I guess I should star out by asking if this is possible?  I don't see why not but I am new to all this.  I have two Vista Media Centers setup, one wired and the other wireless.  I can connect to the wired one but not the wireless one.  The wireless PC currently has the firewall turned off, AV turned off and everything else I can think of that might get in the way.  I want to use the wireless PC because it has 10x the power of the wired one.  What am I missing?  I've been working this for two days now and I am out of ideas.

Thanks,

Tom

I'm new here so I apoligise if I didn't phrase my question correctly but someone has had to gone through this before.  I've spent over three hours on the phone with Microsoft and nothing.  I bought the Xbox to be an extender with the game console as a plus but this is useless to me if it doesn't work as an extender.

Though it should absolutely be possible I don't know that it's a recommended setup. Preferably you'd want to have your Windows Media Center machine wired. The extender could then be wireless without much concern.

Do you have any other machines that are wireless in your home? I'm just curious if you're able to setup any type of network sharing with another computer wireless to wireless as it may be easier to troubleshoot your issue.

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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.

Thank you for the reply!  Yes, my whole home is basically wireless.  I have three bedrooms over three floors all with wireless computers connecting through the same router.  Everything (except the Xbox) works as expected if not better.  The wireless Media Center is in my Bedroom and near the Xbox.  The Xbox can connect to Xbox Live, so that tells me that the network connection is good.  The Xbox is listed in the Vista Network map and in the Vista Media Sharing area but the Xbox does not see the wireless Media Center.  It can however see the wired Media Center which I do not want to connect to.  I do not see this as a wireless issue (at least not yet) but more of a Vista issue not allowing a wireless connection in.  I may be wrong here but I think it is one of two things;   1) The Xbox wireless NIC, I’ve been trying to find some information on it but it is hard to find and there is not much available, at least in my searches. Or 2) My wireless Vista box is blocking the connection.   Nobody at Microsoft seems to have a clue.

I’ve done a lot of research on this and I am coming up with nothing.  I’m reaching out to the experts for some guidance.

Thanks,

Tom

A few questions.

 

1. Are you able to do any other type of media sharing from your wireless Windows Media Center machine to your wireless Xbox? Meaning taking Windows Media Center out of the scenario for a moment, can you access shared music, photos etc to your Xbox from this machine?

2. Can you power down/unplug the wired Windows Media Center machine and see if then the wireless Xbox sees your wireless host? I'm not really sure if it would do anything, but not sure how an extender responds to seeing multiple hosts?

3. You say the Xbox can see your wired Windows Media Center machine. Generally when I setup my extenders, I initiate the setup from my PC, and then get to the screen on the extender which provides the key code. In other words, my PC is detecting the Xbox, not the other way around.

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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.

I wouldn't suggest using the wireless capabilities of the XBOX for Media Center usage at all.  I paid for it and don't use it.  My 360 is wired now.  I have also experimented with using a wireless Media Center for extending and it's even worse than the 360's wireless experience.  All that being said, it sounds like you haven't disconnected the 360 from the wired PC.  You need to go into the settings on your 360 and navigate into the the storage/games and erase a file in there.  It will say that the file is for Media Center Extenders so just look at all of your files and when you find that very small file and just erase it.  Go thru the Media Center extender set-up again using your wireless PC.  Then you can see for yourself that it just won't work well enough.  It will work and you may even start to think that it can work and then you will see that it just will not work well enough to make it enjoyable...Q

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HP m8430f
Vista 64-Bit
Q6600 2.4GHZ Quad 1066 FSB
5000GB+ Storage
4GB DDR2
ViXS Pure-TV-U 48B0 Tuner
VisionTek HD 650 Tuner
Hauppauge HVR 1250 ClearQam
GeForce 8500GT
WRT300N Router
DMA2100(1 wired, 1 wireless)
DMA2200(wired)
XBOX 360(wired)

Thanks, I appreciate the help!

1) I haven't tried, I will try today.

2) I have done that, In fact the wired PC is off-line and I removed it from the Xbox (as far as an extender).  The Xbox still does not see the wireless PC.  The Extender does NOT do well with multiple hosts and I have made sure that the wired PC is offline while trying to get the wireless PC connected and that the wired PC is not already "married" to the Xbox.

3) Interesting, how do you get the 8 digit code you need to connect, initiating from the PC?  I say interesting because the Xbox (in my case) is smart enough to give me the code, so that tells me that the Xbox sees the wireless PC but the wireless PC still can't see the Xbox.

The strange thing is that in the device map (on the wireless PC) the Xbox shows up and in the shared devices the Xbox shows up.  The firewall is turned off, AV off, UAC off, I've given permision to the root of all drives to "Everyone" (for testing only) and I'm at a loss as how to make the wireless PC any more open.

I'm still new to Vista and all it's security so there may be an issue there that I am missing but that still doesn't explain why the wired PC can connect.  Another thing I didn't mention is that the router (Linksys WRT55AG) is also wide open except for WEP but that shouldn't matter since the Xbox can connect to Xbox Live.

I've spent another hour and a half on the phone with Microsoft and I finally got in tough with someone who understood what an extender was but we got nowhere.

I will try to share some media from the wireless PC to the Xbox and we'll see where that goes but I still think it comes down to something that Vista is doing to block wireless connections or like I said earlier the wireless Xbox NIC that I can't find any info on.

Thank you for your suggestions, I appreciate all your help.  I'm over my head and I appreciate any support I can get!!!

Thanks,
Tom

 ChiWax,

Thank you for the reply.  This is my first experience with Xbox, or any gaming machine for that matter and after over three hours on the phone with Microsoft no one had even suggested that to me.  I had figured it out myself and I did "erase"/delete the connection to the wired PC but no one there ever  suggested that to me.  The only reason I bought the Xbox was to be a wireless Vista Media Center extender, I figured I would pay some extra $$$ and get a gaming device in the process.  Is it really as bad as you say in a wireless environment?  All I really want is TV without paying the cable company for another cable box.  I guess I lose!!!

Thanks,

Tom 

Let me say that wireless "extending" in general has been a disappointment for me.  I only have one out of four extenders going wireless.  That one extender gets an almost perfect connection in it's location and it's not the main TV spot in the house.  The 360 was 10 feet from the wireless router and the media "extending" was decent at it's best.  Once I wired up some of the extenders and the 360 it became perfect.  Never a problem with the wires....Q

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HP m8430f
Vista 64-Bit
Q6600 2.4GHZ Quad 1066 FSB
5000GB+ Storage
4GB DDR2
ViXS Pure-TV-U 48B0 Tuner
VisionTek HD 650 Tuner
Hauppauge HVR 1250 ClearQam
GeForce 8500GT
WRT300N Router
DMA2100(1 wired, 1 wireless)
DMA2200(wired)
XBOX 360(wired)

Well, after running out of ideas I rebuilt the Vista PC and everything is working fine.  I got a wireless connection and TV works just fine wirellssly.

Thanks,

Tom

I'm sorry to hear the trouble you went through to get there, but glad you got it sorted.

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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.