Help connecting to Xbox Live at college?

MillerTime2523

MillerTime2523

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Hey guys, I'm not really good with this kind of stuff so I figured I'd turn to CAG for help.

I'm back at school and literally just got an xbox around Christmas for the sake of playing with friends while we're away, but our network has some kind of login / security thing and the xbox doesn't recognize it.

What can I do? Could I wire my laptop to the xbox with an ethernet cord? I think I've tried that before but it didn't really work out since I don't think I had the right settings. I've also heard you could buy a router but being a CAG I'm not really looking to spend money, unless it's sure to work.

Any suggestions would be really helpful. Thanks CAG!
 
Just ask your schools IT services, they probably have helped plenty of people hook them up. Do you have a place to plug in the ethernet cord directly to the xbox? If so you probably just need to give them your MAC address.
 
I've heard many schools restrict online video game access because it takes up too much bandwidth.

Don't ask me.. I was in college during the Dreamcast days.
 
A router will work fine. I have the same thing at my school where you need to log in first before you access to the school's network. The 360 cant open the log in screen so it just blocks net access. When the 360 is connected through a router it will bypass the need for a log in, that's how I get live at my school.
 
[quote name='Sinfulfate']A router will work fine. I have the same thing at my school where you need to log in first before you access to the school's network. The 360 cant open the log in screen so it just blocks net access. When the 360 is connected through a router it will bypass the need for a log in, that's how I get live at my school.[/QUOTE]Not necessarily.

Most home routers will only know how to connect to the Internet via a small number of methods:
1) PPPoE for DSL
2) Static IP address
3) DHCP-provided address

From what the OP is explaining, there's either a proxy server or some other type of username/password requirement to get out to the Internet and a home router wouldn't know what to do.

Regardless, the OP should talk with his school's IT department and have them give him the right answer. We're just guessing here about what might or might not work around the issue.
 
What I do is run a crossover cable (cant be a regular ethernet cable, well it can, but they are so cheap its not worth the hassle of converting a regular one) from my laptop to my 360 and share the connection. My university has a separate hidden wifi connection for gaming with all the right ports open, so I connect on my laptop, plug the cable from my 360 to my laptop with the 360 on, go to network and internet --> change adapter settings, right click your wifi adapter, go to properties ---> sharing, enable sharing to LAN connection (or local, cant remember what it calls it), click ok and then run the connection test on the 360 and it should work. After that you should be able to just plug in the cord before you turn on your 360 and it will connect. It is a bit glitchy sometimes and you may have to disable sharing and re-enable it, but it beats buying a wireless adapter, but if you'll be playing it a lot it may be better to just get a router (didnt look into this as any network equipment is banned here) or an adapter. Since i only have time to play a few days a week this works for me. This is on Win 7 Ultimate, but I'm pretty sure the same steps will work with a bit of different wording for Vista or XP, don't know how to do it on mac though.
 
Contact your school, there should be a number you can contact if you have problems logging in. I had the same problem at my University.
 
[quote name='Sdawg']What I do is run a crossover cable (cant be a regular ethernet cable, well it can, but they are so cheap its not worth the hassle of converting a regular one) from my laptop to my 360 and share the connection. My university has a separate hidden wifi connection for gaming with all the right ports open, so I connect on my laptop, plug the cable from my 360 to my laptop with the 360 on, go to network and internet --> change adapter settings, right click your wifi adapter, go to properties ---> sharing, enable sharing to LAN connection (or local, cant remember what it calls it), click ok and then run the connection test on the 360 and it should work. After that you should be able to just plug in the cord before you turn on your 360 and it will connect. It is a bit glitchy sometimes and you may have to disable sharing and re-enable it, but it beats buying a wireless adapter, but if you'll be playing it a lot it may be better to just get a router (didnt look into this as any network equipment is banned here) or an adapter. Since i only have time to play a few days a week this works for me. This is on Win 7 Ultimate, but I'm pretty sure the same steps will work with a bit of different wording for Vista or XP, don't know how to do it on mac though.[/QUOTE]
This.You'll need one of these
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOu6K-M2yog
 
I'm fairly certain that you don't need a crossover cable to share a connection from a computer to the 360. I used a standard Ethernet cable a few years ago and it worked just fine. I did have to set a static IP for the 360, although I don't know if you even need to do that anymore.
 
You don't need a wireless bridge, as your laptop acts as a network bridge itself, just an ethernet cable plugged into your laptop... That's how I have XBL set up right now.
 
Regardless, the OP needs to talk with the university's IT department to see if they're doing anything to block Xbox Live or if Xbox Live is even allowed on-campus.

Hooking it up to get out to the Internet is another matter, and it's a moot point if they're blocking the ports needed for XBL.
 
Or he could just use his laptop as a wireless bridge and see if that works without having to ask for help from people who have no fucking clue what one of those gamebox things is. o_O

Connect wirelessly to school internets. Then run an ethernet from your laptop to the 360. Create a bridge between them through your internet connection settings. Then go into the internet connection settings manually on the 360. Go into your command prompt on your computer and do ipconfig/all. Then put all the info from the ipconfig/all into the manual settings for the 360. Make sure the 360's IP is one higher or something than the one your laptop is. It should work just fine.
 
Thanks fellas, I got it working through my laptop.

They aren't banning live exactly, but the official word is that wired internet is coming soon and basically just to wait for that. Knowing my school it's probably later than sooner, so I was looking for a work around until they add wired support to the dorms. This should work just fine in the mean time. I really appreciate the help!
 
[quote name='MillerTime2523']Hey guys, I'm not really good with this kind of stuff so I figured I'd turn to CAG for help.

I'm back at school and literally just got an xbox around Christmas for the sake of playing with friends while we're away, but our network has some kind of login / security thing and the xbox doesn't recognize it.

What can I do? Could I wire my laptop to the xbox with an ethernet cord? I think I've tried that before but it didn't really work out since I don't think I had the right settings. I've also heard you could buy a router but being a CAG I'm not really looking to spend money, unless it's sure to work.

Any suggestions would be really helpful. Thanks CAG![/QUOTE]

I can't speak for other schools, but the one I work for allows students to request an exception for gaming consoles to connect to the network. As others have suggested, contact your IT / Computing department via their help desk, and ask about the options.

If they don't allow it, then using a router might be a viable option. You'd probably have to connect with a computer connected via the router to do the login, and then you could use the 360.
 
[quote name='cplater']I can't speak for other schools, but the one I work for allows students to request an exception for gaming consoles to connect to the network. As others have suggested, contact your IT / Computing department via their help desk, and ask about the options.

If they don't allow it, then using a router might be a viable option. You'd probably have to connect with a computer connected via the router to do the login, and then you could use the 360.[/QUOTE]

This. When we first got to our school we had to register our laptops in order to connectg to the internet in our dorms. They made us register our Xbox just like it was a laptop. From there it was as simple as plugging the ethernet cable into the wall and playing. Like people have mentioned before, call up your school's IT support and they will walk you through. They probably get this question a lot, so they might even have a guide online walking you through it. Whatever you feel more comfortable doing, just reach out to them.
 
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