Wireless adapter.

[moycon]

Lightning hit my house a few days ago and fried most of my Ethernet NICs (inlcuding the one in my new Elite!) I should have had the phone line going through a surge protector so I guess its my fault they are fried now.

 

Does anyone have the wireless adapter? Can I use this if my 360 is downstairs below the room that has my wireless router? How are the speeds? Will I see a difference from a hardwired network moving to the wireless? Also do you think I should just go the wireless route or return the 360 to MS and have them replace the NIC card?

[MCHufnagel]

Lightning hit my house a few days ago and fried most of my Ethernet NICs (inlcuding the one in my new Elite!) I should have had the phone line going through a surge protector so I guess its my fault they are fried now.

 

Does anyone have the wireless adapter? Can I use this if my 360 is downstairs below the room that has my wireless router? How are the speeds? Will I see a difference from a hardwired network moving to the wireless? Also do you think I should just go the wireless route or return the 360 to MS and have them replace the NIC card?

I don't use a wireless router for by Xbox 360, but I set up a cheap Wireless G for my PC that is in the basement. The wireless router is in a room above the PC and the PC says the signal strength is 74%. I guess with a better (Wireless N) setup, it would be stronger. I'm still a newbie with wireless.

[Atari5200]

it will work, i use the wireless adapter that my router is in 2 rooms before my living room so it has to travel through 1 wall, then a full room, then another wall and about 5 feet from that wall to get to the router and the speeds are fine. Even my PSP at the farthest reaches of my house gets signal strength of 80-90% and I know the 360 router is faster than the PSP wifi. I can stream between my PC and 360 video with absolutely no problems and downloads seem to be about 3/4 of the speed of my normal DSL so even thats still pretty fast. Playing on Live, i've never had any problems with lag or anything.

[Lord Helmet]

I'd send it back to MS and have it fixed.

[Hyper_Eye]

I would have it fixed as well.

 

But, as for the wireless, it works very well. I have had my house set up for wireless for a few years and I can tell you that the latency is the same. The question is speed and reliability. As long as you maintain a decent signal (50% or above) you should see identical performance on anything internet related. The wireless is not going to transfer files over the network as fast as machines connected through 10/100 or 10/100/1000 ethernet. But even the local network, at 54mbps with standard 802.11g, is plenty fast. You should have zero problem streaming music and videos to it even if they are high-def. The MS adapter is particularly well made, in my opinion, and is very functional.

[moycon]

I have considered getting it fixed for sure. My concern is, any Live content bought on one unit can only be accessed on another unit if you are signed into Live. If you are not signed in, your games revert to Trial versions and movies wont play. I'm afraid they will wind up sending me a whole new system and I'm not sure I want that.

[Lord Helmet]

I have considered getting it fixed for sure. My concern is, any Live content bought on one unit can only be accessed on another unit if you are signed into Live. If you are not signed in, your games revert to Trial versions and movies wont play. I'm afraid they will wind up sending me a whole new system and I'm not sure I want that.

 

When you send it in, they will have you keep your faceplate and HD.

[moycon]

I have considered getting it fixed for sure. My concern is, any Live content bought on one unit can only be accessed on another unit if you are signed into Live. If you are not signed in, your games revert to Trial versions and movies wont play. I'm afraid they will wind up sending me a whole new system and I'm not sure I want that.

 

When you send it in, they will have you keep your faceplate and HD.

 

Yes I know, but I thought its the unit that causes the issue. I returned first premium system to them and I received another, keeping the HD like you said, then when I tried to play the old games on the new unit (original HD) not signed into Live, they would revert to the Trial versions. Not a huge deal I know, because I plan on keeping Live, but at times when Live is taken down, or like now when I can't connnect the 360 easily to the internet it's a bit of a pain.

[Flojomojo]

You're asking a few different questions here:

 

Repair vs. live with it? I would send it back for repairs, especially since it's brand new and under warranty. If your ethernet port was damaged, there might have been other damage as well. Get it fixed.

 

Wired vs. wireless? I use my 360 on my wireless network and it's been fine. The voice channels are already super-compressed and games don't eat much bandwidth anyway. However, you should still get your box fixed. The wireless adapter at $100 is a huge ripoff. The inconvenience of not having your downloadable content if you can't get online is pretty much equivalent to the hassle of giving up the wired ethernet jack in my opinion. You paid for that hardware, and you deserve to be able to do system link or local LAN parties. Either wired or wireless is OK.

 

Downloadable content rights? If you plan to keep this new system (and you should, since you spent $500 on it), it's very likely that you'll acquire more new content- especially now that you have a nice big drive. I would think that anything you buy new from now on would be locked to this box, so get it fixed and you'll have a longer future of hassle-free downloaded content. If this box fails, you're in the same situation. Fix it now, while it's free to do so, and be ready for the future.

[moycon]

Downloadable content rights? If you plan to keep this new system (and you should, since you spent $500 on it), it's very likely that you'll acquire more new content- especially now that you have a nice big drive. I would think that anything you buy new from now on would be locked to this box, so get it fixed and you'll have a longer future of hassle-free downloaded content. If this box fails, you're in the same situation. Fix it now, while it's free to do so, and be ready for the future.

 

All good points. The Elite is under warrantee untill like 2010 tho (Gotta love extentended warrantees) So it'll be free to fix for a good while. I've been using it, and other than it wont connect anymore via Ethernet, it's been performing fine. Still You're right, one of the things I wouldn't mind trying out is linking the two systems together. I guess I'll call MS and see what my optins are, maybe they can replace the NIC and send me back the same system.

[Hyper_Eye]

You are right that using a different console will result in the DLC being checked on Live. But, MS no longer simply sends another unit and repairs your old one later. They will repair your console if it is at all possible.

[moycon]

You are right that using a different console will result in the DLC being checked on Live. But, MS no longer simply sends another unit and repairs your old one later. They will repair your console if it is at all possible.

 

Good to know. Hopefully they will just swap out the NIC then. It'll make things much much easier, and in the mean time I can still play all the 360 I want since I still have my old premium system. Thanks for the advice guys.

 

EDIT : OK it's all set up. I called customer support, who by the way for all those who state otherwise, were very helpfull and spoke perfect english. Thats about 6 out 6 for me. I swear I must have a different support number thenthose people that claim MS has the worst customer service. LOL

Anyways, They will ship me a coffin free of charge to send them the unit. It sounds like they can just replace the NIC and leave the system alone other than that. I guess time will tell.

Edited June 14, 2007 by moycon