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[Scrufdog]

I travel a lot, like 9-10 months out of the year I'm on the road. For short trips of 2 weeks or less I take only my xbox with me (not my computer as well). I use the xbox for checking email, surfing and games. I would like to have my xbox ready for any type of hotel I go to without having to carry extra external equipement, whether the hotel has wireless or wired internet.

Im thinking of installing a wireless router in my xbox. I can get a cheap Belkin for like $15. I figure I can install it inside the xbox, run the ethernet connection from the xbox to the router internally then have an ethernet jack from one of the 4 ports mounted on the case, as well as the internet-in jack.

So, am I thinking correction when I think, that when I'm home I just connect the LAN port to my home router, and when I'm at a wired internet hotel I plug it into the Internet-in port? Is it really that easy?

 

[ferrari_rulz_02]

QUOTE(manski2 @ Jul 29 2005, 05:05 PM)

My question is why only enable one lan port external? you could expose all four through the rear of the xbox and be a walking lan party...

[Scrufdog]

yeah, i was thinking all 4 as well

but will a router to router connection be just as simple as running a cable?

[spinr34]

every router acts as a switch.  that's what that handy uplink port is for next to port 4 (or 8 if u have a nice 8 port).  the internet/wan port is if you are coming directly from a modem.  if you want net in a hotel, you'd just have to plug it into the uplink port, considering you are connecting the xbox internally to say port 1 of the internal router.  the reason why you wouldn't put the hotel connect to the internet port on a router is because their data is already being routed, unless you wanted to hook up multiple computers/xboxs through 1 hotel connection then you would route it.  i hope that answers the question and yes it would be as easy as just plugging it in considering the transformation of the router into the xbox is fine.  you could probably get away with just putting a switch in the xbox, will prolly save some hassel with configuration and what not since switches are more plug and play.

[tgm4883]

Im not sure if we are understanding this entirely.  It seems to me that in hotels with wireless access he doesn't want to have to plug into an ethernet jack to get internet, he wants to be able to use the wireless that he installed into his xbox.  I dont know much about connecting two wireless routers wirelessly, but i am very interested in what comes out of this.

[The Zep Man]

Before this topic gets flooded with a lot of incomplete information:

Any wireless-device knows basically 2 modes (there are a lot more configurations possible, but these are the most popular):

-Access Point Mode
-Client (Managed/Ad-Hoc) Mode.

When in Access Point Mode, a device will accept connections from clients (who can authenticate with it in a few different ways), so they can access the wired network (either routed or not, OSI-level 2 or 3).

When in Client Mode, a device will try to connect with an Access Point (also called Managed or Infrastructure). A Client can also be reconfigured to connect with another client (Ad-Hoc).

Connecting two devices in Access Point Mode isn't really a standard. Most of the time, you will need two AP's from the same manufacturer. Anyway, it takes a lot of configuring for a novice.

The problem with hotels is that they will have Access Points and that AP of yours probably can't bridge with them. A solution might be to run Linux on the device (which can bridge by putting an AP-device in client mode, thereby making everything transparant), but this is a big quest.

My solution: buy a 2nd-hand laptop (which can work with Windows XP+SP2) and a wireless PCMCIA-card. I wouldn't drag my Xbox along just for checking mail/the internet. Games might be interesting, but then again...

[ferrari_rulz_02]

QUOTE(The Zep Man @ Jul 30 2005, 07:36 AM)

My solution: buy a 2nd-hand laptop (which can work with Windows XP+SP2) and a wireless PCMCIA-card.

[Scrufdog]

I got a netgear WRG614 to stuff in the xbox. However, that may now become my home router and my WRT54G may become the xbox router. I found some 3rd party firmware that allows the WRT54G to switch over to client/bridge mode.

I'd rather have the Netgear router in there since its smaller, however.

Anyone know of a site I can find 3rd party firmware for netgear stuff?

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and yeah, i could do this the easy way and just get a wireless bridge, but what fun is that?

[Scrufdog]

havent opened up the linksys yet. but I've seen pics of the board and from them I can tell its about 7x6.5. There are only a few components the stick off the board (caps and coils). I shouldnt have much of a problem fitting it in there. If need be I can take the caps and coils off the board and wire them up somewhere out of the way.

just gonna be a shitload of desoldering to get the jacks off the board. im gonna swap routers tomorrow on the network and start on the disassembly.

and im pretty sure its a 12v power supply for it so I can indeed run it off the xbox PSU

[ferrari_rulz_02]

QUOTE(Scrufdog @ Jul 31 2005, 11:08 AM)

and im pretty sure its a 12v power supply for it so I can indeed run it off the xbox PSU

[Scrufdog]

just 3 LED's so power shouldnt be a problem.

the only problem im having right now is getting this new firmware onto the WRT54G. It keeps screwing up, and now it wont get back to defaults. Need to open it up and get it working again.

[ferrari_rulz_02]

QUOTE(Scrufdog @ Jul 31 2005, 06:33 PM)

just 3 LED's so power shouldnt be a problem.

[Scrufdog]

opening it and shorting certain pins on the flash chip blanked it, and let me reflash an official firmware back on it. After that was done it took the 3rd party flash just fine.

So all is good now for the moment with this project. Router has proper firmware on it to switch between access point and bridge. Next step is reading up a bit more and seeing exactly what I have to do to get the bridge part working properly and try it out.

Unfortunately however, tomorrow I'm heading up to South Jersey for the day, and monday morning I leave for PA till wednesday. So this project is on hold till then.

Not too bad though, at least I am making progress.

Next steps are...

.Configure to act as bridge; once properly done move on to...
.Desoldering ports, antenna mounts and maybe LED's from board and mount on back of xbox
.Run wiring from mounted stuff back to the board
.Play away

[ferrari_rulz_02]

just make sure that when you move everythine, that all the wiring is 100%, and there are no shorts. otherwise you might end up with quite a big problem.

[Scrufdog]

Looking good so far.