Stupid Xbox360 question

[Thierry Nguyen]

So I finally get one also. This is NOT a "what games should I get" question, as I already have the ones I'm interested in (or at least am working on getting them). This is something that might be covered in the manual, but I figure I'd go at the speed of Qt3 instead of the speed of manual reading.

Due to some weirdass wiring in my house, my wifi router is in a room down the hall from the living room (which is where the 360 would reside).

For some reason, I had the impression that the 360 was wifi ready, and that the 100 dollar doohickey was, er, for something else. So I didn't get one at the time. But now that I did some quick googling, it seems like I do need the $100 adapter. Is there anything cheaper to let my 360 see and connect to my router, or should I just bite the bullet and snag it?

Also, if I don't get the wireless doohickey for a coupla days, is there a way to, er, hotsync any achievements I get offline to my Xbox Live account (that I still have from the last console) when I do get it? Can I safely play stuff and get those achievements to my account once I'm online, or should I hold off? Or use this non-online time as "practice mode" so that I can get achievements and shit faster once I'm actually online?

[K0NY]

Any achievements you get off-line will not automatically update when you connect online. My understanding from the manual is that you must be signed onto XBox Live (silver or gold) when you actually get the achievement in order for it to count on your gamer score. Otherwise, people would be making fake saves then connecting to XBL with them to get credit for achievements they didn't unlock themselves.

As for your first question, search the forums. There have been suggestions that the wifi adapter which worked with the original XBox will also work with 360. They are about half the price of the fancy new 360 model but are supposed to work just as well.

[Damien Neil]

Is there any reason not to just get a wireless router, rather than the wireless adapter? Plug the 360 and any other consoles you get into the router.

[rjcc]

Any achievements you get off-line will not automatically update when you connect online. My understanding from the manual is that you must be signed onto XBox Live (silver or gold) when you actually get the achievement in order for it to count on your gamer score. Otherwise, people would be making fake saves then connecting to XBL with them to get credit for achievements they didn't unlock themselves.

As for your first question, search the forums. There have been suggestions that the wifi adapter which worked with the original XBox will also work with 360. They are about half the price of the fancy new 360 model but are supposed to work just as well.

what? That's simply not true. if you get an achievement offline it does update when you connect, the only difference is it doesn't show the time and date you earned it. you also don't update your high score on the scoreboard, at least in most games.


any wireless bridge will work with the xbox 360, you can find em for ~50 bucks

[Misguided]

what? That's simply not true. if you get an achievement offline it does update when you connect, the only difference is it doesn't show the time and date you earned it. you also don't update your high score on the scoreboard, at least in most games.


any wireless bridge will work with the xbox 360, you can find em for ~50 bucks

Yeah, most bridges should work. I think there's a list at xbox.com.
I thought offline achievements weren't recorded either...is that new since launch?

[stusser]

Buy a buffalo whr-g54s (http://www.chiefvalue.com/product/productdetails.aspx?linkid=119&item=33-162-173) for $38 and flash ddwrt (http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Installation#Flashing_the_Buffalo_WHR-G54S_and_WHR-HP-G54) on it. You can't go wrong with this combo.

[BobJustBob]

Yeah, most bridges should work. I think there's a list at xbox.com.
I thought offline achievements weren't recorded either...is that new since launch?

Offline achievements have always been recorded. Most leaderboards (all, maybe?) only upload your score if you're online at the end of the game.

[Misguided]

Offline achievements have always been recorded. Most leaderboards (all, maybe?) only upload your score if you're online at the end of the game.

Huh...I know I've heard tales of people having temporary net glitches and their achievments not being recorded...perhaps that was more a glitch case of the system *thinking* it was online or something.

[Muzzaro]

I was just in the process of finishing Kameo, when we lost the internet connection. I carried on, thinking that it would be recorded later, and then when the connection returned, i found out i hadn't got the achievement.

[Fugitive]

Did you actually get the 'Achievement Unlocked' popup? And note that Kameo's 'Game Complete' achievement is for a 100% completion only (all fruits, potions, etc.), not just defeating the final boss.

[Muzzaro]

It was for the "defeat Thorn" achievement, i got no popup. I got the cinematic sequence though.


Edit: When i redid that level again while connected to Xbox Live, i got the achievement. I thought at the time "would i get the achievement for this", but risked it because i hadn't played Kameo for months, and didn't want to have another few months before i finish the storyline.

[BobJustBob]

That's some kind of bug then. Achievements are an offline thing too. Even if you never go online with your system, you should still get the achievement popups and the achievements will be recorded on your box.

[Muzzaro]

Ahh ok. I was a little miffed at having to do it again, but it wasn't a bad last boss fight.

Now i got to find Co-op Partners for the other achievements. Like Quake 4, each time i log on it says "no games available". I sit in a game i made for around half an hour before giving up and switching games.

[Jason Cross]

So I finally get one also. This is NOT a "what games should I get" question, as I already have the ones I'm interested in (or at least am working on getting them). This is something that might be covered in the manual, but I figure I'd go at the speed of Qt3 instead of the speed of manual reading.

...



As mentioned here, any wireless bridge will work. You just plug it into your 360's ethernet port and you're good to go. The difference is, you need to set it up on your PC first (set your router's SSID and all that stuff). Once it works as a bridge on your PC, you unhook it from your PC and plug it up to your 360. I know a few people who have done it and it works fine.

