Xbox - Jake Ludington

Put Music on Xbox 360 with no PC Network Connection

"I am trying to get music from my PC to my Xbox 360. The problem is that my PC is an older model so it doesn't have an Ethernet port. Is there any way to do this?" There are basically two ways to get music files from your PC to your Xbox 360. Option one is to use your home network. If your computer doesn't have an Ethernet port, this option is out unless you feel comfortable adding an Ethernet port. Option two is to use physically transport the files from your PC to your Xbox 360 using some kind of storage media....

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Xbox 360 Media Sharing

"How can I share media from my PC to my Xbox 360? I have a bunch of videos on my PC and I'd like to play them on my Xbox without having to copy the files." There are two similar solutions for sharing both videos and music from a PC to your Xbox 360. Both require some basic configuration on your computer. One option is to download and install the Zune software from Zune.net. The other option is to use Windows Media Player 11 to stream movies and music to your computer. Older versions of Windows Media Player will not work, so you may need to use Windows Update in order to update your WMP software to the latest version. I went through the basics of this in an article on streaming DivX to your Xbox 360, but I'll also cover it here as a solution for all media types....

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What kind of modem do I need to connect Xbox Live?

"What kind of modem do I need to connect my Xbox 360 to Xbox Live?" The modem you will need to connect your Xbox 360 to Xbox Live is an external modem provided by your broadband ISP. Typically you will want to purchase a router to connect to the modem provided by your ISP, with your Xbox 360 connecting to the router. If you plan to use a wired connection to connect your Xbox 360 to the router, you need to connect the Ethernet port on the back of the Xbox 360 to one of the Ethernet ports on the router. If you want to connect your Xbox 360 using wireless, you will need a wireless router and the Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter....

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Do I need a wireless connection for my Xbox 360?

Ryan writes, "OK, so I'm going to buy an Xbox pretty soon but I do not want to spend $100 dollars connecting it to Xbox Live, so my question is, can I hook up my Ethernet cable to a normal router, then connect the router to my my cable Internet source through just a normal cable wall outlet?"

I'm going to assume the $100 you want to avoid spending is for the Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter. If you want the Xbox Live Gold membership, you still need to pay the required subscription fee regardless of what type of connection you use. You do not need to connect your Xbox 360 using a wireless connection. In general, I recommend using a wired connection either by simply connecting your Xbox 360 directly to a router using an Ethernet cable or by using Ethernet over Powerline adapters. In my experience, things like streaming audio and video wirelessly to your Xbox 360 work just fine, but online gaming is very likely to lag using wireless and you get a far better experience with a wired connection.

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Bourne Conspiracy Xbox 360 and PS3 Tips and Cheats

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy isn't nearly as free-form as the marketing suggests. You can't interact with the world during hand-to-hand the way the game suggests, it decides for you. Still it's a fairly engaging game based on the Matt Damon interpretation of Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne character. Here are walk-through strategies and cheats that should help you beat Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy:

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Xbox 360 Live Vision Camera Alternative?

"Can i use any other cameras instead of the Xbox 360 Live Vision camera? I have a Logitech webcam that I'd like to use instead."

As of this writing, the only camera supported by the Xbox 360 is the official Live Vision camera from Microsoft. It seems silly that they wouldn't enable any webcam to work with the video chat for the Xbox 360, but so far, the Live Vision is the only option. Presumably this is because Microsoft didn't want to test hundreds of cameras and store Webcam drivers on the reserved hard disk space available for updates to the system.

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Play Xbox 360 on a Computer Monitor

"I want to use my Xbox with my computer, but I don't want to use the TV screen. I want to use the computer screen instead. Is there anything that I need to get to enable this?" As long as your computer monitor has at least one VGA connection, you'll need to things to have a great Xbox 360 gaming experience. First you need an Xbox 360 VGA cable. Microsoft makes the Xbox 360 VGA HD AV Cable, which sells for about $40. There are also 3rd-party Xbox VGA cables for about $20. Ideally if your computer screen has two inputs, you can leave your computer connected to one, connect the Xbox 360 to the other, and then simply switch to the one you need....

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Connecting Xbox 360 to Router on Another Floor

"My Xbox 360 is on the 1st floor and my router is upstairs on the 2nd floor of my house. What are my options for connecting my Xbox 360 to my network?"

If your router is wireless, you could simply get the Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter and connect (assuming you have a decent wireless network signal between floors). I'm in a similar situation. My Xbox 360 is upstairs and my router is downstairs. For a long time, I've used the Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter to play games and stream video to my Xbox. Sometime recently (possibly after my wife got her iPhone), the wireless network seemed to hit a point where too much traffic was causing hiccups in streaming video. I recently switched to using an Ethernet over Powerline solution, which has solved all the problems with my video streaming. Here's a video showing how Ethernet over Powerline works:

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Corinex GameNet - Powerline Ethernet

GameNet Ethernet over Powerline Adapter I'm currently getting enough interference on the wireless connection in my house that I wanted a better solution for connecting my Xbox 360 to my network. Corinex sent me one of their GameNet units to review and so far I'm reasonably impressed. You basically connect one of them to a wall outlet near your game console, with the other connected to a power outlet near your router. Ethernet cable connects the hardware to your network and you're in business routing network traffic over the power lines in your house. Since connecting the GameNet hardware, video clips that used to occasionally buffer over wireless now consistently play smoothly, even when streaming them from a wirelessly connected computer. If your broadband modem and any of the computers or game consoles you want to network are on separate floors of the house, this is a highly effective way to get your network connection to the places you need it most without any rewiring or fighting wireless signal drop out. At $169.99 for the 2-outlet, 2-cable package, I think you might have better luck buying a competing Ethernet over Powerline solution from ebay. That said, I'm giving a strong recommend to this type of solution for anyone who has several PCs or game consoles spread out throughout their house. Watch the video below to see how it all works:

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Can I use a USB Wireless Adapter with my Xbox 360?

"Can a generic USB network adapter be used, or is the Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter required to connect the Xbox 360 to a wireless network?"

The short answer is you need the Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter to connect your Xbox 360 to your wireless network. None of the generic USB network adapters work with the Xbox 360. There are a couple of other options for getting connected without re-wiring your house or buying the official Xbox 360 wireless adapter by using some alternative hardware.

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