Re: Two LANs with 3 computers, Xbox 360 on 1?

Hi Tom, Dana:
Thanks for the suggestion about Norton and the router idea. I tried to
remove Norton from a pc once..........even went to their website and used
their remove the rest of Norton software. Didn't get rid of it all and
caused me a lot of headaches trying to install the replacement
anti-virus(McAfee). I agree it is "bloated"........think it's taking up of
75 MB's on my hard drive. I have to say, I've never had a problem with worms,
trojan horses, viruses etc with Norton. In view of the difficulty of
un-installing Norton, I'll probably keep it until I upgrade to Vista.
As to the utilization of a router.......if I had access to broadband,
I'd get one for sure. But since I'm using dial-up and only use one
computer online at a time, I'm not sure if there's an advantage to a router.
I mainly use the LAN to transfer files, software back and forth. By the way,
I found the ULTIMATE solution to the x-box 360 to pc problem. I removed
xbox from the original Media Center computer and pulled all but one hard
drive and now have my new homebuilt Core 2 Duo Viiv computer with 5 hard
drives set up with the xbox and working quite nicely! I love the Core 2 Duo
processor.......it runs at 34C to 37C most of the time and I've never seen it
get to 40C yet! And that's with the fan running automatically at less than
900 rpm! I even turned the case fan down to low speed and it still operates
at cool temps. The previous computer was a Pentium D 840 and it idled at
47C- 50C and hit 60C sometimes. Intel really came up with a winner and I
love their support program.....had to update the bios on the motherboard and
it was easier than installing a modem LOL.

xiowan.........in tucson

"Dana Cline - MVP" wrote:

I agree with Tom...get rid of Norton and use AVG or Avast, with ZoneAlarm
for the firewall.

You mention you don't have a router...I highly suggest you get one. You can
find them for maybe $20 in the Sunday ads, or look online at newegg.com or
buy.com. There will be several benefits...

1) The router will contain a firewall. This is the best first-layer
protection you can get.
2) The router should have 4 network ports - if you need more, put that
4-port switch of yours between the router and the additional computers.
3) The router will assign IP addresses to all your PCs (and your xBox).
4) The router will let you share your internet connection across all the
PCs.

My current system uses a 4-port router, plus two 4-port switches, to support
a total of 10 computers and 1 xBox 360, and it all just works...

Dana Cline - MCE MVP

"xiowan" <xiowan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:E1004F28-3FF1-4537-9FB2-7C1A47D03091@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Tom:
Ooops! Didn't have the problem solved after all! Watched "Patton" on
my LR tv and the Xbox connected fine all thru the movie........then tried
to
switch to live tv and the $%%$@#!@# xbox quit on me again! LOL.
Fortunately,
I had some time to think about it and I think I finally figured out the
problem. I built two of my computers myself recently and the motherboards
came with 90 free days of Norton Internet Security & Anti-Virus.
Well.......dumb me, on those two computers I used the Norton Firewall.
On
the host computer I had selected Windows firewall which automatically
opens
the port to the Xbox 360. As long as that was the only computer on, the
Xbox worked ok........the minute I turned on either of the other
computers,
evidently their Norton Firewall interfered with the host computer
connecting
to the Xbox! I changed the firewall on all the computers to the windows
firewall and now everything works fine! EXCEPT......#$%### Norton pops a
box up everytime I turn on a computer and says I have a problem because I
don't have THEIR firewall on LOL! I keep punching the button saying I
want
WINDOWS firewall but Norton doesn't remember that so I guess I'm going to
have to put up with that forever! The only way around it is to try to
configure Norton's Firewall to let the Xbox make contact but that's too
much
work. Anyway......thanks again for letting me no it should work........if
operated correctly! (I shouldn't have waited til I was 60 to get my first
computer.....it seems to take than 4 yrs to learn how to drive one LOL)

xiowan.........in tucson

"xiowan" wrote:

Hi again Tom:
I think I might know what happened to the Media Center LAN
connection.
I forgot that the 2nd computer was switched over to Vista RC1 for a while
and
then I went back to Media Center 2005. It may be that the host computer
changed something in the settings to connect to the Vista computer. If
it
did........it did it automatically! I may possibly need to re-configure
some
settings.......just don't know where and how.

xiowan.........in tucson

"Tom Scales" wrote:

That just says you're not properly connected. How are you connected
to
your router and what router is it?

Tom
"xiowan" <xiowan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:AEB97696-CA55-45A6-8F31-A30DF464FF08@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Tom:
You're not as confused as I am! I connected a third computer to my
local
area network and used the network setup wizard to connect up. Now,
when
my
Xbox 360 connects to the Media Center host computer it gets to the
point
where it tries to obtain the network address and fails and this
message
comes
up after testing the network connection on the xbox 360: "your
console was
not able to negotiate a lease with the DHCP server. Make sure that
addresses
are available on your server. This test verifies that your console
has a
valid IP address. If your console does not pass this test:
Confirm that there are no other devices on your network with the same
IP
address.
If you are using a router or gateway, verify that it is configured to
assign
IP addresses to network devices. (DHCP enabled)."
From that message, I got the idea that "no other devices could be on
the
same network! I guess from your reply that "devices" doesn't include
other
computers, eh?
Anyway, I am not sure where to start to get the network working
right.
I
could probably get it set up right if I just knew how to get rid of
the
network(s) that I have now and start over using the network set-up
wizard.

xiowan.......in tucson

"Tom Scales" wrote:


"xiowan" <xiowan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:47D4E1A9-938E-45C7-B3E9-F35BB08A852F@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi All:
I am hoping to have 3 Media Center 2005 computers connected
together
on
a
hardwired LAN......AND have only one of those computers also
connected
on
the
same CAT5 cable to my Xbox 360 in the LR to control the tv
display. All
3
computers have either "fast" or "gigabyte" ethernet hardware built
into
the
motherboards. I am wondering if I can add an old Linksys
Etherfast
10/100
LAN pci card to the Xbox/connected computer and run two networks
from
that
computer so that the xbox won't be on the same IP address as ALL
the
computers, thus causing a problem for the Xbox? I am not quite
sure how
to
wire that up and what I would need to use if it is a possible
solution
to
my
needs. The computers are currently connected thru a 4-port
ethernet
switch
and do not need to have a modem connection. My goal: 3 computers
that
can
network together and only 1 of them network with the XBox 360!
Possible?

xiowan.........in tucson

I'm confused. Why don't you want the Xbox on the same LAN? Mine is
and
it
works fine.









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