New 360 Wireless Network Adapter Confirmed, Holiday Bundle Rumored

[AceCalhoon]

Seriously people: CABLES ARE CHEAPER. And if you have even a MINIMAL amount of home repair knowledge, you should be able to find a way to hide it, if you're that obsessed about letting the cable hang out.

This is all well and good when your consoles and your modem are in the same room. In my current setup, the closest router to my consoles is in an adjoining room, with wood-paneled walls that I don't want to drill through in between.

The setup before that, the modem was in a large room with the consoles down a hallway on the opposite side of the room. Yes, running cables would have been possible. It wouldn't have been very practical, though.

The high markup on the wireless adapter has been a deciding factor in not purchasing an Xbox in the past. I'm waffling a bit now after the price drop and rebate, but it's still turned what would otherwise have been a snap decision into something that I still haven't committed to.

 

[scotth266]

Seriously people: CABLES ARE CHEAPER. And if you have even a MINIMAL amount of home repair knowledge, you should be able to find a way to hide it, if you're that obsessed about letting the cable hang out.

This is all well and good when your consoles and your modem are in the same room. In my current setup, the closest router to my consoles is in an adjoining room, with wood-paneled walls that I don't want to drill through in between.

Run the cable along the edges of the room then.

I'll admit there's situations where a wireless adapter IS more useful, but even in that case, there's far cheaper than this thing out there. The only people that buy this have wasted their money on something over-priced.

I believe this is the router my family uses. [http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Wireless-G-Router-Cable-Gateway/dp/B00008ZPJU]

 

[AceCalhoon]

Run the cable along the edges of the room then.

I'll admit there's situations where a wireless adapter IS more useful, but even in that case, there's far cheaper than this thing out there. The only people that buy this have wasted their money on something over-priced.

I believe this is the router my family uses. [http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Wireless-G-Router-Cable-Gateway/dp/B00008ZPJU]

Adjoining was probably the wrong word to use. There's no door between the two. The door leading out of the room with the router is on the opposite side from the room with the consoles. The wire would have to go out that room's door, along a hallway that runs along two sides of the room, through a doorway into the console room, and along the console room's wall until it reaches the consoles.

Yes, I COULD buy 100' or so of cable, and runners (or duct tape) to keep people from tripping over it. But it isn't terribly practical... Doing so is, to me, as much a barrier to purchasing the system as buying the over-priced adapter.

 

[scotth266]

Snip.

Then you're in one of the situations that a router is useful. Even so, there's no reason to buy this particular one: it's a consumer trap, made to suck in the tech-illiterate folks out there. Other routers (like the one I listed) do the same job for cheaper.

 

[AceCalhoon]

Can it be used as a wireless bridge (i.e. xbox connects to it via a wire, it connects wirelessly to another router)? If so, you've solved a lot of my problems.

 

[EMFCRACKSHOT]

I believe this is the router my family uses. [http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Wireless-G-Router-Cable-Gateway/dp/B00008ZPJU]

This is different to the network adapter. The network adapter works with your wireless router and unless you can use a pc usb dongle on a 360 then this is the only way to have it with a wireless connection

 

[Anton P. Nym]

25' of Cat-5 cable; $12. That's how my 360 is hooked up, and I didn't even go shopping for the best price on cabling.

I feel that I should ammend this; I also spent $9 on a runner so that the cable wouldn't be a trip hazard where it crosses one doorway. So, total cost is actually $21... which compares favourably to the wireless options. (And has no signal degradation, and given that it's off a gigabit switch/router it's potentially much faster than even 802.11n.)

-- Steve

 

[AceCalhoon]

I believe this is the router my family uses. [http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Wireless-G-Router-Cable-Gateway/dp/B00008ZPJU]

This is different to the network adapter. The network adapter works with your wireless router and unless you can use a pc usb dongle on a 360 then this is the only way to have it with a wireless connection

This isn't strictly true. You can use a wireless bridge, or a router configured to act as one. However, dedicated bridges seem to be fairly expensive for some reason, and figuring out whether or not your router supports wireless bridging seems to be a somewhat tricky proposition.

 

[DRADIS C0ntact]

I don't get it. Aren't wireless dongles for the PC only like $5? How can this be so much more expensive?

Because Microsoft knows that people who don't have their 360's near their modems will want one.

Or you can do what I did. Buy 25 feet of LAN Cable for $25 (seems a bit expensive in retrospect but still), run the cable to my router. Tread Lightly. Problem Solved. $74 saved, and the PS3 crowd automatically loses any "we get the free wireless" argument.

Yeah but not everyone has their modem in the same room as their console. Plus most people don't like having wires running all along the edges of the walls. It doesn't bother me, but my wife would never let me hear the end of it if I had wires all over the place. Wireless is my friend.

 

[The Lost Big Boss]

That just looks like the old one with another stick pointing out. Well done MS, you have offered yet another overpriced piece of junk.

 

[Trivun]

The goddamn 360 should have one built-in!

Agreed. I finally got a wireless router only to find that I still can't connect to Xbox Live because I don't have the damn adapter. And every time I go into PC World or Currys or anywhere else they don't have any in stock. Not that I can afford to get one anyway, assuming $99 equates to a price of between £40-£70 in the UK... (not entirely sure of current exchange rates).

 

[Spirit_Of_Fire]

Can they please make them so that they can recognise my dongol that i plug into my computer to acces the internet ive waited so long to be able to play xbox live with the new avatar system.

 

[AceDiamond]

I don't get it. Aren't wireless dongles for the PC only like $5? How can this be so much more expensive?

Because Microsoft knows that people who don't have their 360's near their modems will want one.

Or you can do what I did. Buy 25 feet of LAN Cable for $25 (seems a bit expensive in retrospect but still), run the cable to my router. Tread Lightly. Problem Solved. $74 saved, and the PS3 crowd automatically loses any "we get the free wireless" argument.

Yeah but not everyone has their modem in the same room as their console. Plus most people don't like having wires running all along the edges of the walls. It doesn't bother me, but my wife would never let me hear the end of it if I had wires all over the place. Wireless is my friend.

Actually my router/modem is on the other side of the house.