The difference with the official router is that:

a) it supports B, G, and A. Most of the cheap bridges you find don't support A. If you're not streaming video to your 360 (Media Center extender, etc.) it won't really matter. For games, B/G is more than as fast as your net connection.

b) it's USB, and snaps right there on your 360 so it's nice and neat.

c) The official 360 adaptor is set up on your 360 itself, instead of having to hook up to a PC to set your wireless SSID and encryption key or whatnot.

If you can live with that, save yourself a bunch of money and buy a $40 bridge at bestbuy or fry's.

Achievements - as long as you're signed into a gamertag (locally - you can be offline) you get them. You get the messages in a game, and when you eventually connect online, it uploads the ones you got offline. As mentioned here, you just don't get the time/date you unlocked them, but that's no big deal. I got a couple achievements offline myself, when my cable modem was out, and they updated online just fine. Obviously there are achievements related to multiplayer you aren't going to get offline, but anything single-player should work.

[K0NY]

I remember seeing tons of people on the official Xbox360 forums complaining that the achievements didn't register when they played offline. It was this big complaint around launch time. I think the official story was that they should update when you go online, but the reality was different. I'm not speaking from any personal experience, just what I've read on those forums. When I play, I always make sure I'm signed in, just in case. Is it possible that one of the 360 patches has addressed this issue by now?

[rjcc]

no. it was never true, at least in the games I played, and I've had it since launch.

either a. it was specific isolated incidents.

or b. it was the typical forum bitching that may or may not be based on anything in reality.

[Marcus]

Buy a buffalo whr-g54s (http://www.chiefvalue.com/product/productdetails.aspx?linkid=119&item=33-162-173) for $38 and flash ddwrt (http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Installation#Flashing_the_Buffalo_WHR-G54S_and_WHR-HP-G54) on it. You can't go wrong with this combo.

Strusser do you think this would work as a brdige if I have a netgear router? I bought a netgear router and bridge about 2 years ago and the bridge just took a big giant shit. It sucks too because I just moved and now I really need a brige. I am looking for options that are not netgear because I really dont like their products.

So help me obi wan you are my only hope!

I really need to hook up my xbox / 360 / ps2 / wtfever else in the living room.

[stusser]

Yes, it'll work fine. It'll be 1000x better than your netgear, actually. I do this myself, I have a ddwrt wrt54g v2.2 plugged into the cable modem bridged to a ddwrt whr-g54s at my entertainment center providing connectivity to my xbox media center and tivo series3. Works like a charm.

[Marcus]

Yes, it'll work fine. It'll be 1000x better than your netgear, actually. I do this myself, I have a ddwrt wrt54g v2.2 plugged into the cable modem bridged to a ddwrt whr-g54s at my entertainment center providing connectivity to my xbox media center and tivo series3. Works like a charm.

Great! I'll be going to bestbuy tomorrow to pick one up. Thanks for the help and Fuck netgear!

[rjcc]

good look on that ddwrt software, it's just retarded that they charge more for bridges than routers, but what can you do?

...now we know.

[Gladguy]

FWIW, I had the MS wifi adapter for the original Xbox. When I powered up the new 360, it connected to my network and had all my settings preconfigured so I didn't have to mess around with SSIDs and WEP keys. It works beautifully, though it admittedly isn't as sexy as the snap-on Xbox 360 adapter.

[Marcus]

good look on that ddwrt software, it's just retarded that they charge more for bridges than routers, but what can you do?

...now we know.

A bit of an update for those that care. The whr-g54s I ordered finally came yesterday and I had a chance tonight to load up the DD-WRT firmware on it. The process was really quite easy and the set up to make the whr-g54s a bridge was very clearly laid out in the Wiki. I am very pleased with the unit as a brige ( as of right now ) and its working great. I highly reccomend this solution to those looking for a bridge.

As a side note I did call netgear and they replaced the bridge that was busted ( 3 year warranty who knew?! ) so I dont have to order another WHR-g54.

[Desslock]

What's the point in uploading achievements? Just so other people can see how far you've gotten in the games you've played?

[RepoMan]

"Just," he says.

Desslock, think of it as automated verified built-in bragging rights for every single game you play.

[K0NY]

BTW: Because of the outage a few days ago, I was able to confirm that achievements unlocked while not connected to XBL do indeed get applied to your public profile automatically when you are finally able to sign on.

[Desslock]

"Just," he says.

Desslock, think of it as automated verified built-in bragging rights for every single game you play.

hehe, o.k., I can see the appeal, although not enough to actually buy xbox live though. I was just thought you might actually get credits or something for free, but I guess that was wishful thinking. I do think the achievements thing is a neat gimmick.

[DennyA]

You don't need to "buy" Xbox live to take advantage of achievements. The free Silver accounts track achievements as well.

Gold just gets you online multiplayer, and a few other bennies.

[Desslock]

Oh - I didn't know that. So there's a free version of xbox live? Can you use it to download patches?

[rjcc]

Oh - I didn't know that. So there's a free version of xbox live? Can you use it to download patches?

yes..

[Gary Whitta]

Oh - I didn't know that. So there's a free version of xbox live? Can you use it to download patches?
Yes, you can do everything with Silver except actual online multiplay.

[jfletch]

What's the point in uploading achievements? Just so other people can see how far you've gotten in the games you've played?

If some guy is running his mouth about a game on a web forum and you look his name up and he has no achievements you can laugh at him. Even moreso than before.

[Kool Moe Dee]

What's the point in uploading achievements? Just so other people can see how far you've gotten in the games you've played?

It's to provide a little motivational fodder for gaming/sibling rivalry.