I have a few persistent and frustrating problems with my xbox running xbmc...

1. The xbox is connected to a wireless ethernet bridge (Linksys WET610N) which is coupled to a WET54G router. The xbox finds the internet each time it is powered up, no problems. It has major problems, however, finding my network drive which is plugged into a laptop running windows XP plugged directly into the router. I have to physically go up and refresh the browser page at which time it usually asks for the name and password and then the xbox/bridge can see the drive.

2. The computer running the network drive does go into standby mode but my ext. hard drive never shuts down (i.e. light always on)...have played around with several settings--I would like to rest the drive to prolong the life and have it "wake up" when it is accessed from the xbox through the bridge/router...possible?

3. The ethernet bridge page consistently lists the bit rate as only 1mbps and as a probable result streaming video files particularly leads to stuttering and problems. I can upgrade to a n router if this will fix the problem but it doesn't seem right that the bit rate is only 1 mbps, correct?...

BTW, the wireless ethernet bridge has the latest firmware as well as my router.

Any help would be greatly appreciated...thanks!!!

Some partial answers:

1) You can't access network shares on a machine which is asleep/in standby. If you want the drive to be accessible all the time without waking the machine up and refreshing, you will have to prevent it from going into sleep mode.

2) See the answer to the previous question. Unless the drive itself supports a separate low power mode, it's going to be on when it's plugged into an active PC, and having it plugged into a sleeping PC is useless for your purposes.

3) This sounds like the data rate one would get from an 802.11b connection, rather than an 802.11g connection. Have you confirmed that the two devices are able to connect using the "G" protocol? If so, you may need to manually change to a different channel (out of the three choices, 1, 6 and 11) to reduce interference which may be degrading the signal.

Thanks for the reply...I thought I had already disabled the sleep mode but I'll look at it again...how would I confirm the two devices are connecting via the G protocol and manually changing the channel? Would that be through the browser settings for the router and bridge or would that be done through the xbox device? Also, how much improvement would there be by shelling out the money for a n router vs. the g router I have now? Big difference?

The answer to your question about how to adjust the channel and/or how to view the current active connection varies depending on the router and bridge. But yes, basically connecting to the router's web interface and viewing the settings there is how this would be done. Make sure you're set to "G only" or "G/B" in terms of supported wireless protocols. You can also connect the wireless bridge to a PC and access it's web interface to see things on the other side.

I'm not sure you need the "N" router if you're getting proper "G" data rates, but you're not getting those right now.

Thanks again...I changed my router settings to "g only" from "disabled, mixed, b only, or g only" choices and changed the channel from 6 to 1 and 11...bridge "standard channel" setting reflects the channel change each time but bit rate remains 1 mpbs on each channel...

If it still connects after you reboot both devices when the router is set to "G only", then plainly it's an 802.11g connection. Assuming you don't have a bad setting which locks the data rate to such a low speed on one of the two sides (presumably it should be "Auto"), then you have something else wrong. Perhaps you should try adjusting your antennas or the way in which the devices sit?

I haven't heard much good in the way of good things in pratice about wireless bridges.

Is it possible to hardwire to your 360 or get the the 360 wifi adapter (solved alot of my problems when I was runnning a wire to my pc and ICS to the WIFI router)

Is it possible to move your external harddrive around? Plug it into your 360 when you want to use your 360, plug it in to laptop when you want to use laptop?

I don't have a 360, I'm running XBMC on a softmodded original XBox. The external drive is plugged into the laptop via USB connection. The only thing the laptop is set to do is turn the monitor off (no hibernation, sleep, screensaver, etc.) yet I still need to refresh the ethernet bridge page, reentering the username and password to "wake it up" to get it to find my network drive...I can not figure this out.

Streaming flash video content works great for 5-10 minutes, then abruptly stops, also fast forwarding/rewinding doesn't work without a struggle either... Would changing WMM from background make a difference (i.e. into best effort, voice or video)? Is that possible (tried best effort and it doesn't seem to let me)...last night it seemed to bounce from 1 to 54mbps and between...

I would upgrade to a n router but I don't want to spend the cash unless it's going to fix the problem...

You may want to check out the HTPC guys forum for some of your questions...specifically this thread, (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=635294) That I have been pointed to for any questions that may arise.
Most of the topics here will apply to 360...As far as I have discerned only a few that hang here are messing with the whole HTPC/Media Center thing, and you really don't see a lot using an original modded box anymore...I am just beginning to get into it, and I have been watching your thread in anticipation of having trouble streaming...
I am fairly sure Wireless G is going to have a hard time with streaming content, movies and such...
Have you checked out XBMC and XBOXscene forums?

I am fairly sure Wireless G is going to have a hard time with streaming content, movies and such...
Oh, and why's that? Even in only marginal signal conditions, it still provides more bandwidth than most folks actually have to the outside world (i.e. it's faster than their Internet connection). Unless you're streaming high definition content at a high bit rate from a local PC, there's absolutely no issue at all using 802.11g.

I regularly stream Netflix movies and television shows using my 802.11g bridge connected to my Xbox 360 and never have a hiccup. I get the full "4 bars" for standard definition content, and get the same "second to best" high definition feed that I get on my wired PC, and again, that's because I only have a 3 Mbps Internet connection, so I'm not rated for the highest bandwidth feed!

Again, I am only just getting set up, so my experience is limited only to what I have read here and in the HTPC forums...where they have regular servers set up with enough power and memory to do HD video and THEY are eexperiencing hiccups and stuttering. You may be doing Netflix, and I am sure it is, as you say, working fine, BUT they have this specifically set up for the 360 and MS, the XBMC and original box is all freeware stuff that people are homebrewing, and is a bit aged, compared to the 360 and codes written specifically for the purpose....
By all means chime in with some suggestions to help...it seems he has hit a stumbling block that noone here has been able to answer, I was merely offering what little I know about the subject.

Well if the whole point of the laptop is to stream media why not put in the same room as the 360 and run a wire, or bettet yet run a s-video out from the laptop to the TV.
A server in a typical situtation doesn't need to be very powerful for HD video as it is not encoding, or decoding the video, merly sending it from point A to Point B. Such as loading off HDD and then sending to xbox, now if it has to transcode thats whole other ball game.

I have tried XBMC forums but still haven't been able to optimize this...the bridge usually shows the bit rate as 1 mpbs even though my router is now set to g only. When I'm streaming movies (not hi-def) off of my external drive it mostly works ok but still problems rewinding and does stutter on occasion so not optimal...streaming content off the internet as mentioned before is not good. Flash content tends to just shut itself off after 10-15 minutes...

I have an original xbox with an ethernet port and the external hard drive is a usb connection...