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Sunday 16 March 2003

Xbox dead [slim]

Console online easy? Not for me!

10 comments:

  1. Xbox live was officialy released on Friday, woot. So I trot down the shops yesterda (saturday) picked meself up a box of console online sex and some bits from the pc shop to hook me xbrick up to me lan.

    My plan was to avoid running another network cable from my adsl equipped den into the living room, as me shuttle wot I do dvd's and stuff on is already near the telly and has a cable to it. Got that? ok. So the plan was to use the usb out on the shuttle with an ethernet adapter, and into the xbox. sorted.

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  2. Except i'm not, and it's sunday and the shops are shut. First off I'm a mong that bought a regular ethernet cable instead of an x-over cable, what a cock. Second it seems you can only have one ics pc on the network, as it insists on being 192.168.0.1. Wank. So I'm pacifying myself by wearing the headset while shouting at the kids. That's apparently quite an authentic xboxlive experience, so I don't think I'm missin much.

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  3. I've a roll of Cat5 and a bag of plugs, I could make you a x-over to order. Also, I don't think that 192.168.0.1 restriction is there on XP from memory? Just the ICS on Win2K, ME and earlier. I'm puzzled though, how does the shuttle jack into your LAN? Do you run a single network cable to it? Why not just slap a hub there? No cross-over, no ICS, nuffin. Then you can properly port map stuff to the Xbox as necessary without having to go through two firewalls (nightmare!).
    Oh and don't forget to change the toner in the xbox :)

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  4. To consider Xbox Live as the revolution that is going to get Joe Public online and gaming, the setup is incredibly NOT for Joe Public really. I mean they provide the instructions, on their web site Xbox Live- but I had to buy a 25m Ethernet x-over cable AND an Ethernet Adapter, and setup Internet Connection Sharing. All of this will be gobble-de-gook to your average Joe. And even I was a little aprehensive about taking my first steps into home networking - just so I could play a few games. I'd have expected a more out-of-the-box solution really. So hooking up the old black box has been a bit of a toil, and an expensive one for me.
    Is it all worth it?
    I guess so, after having played about 11 hours straight with a mate of mine living in Yankyland. Admittedly beer was involved, and plenty of use of the communicator (be it abuse, giggling like schoolgirls or just chatting in the lobby about life and stuff). Only time will tell if it can break out of being a novelty or a cheap way to phone the States. I'm hoping Phantasy Star Online will save us all, again.

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  5. I can't see PSO being a savior. I mean it's a pretty darn simplistic game. The only reason it was ever popular was because there wasn't much to do and people just sat around chatting so it was some sort of bizarre chat system with avatars. This sort of thing is huge in Korea but I think we'd like more of a game really.

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  6. I can pick up an xover cable no problem tomorrow, just fustrated that I bought the wrong one today. Didn't want to put a hub in, as that's more expense, cables and yet another powered thing in an area that's stacked with powered things.
    I think most people will just use a hub/router all in one box like the netgear and not put themselves through this grief. But with adsl in one room and the tv in another it's a bit of a faff. Wireless would be another way I guess..

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  7. Except that the Wireless would be expensive (much more than a hub) and yet another powered thing...

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  8. I'd go with the hub solution myself, because then you've still got just the one cat5 running to the lounge, but you know you can peer anything you like in there from the hub. Ken and I relied on ICS for a while but it's best dumped if at all feasible.
    A Netgear 5-port for the lounge is going to be dirt cheap isn't it? I've been looking at the new Neatgear DSL router&switch combo, with an eye to replace the AR601 that has been occasionally iffy for us. Then Ken can dump his shitey 10Mbit hub and use the 10/100 switch that I'm currently using out of the router :)

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  9. No point using a netgear switch just for a console and pc in the lounge. An el-cheapo hub stuffed in all the usual hi-fi wires would get the job done surely. Hmm whatever happened to those PC network cards with 3 jacks on them, IE the built in hubs? I did a quick search and turned up zilch.

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  10. Your both prolly right though, the usb to ethernet thign is a bit of a soft idea in retrospect. I've got some fuckoff long ethernet cable which'll do me for now, but the solution is to put a hub in the tv cab. I'll need that for when the ps2 and gamecube are online anyway :)
    I need to upgrade to a decent netgear router anyhow, so I'll have a spare hub after that.
    Hopefully a report on weather xbox live was worth it will follow later!

    Aaaanyway, I'm on now woot. Just ran a fuckoff long cable from my den in the end that I'll have to roll out to play. It'll do for now.
    I'm impressed, the signup is very smooth, if time consuming entering all me details and cc info in using just a pad. It found my dhpcserver itself and gave itself an ip as you'd expect it to, so I didn't have to faff with any technicals at all. Getting a game on for motogpseems very easy indeed, select multiplayer and off you go. Worked very well too with hardly any noticable lag. Quality of the voice comms isvery impressive, although I blurted out a whole load of shit about the baby going to bed to the wife before realising the headset was on,oops. Never played an online racing game, have to say it's lots of fun for the same reason other online games are fun, the players areunpredictable and make proper mistakes and stuff, top.
    Tried to play mechassault, but it requires a patch, which it's currently downloading. So far, so good. Shame there's not a bit moreto play. I must say, I'd quite like an rpg to veg out in front of the telly with :)

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