Networking Question (360/Wii Related)

[slip81]

Alright, so I finally broke down and got another 360, and I also have connect 360 still on my mac from when I had one before. But recently I moved, and I now get my internet from a router that's fixed in the home office and I'm running a long cable through the walls, which means I only have one internet connection to this addition of the house.

Anyway, I know I can get a switch to allow the mac, 360 and wii share the connection, but my question is, will a switch allow me to stream content from the mac to the 360 like a regular router would, and if not, is it possible to somehow configure a second router in this addition? Also, the office router is a wireless G one, about 70-80 feet and 3 walls and some outside space away from where I am now. If a switch wouldn't work, would there be something that could pick up the wi-fi from that distance and then spread it across all the devices through ethernet?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I have a lot of crap on the pc that I want to stream.

[ProgrammingAce]

Cheapest method would be to buy a hub (or dumb switch) to put on the end of the cable and split the connection that way. Should be $10 or so on amazon or newegg.

[SegaAges]

It depends on if you are going the cheap route, or if price is not that big of a deal.

If price is not a huge issue, you can get adapters for game consoles so that they accept a wireless connection.

Get one of those for each system, then get a second wireless that allows for better security then WEP (as WEP is everywhere and easy to hack into). Maybe get a wired router and hook your wireless to 1 of the slots in the wired.

I am wierd and come from the standpoint that 2 routers is the way to go.

But yeah, wireless gaming adapters is a very nice way to go.

If you want to risk it, there is networking that goes through your home's electrical circuitry. You plug a box into the wall, and then you can plug a cat5 into there and be good to go (just make sure you have at least 2, because you can put your network through your circuittry, but you might want the network to do something besides being in there and connect it to something).

[carlcarlson]

For what it's worth I've heard that the 360 wireless connector is very slow. I was recently trying to figure out my new network as well and decided against hooking it up wirelessly. I'm bad enough at COD 4 without having to contend with lag as well.

[Flack]

Anyway, I know I can get a switch to allow the mac, 360 and wii share the connection, but my question is, will a switch allow me to stream content from the mac to the 360 like a regular router would, and if not, is it possible to somehow configure a second router in this addition? Also, the office router is a wireless G one, about 70-80 feet and 3 walls and some outside space away from where I am now. If a switch wouldn't work, would there be something that could pick up the wi-fi from that distance and then spread it across all the devices through ethernet?

I am not sure if you are asking a hardware question or a software question.

From a hardware standpoint, yes, all devices connected to a hub/switch/router, whether they are wired or wireless, can physically talk to one another (if configured to do so).

From a software standpoint, I have no idea if the Wii can share content with other devices on a network.

[slip81]

From a hardware standpoint, yes, all devices connected to a hub/switch/router, whether they are wired or wireless, can physically talk to one another (if configured to do so).


allright cool, that's basically what I was wondering. I knew that it could be done with a router, but I was mainly wondering if it could be done with a switch, which is what I'm going to go out and get, because, when I first moved, I tried using a second router in this part of the house, but for some reason I could never get a steady connection, it would constantly drop me and I'd have to reset everything to get it working again.

I'm no networking wiz, so it was probably a case of not having a setting configured correctly on one of the routers, because independently they both work fine. And from what I was reading about switches, they seem a lot simpler so hopefully I won't have the same problem, but I wasn't sure if the 360/PC would be able to communicate through the switch. The Wii would just be sharing the connection, I don't plan on streaming anything to it from the PC.

[Nophix]

allright cool, that's basically what I was wondering. I knew that it could be done with a router, but I was mainly wondering if it could be done with a switch, which is what I'm going to go out and get, because, when I first moved, I tried using a second router in this part of the house, but for some reason I could never get a steady connection, it would constantly drop me and I'd have to reset everything to get it working again.

I'm no networking wiz, so it was probably a case of not having a setting configured correctly on one of the routers, because independently they both work fine. And from what I was reading about switches, they seem a lot simpler so hopefully I won't have the same problem, but I wasn't sure if the 360/PC would be able to communicate through the switch. The Wii would just be sharing the connection, I don't plan on streaming anything to it from the PC.

The IP info for the 2 routers were in conflict. You would have to subnet the secondary router.

This is how I have mine at home.

Also, that switch will work fine. Essentially all the multi-port home routers are is a router with a switch built in. Adding another switch just adds more ports, and the router portion is none-the-wiser.

[icbrkr]

I've got 3 wireless routers going on in the house and 1 DSL modem with a built in router, 2 360s, a small countryload of Macs and 2 Wiis. Both 360s will see Connect360 on the media server upstairs, the Wiis connect fine to the net and all the Macs are happy.

My main wireless router gets its IP from the DSL router and basically just rebroadcasts all the traffic coming from the internet. The DSL router and first wireless router are on the same subnet and the wireless router acts as a passthrough bridge. The other wireless routers (they're being used as a wireless adapters for the 360s since I'm not spending $99 for a Microsoft wireless NIC) connect to the main wireless router which connects to the DSL router and they get their IPs and anything that's directly connects to them's IPs from there.

As long as everything is on the same subnet (I think it was already mentioned), you shouldn't have to jump through any hoops for everything to see each other.

[slip81]

well I went out and got a cheap netgear switch and now everything is runny nicely, connect 360 works great, and everthing is happily sharing the connection. Now I can finnaly get online with Mario Kart and Smash Bros.

thanks for all the input guys