xbox luddite

Tipperarymike

Hi guys,

As per above , I am a complete luddite as regards xbox etc. However I just wanted to find out a few things regarding the xbox 360 and here seems to be the place to find stuff out. I have two younger brothers , 13 and 15 who are games mad so I want to surprise them with a 360 as a present in the next few weeks. They have a 2mb wireless broadband connection at home, so before I purchase I wanted to know if this would be sufficient to allow them to use the live thingy. As well as that , when I go to buy the 360 is there any extras I need to buy in order for them to be able to get it up and running as soon as they get it.

Cheers

Mike

GrumPy

Tipperarymike wrote:

Hi guys,

As per above , I am a complete luddite as regards xbox etc. However I just wanted to find out a few things regarding the xbox 360 and here seems to be the place to find stuff out. I have two younger brothers , 13 and 15 who are games mad so I want to surprise them with a 360 as a present in the next few weeks. They have a 2mb wireless broadband connection at home, so before I purchase I wanted to know if this would be sufficient to allow them to use the live thingy. As well as that , when I go to buy the 360 is there any extras I need to buy in order for them to be able to get it up and running as soon as they get it.

Cheers

Mike

Your connection is perfect for LIVE, and no, You wont need to buy any extras.

But dont buy the xbox360 "core" ---- it's a stripped down xbox, without a wireless controller and wait for it... it doesnt even have a hard drive.

Go for the xbox 360 premium. And buy a second pad, as it only comes with one.

Tipperarymike

Nice one

Thanks for that, guess i had better get going on it so. Had seen that core and that premimum thing going on alright but didnt know the difference and had forgot to ask about it

Mike

Smellyirishman

If you want to connect to live wirelessly then you will have to buy the wireless network adapter. ~€60-90 if I remember correctly. If it's possible to connect it through a wire (If they have a router or some such) then you get all that malarky for free (Well, at least included in the box!).

Also, just to reinforce, get the premium box. I think if Microsoft made any mistakes with the 360 it was bringing out two SKUs.

Vegeta

Ok if your broadband is wireless i guess its wireless to your house and there is a router you can connect to via a wire.

You'll want to wire the 360 premium pack to the router for the best performance. A cable comes free with the 360

You can do it wirelessy but it will cost you money as you have to buy the wireless adapter thing for the 360 (90 to 100 euro i think) and it will reduce online performance.

So to sum up what everyone has said:

get a premium pack as they come with more hardware, second controller will need to be bought

try and get a premium bundle pack as they will come with a few games (what games to get depends on your bros preferences)

Use a cable to connect to the router as it will give better performance and comes in the box for the console.

Lastly you are the best brother ever by the sounds of it!!

robinph

If it's actually a wireless connection to the house that you have, rather than just a wireless network within the house, then you might have issues with the speed on connecting to Live depending on the transmitter that you are connected to. From the broadband forums I've seen that some people have had issues on some of the IrishBroadband connections in parts of Dublin as there were too many people connected to the same transmitter.

As for connecting to Live that is 60euro a year which can be paied either with a credit card through the xbox, or by getting a subscription card from a shop. But on creating an account on the xbox you get the first month of Gold free so that you will get a chance to test it all out before buying a years sub.

Tipperarymike

to one and all,

thanks a bloody million, I swear to god I hadnt a clue what to do, and usually when you go into some of the chain stores, you can get a numpty who probably, if possible, knows less than myself about what the craic is. I know now what to do thanks to you guys, so will get that premimum thingy and get it sorted out, my brothers are pretty easy going so I dont think they will be too bothered about the games, they dont even have a clue they are getting this in the first place.

We are here in Tipperary, though we have wireless its not with Irish Broadband, rather a local company FWI and any tests I ran on irishisptest.com seemed to be bang on at least regarding speed, which was the only bit I could understand.

Finally, to confirm my luddite status on these matters, I guess the router thing is the small mouse like object that the connection coming into the house feeds into and the ethertnet? cable goes from to the computer. Thats not a piss take either , I actually dont know if thats what that piece is called, if it is then sure bobs your uncle and we can take it from there, without blowing up the place.

Mike

Vegeta

yeah you can plug the 360 into the same thing (router) as your computer, with the same type of cable. They can both (computer and 360) be connected and used at the same time as long as the router has enough sockets for the 2 cables.

EDIT: as your in tipp and with a small local provider i'd say your connection is fine for playing games.

robinph

Tipperarymike wrote:

Finally, to confirm my luddite status on these matters, I guess the router thing is the small mouse like object that the connection coming into the house feeds into and the ethertnet? cable goes from to the computer. Thats not a piss take either , I actually dont know if thats what that piece is called, if it is then sure bobs your uncle and we can take it from there, without blowing up the place.

Mike

Does the box that then has a cable going to the computer have more than one ethernet port on it? If it does then your sorted and just need to put in another cable, that comes with the xbox, from that box to the xbox. Otherwise your probably going to need to get a router as well so that you can have multiple things connected at the same time to the internet, or you could just swap the cable between the computer and xbox as needed as long as that is not likely to cause any disputes.

koneko

That could be your modem, if it connects directly to the PC through a wire, it's probably the modem that came with their broadband package. Do they have more than one PC in the house? What kind of connections are on the mouselike object?

Where will the 360 be set up in relation to the PC? Nowhere near eachother? Same room?

In general, as the others have said, if you get the Premium kit you shouldn't need much else, except a second wireless controller. I wouldn't bother with any live subscriptions, when you sign up with an account on Xbox live you get 1 month free anyway.

Tipperarymike

Hi guys,

Some progress made on the xbox. Went with all that was said on here, thanks again for all the help, and we got the xbox today and have it all set up. Well we sort of fumbled into it. Think I still need to get that wireless router thing as we got online when I disconnected the cable from what must be the router thingy, and put it into the console it worked fine. Christ, what a process getting signed on there it is. Anyway got that bit done, and they tried to get set up on Call of Duty 2, and when they clicked on live option on the opening game screen they got a message saying, user profile cannot be used or is not compatible something like that anyway, if anyone has any idea how to proceed from here it would be great

Thanks

Mike

kensutz

Do you have an xbox live account?

Tipperarymike

set that up K and therein may lie the problem. The eldest lad is 16 and I registered him as the one using the account, but then it asked me to input my details as they were too young. What gives there I wonder. Being a luddite aint easy I tell you !

GrumPy

Tipperarymike wrote:

set that up K and therein may lie the problem. The eldest lad is 16 and I registered him as the one using the account, but then it asked me to input my details as they were too young. What gives there I wonder. Being a luddite aint easy I tell you !

Their account is prolly being blocked from playing online because you have the parental safety features on. Turn them off

Tipperarymike

i think that might have been it that was causing the problem. Either that or we failed to load the update option that was on screen. It said if you dont update you will be disconnected from xbox live, so we opted for that and lo and behold the two wee lads were murdering Germans, Call of Duty 2 I believe, like mad yokes , chatting away to Americans who were slagging them off to beat banagher.

Thanks again to one and all for the advice, twas great to see the chaps revelling in the whole thing

Mike

lardboy

*sniff*

I love a story with a happy ending...