Finally going "Live". I could use some help...

[Kintaro56]

Some nOOb questions for you all:

I had to work a 12 hour day, so I had my roommate call the cable company to set up a internet connection for my room.

They will set up a wireless connection in my room for online play. The person from the cable company knew what the call was about before my roommate could even finish the sentence.

Do I still have to buy the $100 dollar wireless adaptor for my 360? Is there anyway around that?

I have about 15,000 Achievement points just off of singleplayer games: will those reset once I go online?

How big of a pain is it to join Live? I read somewhere that the credit card process is lengthy.

I have a PS2, and plan on getting a Wii soon. How will a wireless setup work with those systems?

I should mention that the internet connection is the downstairs portion of the house we're renting, and my room is upstairs, and nowhere near the computer.

Thanks in advance!

[Nitrosport]

Answered in order:

You still need the wireless adapter or you can run an ethernet cable but that defeats the purpose.

Your achievments wont reset.

It doesnt take very long and you can buy a xbox live card from gamestop.

The wii has built in wireless the ps2 doesn't.

Your wireless signal should still reach but if it doesn't, get a range expander.

[Kintaro56]

Thank you for the helpful reply!

Again, I don't know much about computers...

Would it be possible for me to get a modem and line put upstairs in addition to what I have in the basement?

The cable company is charging 54.99 just to install the wireless set-up, and only 4.95 a month for service.

[FantasiaWHT]

Yeah, you can sometimes get multiple access points from an ISP. What I do, though, with my wireless network, is have a laptop hooked up to the 360, and I bridge the internet connections (the LAN and the wireless) and it works just fine.

[Nitrosport]

The best thing to do is hook up the wireless adapter, sign up for xbox live, and test the signal. You should be fine. If for some reason your signal is not reaching upstairs, you can get a range expander which will basically boost your wireless signal. I doubt you will need to go that route though.

[Kintaro56]

I'm just trying to get around buying the 360 adaptor. That does sound like such a friggin' rip-off, especially since I have to shell out 54.99 just to get the internet/cable company to get me started. Live is another 50.00, so it will 200 bucks just to get going on Live...

I wish I could just plug a line into my 360 to save me the 100 bucks for their adaptor...is that possible?

[Kintaro56]

[QUOTE=Nitrosport;1317902]The best thing to do is hook up the wireless adapter[QUOTE]

Do you mean the 360 adaptor, or the cable company's adaptor?

I really don't know what I'm doing with this...

[Nitrosport]

I meant hook up the 360 wireless adapter so you can get connected and then test your connections.

[Nitrosport]

If you just want to run a direct line to your 360, you can do that. Just run an ethernet cable from your router to your 360s ethernet port. It's as simple as that.

[Kintaro56]

Ah.

I just caught that.

[Nitrosport]

Well you can avoid the wireless adapter and save $100 if you want to connect directly like I explained in the above post. I just assumed you wanted to go online using the wireless connection.

[Kintaro56]

Thank you.

I was reading another post, and just saw yours.

[Nitrosport]

No problem. Let us know if you need anymore help during the process. Here is some additional info for you:

If you plug the ethernet cord in directly, you will be all set to go right away. If you use the wireless adapter, you will need to input your wep key in order to grant your 360 access to the the internet.

[Kintaro56]

Well, since you don't mind, I have one last question:

I understand that you don't know my provider's billing rates, but how much do you think it would be to get a internet/ethernet set-up in my room, as opposed to the wireless deal for $55.00 install/4.95 monthly.

I don't understand why they didn't propose this. I'm not a big fan of anything wireless to begin with.

[Kid Ice]

The original Xbox wireless adapter works fine. I got mine for $5.

[Nitrosport]

Well, since you don't mind, I have one last question:

I understand that you don't know my provider's billing rates, but how much do you think it would be to get a internet/ethernet set-up in my room, as opposed to the wireless deal for $55.00 install/4.95 monthly.

I don't understand why they didn't propose this. I'm not a big fan of anything wireless to begin with.

I don't really know. Basically the only difference is that your router isn't wireless. Kid Ice said that you can use the original xbox wireless adapter. If I only knew that before I bought the over priced 360 one :grrr:

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I saw this at Best Buy last week.

http://images.bestbuy.com/BestBuy_US/images/products/8648/8648403_ra.jpg

Looks like Pelican took the idea from people who were flashing the firmware on Linksys routers to act as wireless receivers on their 360's ethernet ports.

At $70, it's $30 less than Microsoft's adapter (to some people that would be enough to warrant the buy), and it looks like it comes with setup software for your PC.

Here's a link to the PDF for the instruction manual ... it looks like a pretty simple process.

http://www.pdp.com/pdf_manuals/XBOX%20360/PL-3669%20XB360%20Network%20Adapter.pdf

They're selling them at Best Buy if you're interested.

