Preparing For Xbox Online Gaming (1 Viewer)

[Dave Scarpa]

I Know that you can connect right now with Gamespy Tunnel or XBConnect. But this also for further down the line.
My Xbox is in my Basement Theater. My DSL Modem is up in a spare office bedroom upstairs. Now I'm probably going to have to pick up a hub, some Cat5 and run a line. Since I have phone lines in both locations, should I place the hub and modem in the basement and run the line to the PC ? Or vica versa. I think the run would be under 100ft, but I'm thinking having the shorter run to the xbox would help for lagtime etc. Any opinions?

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Put the hub by the X-Box and get a wireless network. I love my wireless network.

 

[Travis Kolesar]

Call me super paranoid, but wireless, while convenient, doesn't seem to be safe for something that you'll want to transmit secure data.

Anyways, I haven't noticed any lag using a long cable run for my parents computers, where one is on the second floor and one is in their basement. Your isp might be able to tell you if there would be any problems with a long data line run like that. My only thought would be that if you ever decide to get a PS2 and want to play online with that you would probably want the modem and the router with the consoles.

 

[Jeff Peake]

Lag will not be an issue with any length of cat5 cable. I think the maximum length of a segment is 500ft or something like that, so 100ft to the basement will be fine.

propegation delay from NY to CA is only like 20ms, so 100ft isnt gonna take too long to traverse!

JP

 

[Peter McDonald]

How much is the X-Box online service going to cost when it comes out?

Peter

 

[Chris Bardon]

More importantly, what sort of speeds have people been getting with the Gamespy connections? For example, how many players can you get in a Halo game before things start lagging...

 

[pitchman]

How much is the X-Box online service going to cost when it comes out?

I believe MS announced at E3 it'll be $50 for the first year (unlimited usage) and it comes with the hardware voice peripheral, too.

Gary

 

[Dave F]

Wireless is an _excellent_ option. Especially with prices dropping all the time. Plus, it is soooo flexible. If you decide to get a laptop in the future, pick up a wireless card and off you go. Ipaq? Get a wireless Compact Flash card. If you ever move your furniture, no need to worry about the cables - just pick it up and move. In regards to security, the greater issue is neighbors leeching off your connection, not intercepting your data (which is encrypted anyway).
And of course, one less cable!
-Dave

 

[Morgan Jolley]

About wireless...

You can also set the max number of comps that can connect to the device at any one time and you can set a password so people can't connect to the device nor alter the settings. If someone does alter it, just reset it by hitting the button and you can set all the info back (its actually not that painless, ours was going wacky for a while and it took less than 5 minutes to set it all back up again).

 

[Dave E H]

Wireless works pretty well. If you have the space and time to run a cable, it's probably better and will be less flaky (not succeptible to interference, etc.) but it's a heck of a lot faster to set up.

FYI - I just set up my own wireless net at home w/ a Linksys WAP11 - good unit!

 

[Steve K.H.]

Wireless works excellent for home computing especially with say a laptop computer.

For gaming, one word... latency.

No matter what people tell you, wireless will NOT equal immediate transfer time that you attain from being wired in (Cat5 or Cat5e).

Go dual... wired for your fixxed locations and wireless for the laptop or other hard to run locales.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Morgan, they're right. If/when you start online gaming you'll see the difference. That's why I'm wired all the way

 

[Dean DeMass]

I agree with many here about wireless for gaming. For gaming, you are better off running cable. A 100' with CAT-5 cable is not a problem. I have a 50' run from my router to my X-box/PS2 and it is just fine.

-Dean-

 

[Eric Samonte]

To answer the speed with Gamespy, its iffy at best. I tried Halo on it for a while but it seems more laggy than usual....and I do have a cable modem. Pity....

 

[Andre F]

Looks like a lot of us are facing the problem of running cable to different locations in our homes to play games online. I've had a home network set up now for a long time now and cringe at the thought of running a cable to my living room to play games. It will not be an easy run...

Does anyone know where to get a long run of Cat5 for cheap (I don't want to have to assemble to the cord)?

-Andre F

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Home Depot has cheap cat5 for sale, that's where I'll be going.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Some of you missed what I said. If you put the modem and the hub near the gaming consoles, then you don't need to use them wirelessly. Just connect the XB to the hub and you can use it online. AFAIK, there is no way to use the X-Box wirelessly, so you might as well just use a cable anyway.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Yes there is Morgan. It has built in Ethernet, you can buy transmitters that plug into any ethernet card

 

[Kelley_B]

I have my Xbox and my PC in the same room, it will just be a matter of running the Cat5 under the floorboards.

BTW - I wouldn't get wireless for gaming, latency...its a killer.

 

[Dean Cooper]

I'm just jumping in on a couple things here.

I'm pretty sure that it would be much simplier to use a DSL/Cable router instead of a hub as your Xbox will need its own IP for the live service (It doesn't work the same as the Gamespy Halo hack that simulates a lan). Correct me if I'm wrong here.

The other is the Live package. It will consist of:
a) The communicator
b) A free online game called Revolt
c) A year subscription to the Live service
All for $50...not too shabby at all if you ask me

Dean