Cheap Xbox 360 / Home Theater WiFi Solution

May 30th, 2007, 14:26 Posted By: Triv1um

Via IGN

Built in WiFi isn't yet ubiquitous and plenty of gaming and home theater gear needs to get online. $99 adapters? No way. We do it on the cheap.

The internet has, after many years, finally penetrated the living room, primarily on the back of gaming consoles like the Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360. There's plenty of other stuff in the living room that needs a connection to the net, like high-end A/V receivers that can stream internet radio, HD-DVD and Blu-ray players for firmware updates and forthcoming interactive content, TiVos for sharing recorded content, and Slingboxes for streaming your own TV.

Despite the fact that WiFi is ubiquitous as the home networking solution of choice, almost none of these devices, including the Xbox 360 and low-end PS3, have integrated WiFi. As such, owners must extend Ethernet to their living rooms, or buy hardware-specific WiFi adapters, as in the case of the Xbox 360. Neither solution is terribly convenient, as running Ethernet all over the house is a pain, and dedicated wireless adapters are severely overpriced ($99 for the 360 adapter, common!).

Happily, there exists another option that is superior to all others in terms of cost, convenience, and expandability. WiFi-to-Ethernet bridges have fallen off the map since the early days of home networking, yet are exactly what so many need today. As the name suggests, the tools are essentially WiFi receivers with a built in network switch, the combination of which allows multiple Ethernet equipped devices to connect the adapter and share a WiFi connection to the home network.

A functional WiFi-Enternet bridge can be constructed from an old-school Ethernet router and a WiFi access point, if such spare hardware is lying around out of use. For the most convenient of installs, however, an all in one solution is ideal. The most readily available is Buffalo Technology's AirStation Turbo G High Power Wireless Ethernet Converter (WLI-TX4-G54HP), which Amazon sells for $64.65 at the moment.

Buffalo's product accepts up to four connected devices via Ethernet and connects them to 802.11G networks. In our Gear-test theater we're running one with an Xbox 360 (immediate $35 savings versus the official Microsoft adapter), a Home Theater PC, and a Slingbox AV. Setup is easiest if one is using a Buffalo WiFi-router, but after an initial configuration we had ours connected to our D-Link-router's network without much hassle. After that it was a simple task of connecting Ethernet from our devices to the Buffalo bridge and we were up and running.

In pretty much every aspect the Ethernet Bridge solution is superior to alternatives. It's significantly cheaper than just one Xbox 360 WiFi adapter and allows up to 4 devices to share the connection. Better yet, the Buffalo bridge can accept alternative antennas for situations in which signal strength is weak.

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Click here if you didnt see the amazon link

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