[Cryomancer]

I suggest using live cards bought in stores. if you use a credit card on your xbox, it will mos tlikely in the future demand that same credit card if you ever cancel live and then decide you want it later. This can cause your account to beocme locked. It happened to me with my original live account after getting 360 live gold, and sothy's account was lost into limbo because he wanted to use a different card as well.

So yeah my suggestion is to buy live time cards at a store, then your account just gets kicked down to silver until you put in a new code, nothing lost. for 80 bucks you can get a year, and the camera, and some live arcade games. 50 for a year without camera.

[Kintaro56]

Thanks Cyromancer!

Last question for everyone:

If I get an ethernet set-up (a physical line, not wireless) then I can use that for my PS2, 360, and future Wii?

Thanks again to all who posted. I appreciate it.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

You can use an ethernet cord connection for the following systems

PS2 Fat - with the network adapter attached (if you don't have one, they go for about $20 new/used on eBay)

PS2 Slim - via the built in ethernet port

360 - via the built in ethernet port

Wii - with a compatible USB to ethernet port adapter (they retail for about $20 new)

Good luck!

[punkoffgirl]

You might also want to find out from some of our more savvy forum users how to make your wireless network more secure, so you don't have other people NOT in your house leeching from your connection.

[carlcarlson]

Hey, about having your achievements reset:

When I started playing my 360 I created a gamer profile with my name. So, now I have this gamer profile "Mike". I recently got on Live for the first time, and of course the profile "Mike" is taken, so I had to set up a new one. So now I have my original "Mike" profile with achievements that I can't use on Live, and a new profile with no achievements that I can use on Live. So basically, if you didn't check the availability of your gamertag before creating your profile, yes, actually your achievements kind of will be reset because you won't be able to get on Live with that account (unless you chose some random name that no one else used).

[Jehuty]

Hey, about having your achievements reset:

When I started playing my 360 I created a gamer profile with my name. So, now I have this gamer profile "Mike". I recently got on Live for the first time, and of course the profile "Mike" is taken, so I had to set up a new one. So now I have my original "Mike" profile with achievements that I can't use on Live, and a new profile with no achievements that I can use on Live. So basically, if you didn't check the availability of your gamertag before creating your profile, yes, actually your achievements kind of will be reset because you won't be able to get on Live with that account (unless you chose some random name that no one else used).

I think all you need to do is to rename your original profile to your live one if you want to keep the original achievements. I kept two profiles just to keep demos off of my online profile which I think MS fixed by now.

[carlcarlson]

I think all you need to do is to rename your original profile to your live one if you want to keep the original achievements. I kept two profiles just to keep demos off of my online profile which I think MS fixed by now.

ooooh really? I'll have to give that a shot. All of this account stuff on the 360 confuses me, I kinda miss the simplicity of the older consoles.

[Kintaro56]

The original Xbox wireless adapter works fine. I got mine for $5.

Where did you get it?

I just checked Best Buy online, with no luck.

[MachineGex]

I have tried the three party 360 wireless adapters and after spending 2 hours trying to set it up, I finally found it it wouldn't work with my set-up. I called customer service(manufactor of three party adapter) and they said about half of the time it wouldn't work.

I finally bought the MS adapter and after 5 mintues, I was online and downlowding demos/games/movies. I would say the $30-40 you save for the 3rd party adapter isnt worth it. If you can afford it, go with the MS brand. It's easy, works, and doesn't take up any space.

If you buy the MS adapters used, they cost $59 at Game Crazy. Same cost of the shitty 3rd party ones.

[Kintaro56]

Thanks.

I usually try to avoid buying used stuff, but if I can save that much money, I may end up doing just that.

It just gets me how much I have to spend to go online. There's the cost of the Gold membership, paying the cable co to come out, and then the adaptor.

I've been pretty happy playing singleplayer this whole time, but I would like to play Halo 3, Gears of War, and some others on co-op.

[Nature Boy]

I had an issue when I went "Live" the first time. I ended up with 2 jggruetz profiles on my Xbox - one which was associated with my achievements, one which was associated with Live. I could do nothing to merge them, so I ended up renaming my achievement profile just to keep it clean. MS never understood what I was trying to get at which I found frustrating...

I'm thinking of going Gold myself now that I've played around with Silver for a few months. I've got a 60 GB limit per month on my current ISP plan though - does anybody have any idea how much data gets transferred when you're playing games? Or know of a good place to find out?

[Kintaro56]

The cable guy left, and all that he did was install a wireless modem in the basement, without adding anything to the room with the consoles.

I tried to play Metal Gear Solid 3 online with my PS2, with no luck.