To prevent that you need to lock down the wireless with a password.

- Peter.

I highly doubt that you would get decent graphics on the xbox that far from the router. I'm not sure you would get good graphcs close to it.

What I did was put the router in the room with the xbox and plug the xbox into the router and run wireless through the rest of the house from there.

Danny

There is a difference between a "wireless router" and a "wireless access point". Since you already have a router, you only need a wireless access point, the one from Linksys is a snap to install. You could use a wireless router , but installing it will be more involved because you have to disable all the crap you don't need and it might conflict with your existing router, giving you a PIA. Go buy yourself one of these:


http://www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en/products/WAP54G

Or a better model, there are a bunch of them out there, just make sure it is an "access point".

When you run the install, make sure you select WEP key security, it's the easiest. If you don't secure it, the whole neighborhood will be using it. Some hacker crooks just cruise around neighborhoods looking for open wireless connections.

That would give you the best performance, however my kid is using my wireless connection on his Xbox and he doesn't complain.

How many computers do you have connected to your home network already?

You can get an "Access Point" basically all you do is hook the ethernet jack into your access point station and then into your wired ethernet router.

OR

You can buy a Wireless router. A wireless router has ethernet ports on the back as well as a wireless base station. You can basically throw away your old Linksys wired router and hook up everything to the new wireless router.

Also a word about 802.11b,g,n,etc . Depending on how fast your outbound internet connection is there is absolutely no point to go out and buy the latest and the greatest 802.11 draft N wireless router for some crazy amount of money.

For example, at my house my DSL caps out at a download speed of 2.5 mbps. We have an 802.11b wireless network that has a max speed of 11 mbps. If we were to upgrade to say an 802.11g network with a max speed output of 54 mbps the internet would not get any faster. However if you were transferring files between computers on your local LAN network then yes the speed would be faster.

Nowadays 802.11g wireless access points and routers are really cheap so it is worth it to just get the 802.11g wireless access point. I have owned a Linksys WRT54g access station for almost a couple of years and it has yet to fail me.

The trick is configuring. When you get it read the instructions on how to edit the configuration settings in the router. You should change the SSID (broadcast name) to something cool like, "Awesome Family" and enable WPA encryption with a password that something the whole family can remember. Also change the broadcast channel to something like 8 or 4. Just don't use the default.

I'm not sure how big your house is, but if it isn't huge (eg a mansion) then 1 wireless base station can cover the entire house.

For the Xbox the graphics of online play won't be affected by connection speed only the lag of the multiplayer games. Lag meaning you will see other people stutter when they move around. For Xbox live if you have DSL/cable then he won't have any issues playing.

I did the opposite, I put and old wireless router near my kids' x-box and set it up as a bridge on my main wireless system; then I ran a wire from the x-box to a LAN port on that router. That way I avoided having to buy the wireless adaptor for the x-box.

This looks like a plan to me.

I already have the wired router and the XBOX wireless adapter. So if I get the Linksys WAP54G (the one you pointed to) and connect to my wired router, it would pick up the XBOX wireless adapter? (That's a question.)

I have 3 computers already connected to the existing Linksys wired router, which can connect up to 4 devices.

I'm much more concerned about the speed of the connections and security on the 3 computers than my son's XBOX, and besides, it will be very difficult to run a wire to the spot where the XBOX is located. Hence that's where I need the wireless connection.

If/when I get a chance, I'd like to hardwire it for security reasons, but I don't think my kid is willing to wait that long. (He'll probably be out of the house by then anyhow.)

BTW - if I password protect the wireless connection, will I have to do anything new on the wired connection?

BTW2 - if I want to connect a computer where the XBOX is located, do I just get a wireless adapter for the computer? And the computer and the XBOX would share the wireless access point?

Thanks for the help.

If you use WPA encryption over your wifi I wouldn't worry about simple script kiddie hackers. If someone really wanted to break your WPA encypted network then you are in for troubles much worse then stolen credit card numbers. The xbox 360 wireless adapter supports that mode of encryption if I recall correctly.

btw1: No, the wireless security password will only protect what is being sent over the air. Setting up a form of encryption over your local lan is too complicated and unnecessary for a home network.

btw2: Yes. More then 1 wireless device can connect to a wireless access point.

Yes. Just set up the WEP key on the Access point, note the WEP key number you used, and then there should be something in the XBOX documentation that tells you how to connect to your Access point and enter the WEP key on the XBOX side to complete the secured connection.

As said above, the wireless connection should be plenty fast for gaming, why bother?


Linksys offers add-in cards for desktop computers if you want them to be wireless. Laptops are already set up for wireless.

There is no conceivable limit to the numbers of computers that can be run over a typical wireless connection, however as each computer connects, your wireless speed takes a hit because it has to divide up the available bandwidth between all the computers connected. XBOX is ok with this, because the bandwidth hog, the game itself, is pulled in so it runs on the local machine, which means in layman's terms that Internet wires only have to carry the pulse signals from the user's joystick consoles, so the XBOX can run great at low bandwidths, it's part of the design parameters of the system because some of these games allow a number of participants to play together.

The system you have, a mix of wired and wireless, is considered the creme 'd la creme of home Internet setups, keep it the way you have it and dedicate the wires to your own PCs as much as possible in order to reserve the faster wired bandwidth for downloads and work applications, and provide the slower wireless bandwidth for gaming devices and for your guest's laptops. You really don't want gaming wired up anyway - your kid's friends can come over with their XBOX's, connect to your wireless, and then blow each other's virtual brains out, that's why they are all pretty much set up wireless anyway, it gives the gaming platforms more flexibility. XBOX has an entire module dedicated to managing multiple wireless connections just for this purpose, otherwise you'll have a bunch of kids smart enough to jack into your hub doing just that when you aren't around, running wires all over your house so they can shoot each other. And I'm talking from experience here!

As stated above, you need a WEP key on both ends of the connection, that is what secures it. It is a good idea to change it on a regular basis, I change mine every 6 months, but every 60 days is better, that way if it does get loose, it won't be out there that long. Use this web site to manage that:

http://www.andrewscompanies.com/tools/wep.asp

If security really becomes a major issue, you can segregate the wireless connection from the rest of your network, but that's a subject for a whole nother thread

Jollyroger,

I'm going to disagree on the WEP key part of your post. It's very easy to crack and I'm not sure WEP keys can be passphrases.

Go the next level up and use WPA. The router definitely supports that as well as any wireless devices in the house.

I really appreciate all the help.

You guys are great.

If you cannot transmit to the X box 70 feet away
 

You do not have to worry about your neighbors in your large lot neighborhood.

Very important, if you try to use an Access Point or even another router, change the range of IP addresses doled out by that second device. Usually, the default settings are 192.168.1.100 through 120 on a Linksys. But beware if you have two different brands of routers or is anyone has previously customized them. For example, you might have a Netgear AP or router and it hands out IPs in the 192.168.0.100-120 range. You do not want to have IP being assigned by different router to be the same range.