Hey all, need some help,

I'm on business assignment in Italy and am staying here a little longer than originally expected. I have my US based 360 here and occasionally game during the week (weekends I become a tourist :p). Aside from wanting to connect to LIVE, to play online and to keep in touch with friends and family more often, wifey comes to visit me on occasion and some video data disks I pop into the 360 require codec updates forcing us to watch via my laptop.

So long story short, I now want to connect to LIVE for various reasons. I've read online, and attempted unsuccessfully, that I could use my laptop as a network bridge and get on LIVE. I'm having difficulties on this, mainly with one of the 1st steps. Here's what I have and have done:


360 Elite (no wireless adapter) w/NXE update
Windows XP based laptop
TIM (Telecom Italia) USB internet key
ethernet cable
cross over cable


The most success I had was the laptop message saying it recognized a new network hardware but I fail everywhere else, on laptop and on MS's 360 network connection test. I've tried auto detect and manual selecting ip, etc info, even changed settings on control panel network settings per online guides but still no success.

All help is GREATLY appreciated.

:cool:

I've used it before several times with no problems. Seems to work best auto settings in my case. Just enable ICS on your laptop, then set the 360 to auto everything and it should work. You using Vista or XP on the laptop?

Can you just use a switch rather than trying to connect to thru the laptop? I did this in Iraq while my 360 was set for the U.S.

he can't use a switch, because his internet comes in on a USB key.


you need to connect the xbox to the laptop, then bridge the ethernet port with whatever little connection type the USB key sets up, and enable ICS.

post a screen shot of your network connections screen (control panel>network connections)

since you're in a different time zone, it may be a while before you can reply... so i'll post this too.




Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Network Connections.
Click the connection that you want to share (THIS IS THE CONNECTION THAT YOUR TIM ITALIA USB KEY CREATED), and then under Network Tasks, click Change settings of this connection.
On the Advanced tab, click to select the Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection check box.
Under Internet Connection Sharing in Home networking connection, select the connection that connects the computer that is sharing its Internet connection to the other computers on your network. (THIS IS YOUR ETHERNET PORT THAT WILL BE CONNECTED TO THE XBOX, DO NOT USE THE CROSSOVER CABLE.)

:eek::):)

Thanks guys for quick replies! I'm leaving the office shortly so I'll try it out and get back to you in the next few hours :)

since you're in a different time zone, it may be a while before you can reply... so i'll post this too.




Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Network Connections.
Click the connection that you want to share (THIS IS THE CONNECTION THAT YOUR TIM ITALIA USB KEY CREATED), and then under Network Tasks, click Change settings of this connection.
On the Advanced tab, click to select the Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection check box.
Under Internet Connection Sharing in Home networking connection, select the connection that connects the computer that is sharing its Internet connection to the other computers on your network. (THIS IS YOUR ETHERNET PORT THAT WILL BE CONNECTED TO THE XBOX, DO NOT USE THE CROSSOVER CABLE.)


OK so I did everything you said but the very last section, the 'Home networking connection' is not listed. I see Internet Connection Sharing for the TIM device under Advance Properties. All 3 boxes are checked. I tried running a LIVE test on the 360 but it came back with a failure at the 360->Network. I did a PC test also with the same error. :(

On the screen where you check the "Allow other network users to connect through the computer's internet connection", when you check that box, you may or may not see a drop-down appear underneath. That drop-down is named "Home networking connection" and is where you would select the other networking device. If you don't see it, it's likely that you have exactly two internet devices and the system is assuming that those are the two you'd like to share between.

You may need a step after all this where you right-click one of the devices under "Network Connections" and then pick "Bridge Connections". Or the problem may be that you have the Windows Internet Connection Firewall enabled on the external device; you'll have to first disable it to get this to work.

This is what I have set

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v463/cuco33/LIVEitalyCONNECT1.jpg

I clicked on Settings for Firewall and it's highlighted 'off' but with a message up top that says 'For your security, some settings are controlled by Group Policy (note this is work laptop but my company IT guy said I shouldn't have a problem)

If I right click and select 'Bridge Connections' on 'LAN or High-Speed Internet', I get a message that says 'To create a Network Bridge, you must select at least two LAN or High-Speed Internet connections that are not being used by Internet Connection Sharing' which I believe this is exactly where I was stuck last time I tried this back in Jan/Feb

Bumping this up. This past week I was busy playing UFC and now my friends are trash talking so more incentive to get on LIVE and bash some skulls in :p

again all help is greatly appreciated.

[QUOTE=formulanerd;16758730]he can't use a switch, because his internet comes in on a USB key.

you need to connect the xbox to the laptop, then bridge the ethernet port with whatever little connection type the USB key sets up, and enable ICS.
QUOTE]

I'm not sure that bridging is necessary, but since I dont know what this USB key deal is, I wont flat out say you're wrong. :p

The way this normally works is as follows (dumbing it down for beginners) and is exactly what I had done for 2 years while I used a Sprint PCS air card for primary internet access hooked to my PC via USB-

1. Enable ICS - accept all defaults. Reboot PC. This makes the PC the DHCP server on your network (the machine that handles assigning of IP addresses and other network related settings to other devices), and will automatically assign it the IP address of 192.168.1.1 (or is it ..0.1? cant remember). This is the first thing you need to check. If the IP of the PC isnt 192.168.1.1, then you need to troubleshoot the PC for what's causing the problem.

2. Plug a ethernet cable into the network card of the PC, and then connect the other end into the 360. Make sure that the network card on the PC isnt disabled, and that the 360 is set to automatically get it's IP from the network.

3. Connect the PC to the internet via the USB card. Browse the web or something to ensure that it's working. Also make sure it stays connected and doesnt time out after whatever amount of inactive time (some connections do this)

4. Crank up the 360, and then take a look at it's network properties to ensure that it's getting the correct info from the PC. Run the network test and troubleshoot as needed.

Hopefully this helps..... ICS can be a beast to people that arent familiar with it, but normally the default settings work. Also, check for the use of a firewall on the PC. Disable it on the network card connection to see if it makes a difference if it's enabled.

Good luck

Does it have to be a cross-over cable, or will a regular old patch cable work? OP, have you tried both ways? (plus are you sure that the cable you have is a crossover cable?)

Does it have to be a cross-over cable, or will a regular old patch cable work? OP, have you tried both ways? (plus are you sure that the cable you have is a crossover cable?)

I'm pretty sure the 360 will auto-negotiate, so no cross-over cable is needed.