Posted by eduard44 on 01/03/12 2:52PM

So, Windows 8 anyone?

BTW I waste most of my time trying to work around bugs that are fixed on final versions. 

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Posted by eduard44 on 12/18/11 9:02AM

[via]

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Posted by eduard44 on 12/03/11 7:18AM

It has been a long semester and you feel like taking a break before studying for finals. You want to use your Xbox 360 (or PS3), but you cannot play online or use any online feature (like Netflix) because it isn't compatible with the wireless network of your dorm room. Depending on how your university's network works and policies, the next solutions might work or not. 

Ethernet

If you're lucky and your dorm room or apartment has an Ethernet connection or a modem, you should be able to connect you console to the Internet by just plugging a cable between the two.

However, sometimes it not that easy. Some universities may require you to login or register your device. This usually requires a web browser. Sony included a web browser in the PS3, but Xbox users are not that lucky. The solution for this case would be to get a wired or wireless router. Again, depending on your university's policy, you should be able to register it. After that just connect your console to the router. 

Setting up a Wireless Client

While this setup requires generally more work, the concept behind it is very simple. This is for cases where you need to provide a username and password before connecting to the wireless network. If you have an Xbox, it is likely that it won't support this kind of authentication. The idea is to setup a wireless client and then connect it to your Xbox. Essentially, a wireless client is a device that works like any other laptop or smartphone in terms of connecting to a wireless network. The only difference is that it shares that connection with another device via Ethernet. These were used with old consoles (like the PS2) that did not support wireless connections. They can be found on Amazon at the $50-70 price range (example).

Wireless Client (The cheap way/Advanced)

This is the solution I'm currently using for my Xbox. Both my laptop and my smartphone can connect to the campus WiFi network without any problems. However, for some reason my Xbox doesn't support this kind of wireless network. This wasn't a problem, at least I thought, because my room had a modem on the wall for wired connections. The problem became apparent when I tried to use the connection for the first time. It was extremely slow for any game or content to download. Apparently the modem is years old; back from the era where 100 Mbps connections didn't exist. So, at this point I was left with a barely working Internet connection.

Looking for solutions on the web, I stumbled upon the idea of a wireless client/bridge, as I mentioned above these are between $50-70. This was way out of my college budget, and also I wasn't 100% sure that it would work. Luckily, I found out that the popular router software DD-WRT is able to work in client mode. After that, I was able to get a cheap router for $20. I installed DD-WRT and followed the instructions on their wiki for setting up a wireless client. This meant that the router would not be able to create a wireless network, but it would allow me to connect my Xbox. After I tried it out, it worked flawlessly. It doesn't get a very strong signal (34% to be exact) but it is definately better than the old modem.

Note: The process of installing DD-WRT into a router is not simple and it will probably void your device's warranty. 

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