Connecting 360 to Vista PC... problematic...

[FosterK]

Right then. Tad bit of background first.

Just got myself a new telly for my room, so I've finally moved my 360 up there too; primarily for games, but with a secondary aim of getting all my media streamed up there.

I used to have it wired directly into my router (as my PC still is), and I could connect to it fine - both in terms of media center and media sharing facilities. T'was great.

However, now I've moved it upstairs (connected to my wireless with http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-011-BE - I'm thinking this is the issue), I can't get my 360 to find my PC, and vice versa. Kinda frustrating.

It connects to LIVE fine, works a charm, so signal is not the issue.

I'm thinking that the gaming adaptor thing (I've had it for yonks) is fooling the 360 into thinking it's wired into the router, and effectively 'hiding' the 360 from my PC - so neither can find eachother.

So before I go trailing miles of Cat5 cable around my house, or buying one of those handily overpriced xbox wireless adaptors, any tricks up the collective sleeves of the OcUK 360 community?

Ta.

 

[FosterK]

Aaaanyone?

 

[miracleboy]

It connects to LIVE fine, works a charm, so signal is not the issue.

I wouldn't be so sure - I recently set one up for a mate on wireless and his Live was fine, but the media didn't work. The Live test on the network screen worked fine, but the media connection test failed.

The second we connected it using a long cat5 cable strung over the floor the media connected straight away.

If you can try a long cat5 cable as a test, we had major problems with both mine and his over wireless - we're both now on wired ethernet with no issues!

 

[simo182]

I have to use an ethernet cable as it says you can't stream media using 802.11g or whatever it is. Slighlty annoying. Also check that the ports the 360 uses are open so the PC can see it. It had me stumped for a while because of that.

 

[miracleboy]

You shouldn't need to open any ports if you are using UPnP or whatever it's called - I think it says that in the network help. I don't have any ports open on my firewall for the 360 and it works fine - on wired - change it to wireless and it stops working.

I had it working on wireless at one point, but the bandwidth was too flaky I found for streaming media. If there is any way you can do it I would highly recommend going wired from PC through to 360.

 

[FosterK]

Hmm, well I've had those ports open since I set it up in the first place. So that rules the ports out.


Interesting to hear that 802.11g aint fast enough though. Rather annoying, more to the point.

Just measured it up. Router is downstairs at one end of the house, and the 360 is upstairs, at the other end of the house. Cable length - we're talking ~15m.

So for my next question, where do I get 40m of cat5 cable? I presume I'll have to crimp it myself. Never done it before.

Cheers fellas

 

[FosterK]

Oh, also, standard or crossover?

 

[miracleboy]

Well B&Q do a big reel of CAT5e but they only do 100m, you might be better off going to a computer shop where they can cut some off a reel for you. You need standard rather than crossover as you'll be going from router to 360.

Not sure if the powerline stuff is an option for you - I've never tried it.

Where is the PC and the phoneline in relation to the router and 360 etc?

 

[lokkers]

I've heard good things about the ethernet-over-power adapters - might be an option for you (i'll be buying some when I move house)

 

[moss]

where do I get 40m of cat5 cable? I presume I'll have to crimp it myself. Never done it before.

Your better off buying a ready made cable, you need a proper crimping tool to do it yourself and its a little fiddly.

Well B&Q do a big reel of CAT5e but they only do 100m, you might be better off going to a computer shop where they can cut some off a reel for you.

If you mean ready made cables, they will only do 100m lengths because its the maximum recommended length for a standard CAT5 cable.