1 PC, 1 xbox, 1 basic DSL modem

Ravage

Hi Guys,
I signed up to the IOLBB trial going on right now. They sent me a Zyxel 623 modem.

I want to connect this modem to my PC wirelessly and also to an xbox wirelessly.

First of all I presume I need a wireless router. Then for the PC I buy a wireless adaptor card, I was thinking along the lines of the 3Com USB wireless "card".
But how do I connect the xbox wirelessly? Do I buy an access point and just plug in the cable to one? If so where can I get a dirt cheap one that will work?

forbairt

I think I'm going through the exact same thing as you

I got IOLBB last week ... same modem ...

I got my 3COM OfficeConnect Wireless 11g Cable/DSL Gateway today from komplett.ie ... not dirt cheap .. mind you ...

also got the OfficeConnect Wireless 11g USB Adapter...

I think you could possibley find cheaper in maplin or have a look in the shop on this board ...

basically I'll let you know how connecting it all up goes tomorrow .. I don't think I'm gonna be connecting my xbox just yet ... and I'm not even sure if its possible wirelessly ?? to be honest I know very little about the xbox ...

oscarBravo

Ravage wrote:

But how do I connect the xbox wirelessly? Do I buy an access point and just plug in the cable to one? If so where can I get a dirt cheap one that will work?

Won't work - an access point needs a client device to connect to it, not another AP. You need an ethernet bridge, something along the lines of the Linksys WET11. Not gonna be cheap, tho.

v10

A wireless bridge is what you need to connect your XBox/PS2 to a wireless connection like this one HERE for €57.

-Toppy-

I have a SMC AP/Bridge yoke that does the very thing that you are looking to do, its 54mbps with Nitro ;-)

A place called Budget Office Equipment in Cork, on Anglsea Street sell em, on or abouts 70ish.

-Toppy-

Ravage

Can you mix and match networks? That wireless bridge at €57 looks great.

Say I buy an 802.11g router and have my pc connected to the net using the 802.11g connection can the 802.11b wireless bridge still connect to the router or does the whole network have to be in 802.11b mode?

-Toppy-

Of course, sure g downgrades to b as signal gets worse (ok its a simplification, but thats the picture)
-Toppy-

Ravage

Ended up ordering from https://www.expansys.ie
They have the 3com wirless router adsl modem and usb wireless 802.11g card for €120.
Picked up the DWL-810+ Wireless Bridge also for around €60 inc vat.

Will let you all know how it goes.

Ravage

Fantastic!! I got it all working. Though it took me 7 hours to set it all up.

The problem I had was that I could not get the DWL-810+ to connect to the 3com wireless router. It turned out that I had to broadcast the SSID. Now encryption is enabled, but still it means the wireless network is broadcasting itself, which I'm not too keen on, but it is secure.

Anyway pretty happy, just tired.

Winters

Providing your network is encripted I wouldnt worry about broadcasting out your SSID on a small home network. Chances are its probably the only network in the aera and nobody around you will ever notice.

If you are still in some way worried about security turn on some MAC filtering and allow ony those two devices to connect.

Ravage

The only reason I'm worried is that I live in an apartment so there could be a lot of people that could possibly see it.

I saw the MAC filtering, but does that work if the Firewall is disabled? I use WinXP firewall so I'd rather have no firewall on the DSL Router.

Also if I add MAC addresses will I have to add the wireless bridge and the xbox MAC addresses or only the Xbox MAC address?

Winters

I wouldnt worry about other people seeing your network, particularly in an apartment. If its an average net user they are hardly goign to be able to tap into your network and use your bandwidth. MAC filter address if your worried about this though.

MAC filtering should work if the firewall is disabled [afaik, cant check my settings as im in collage atm] as its a wireless setting. You should only need to allow the mac address of the wireless cards and the wireless bridge. However, this shall depend on how you have you wireless bridge setup, on my wireless router I can have it set to use the modem's MAC address insted of its own. Check the manual or google for answers. Atricles like this one might be of use, other people on the internet will have asked the same question somewhere.

You should use the hardware firewall on the router/modem. Added security if anything. I have both the firewall on my modem and wireless rotuer in operation, just for that bit of added security.