This is part of a 3 post series which I will dedicate to saving money by spending money on technology. I consider my blog a personal finance blog with a fusion of many areas of interest that promote good finances, learning, and happiness. I hope these posts are not too tech-y and help a few of you out!

Post 1: Save Money by Connecting Your Computer to Your Television
Post 2: Save Money and Make Your Xbox 360 Wireless for $20
Post 3: Save Money by Streaming Television & Movies Through Your Xbox 360 or PS3

Why Does It Matter?

When I purchased an Xbox 360 to act as a media center and help with my boredom my expectation was that as soon as I got home it would be internet-ready. The ability of the Xbox 360 to act as a media center was a large factor in my decision. It never dawned on me to see if it had wireless because EVERYTHING is wireless nowadays (for example, a $120 wireless alarm clock exists?! ).

This is very a-typical of me, by the way. I research EVERYTHING to the core. However, that was naive on my part even though I am sure many have made that mistake, especially when Xbox’s competitor PlayStation comes with built-in wireless.

I realized I would have to get a wireless adapter for the Xbox. No problem! They are frequently in Best Buy ads for cheap. Little USB widgets from D-link and Netgear routinely go for $20 or less. Oh, what? Xbox makes you get a proprietary $100 wireless adapter?! Now I was pretty mad because this meant I would be running wire through my whole apartment as there was no way I would pay that much for a wireless adapter.

Versus

I decided to hold off a few days before I bought the 100 feet of cable from Monoprice.com so that I could look for alternate ideas.

Tools Needed:

• A technology know-how
• A wireless network (your internet connection goes into a wireless router which is split between your computer, console, and other devices)
• A Linksys WRT54G-TM from T-mobile
• 20 minutes for configuration purposes

 

Procedure:

1. Go to a local T-mobile retailer. They have Linksys WRT54G-TM’s for $20 as a normal price. They are accessories as they sell them so that their customers can make phone calls using their @Home network. You do not need to be a T-mobile customer to purchase the router for this price. I recommend this router because it allows us to install a full version of the new firmware, not a mini version. They often keep them in the stock room and will show you the $100 HotSpot routers when you mention that you want a router. Just say you want the blue $20 Linksys one.

2. Login to your current router and write down all of the settings (What SSID your wireless network uses, what channel, what type of security (wpa, wpa2, wep, etc), what type of encryption (tkip, aes, etc), what the password is, what IP is assigned to your router [ie 192.168.1.1]).

3. Unplug the current router and connect your internet through the WRT54G-TM. Make sure you are hardwired in to it, not wireless.

4. Follow these step-by-step instructions in order to flash a new firmware on to the WRT54G-TM.

5. Once the flashing process is complete, go back into your network settings and set your IP to obtain automatically.

6. Now that you the router has been re-flashed and your network settings are restored, connect to the WRT54G-TM at http://192.168.1.1 the default username is root and it will prompt you to change the password… do so.

7. You will need to make the following changes to set the WRT54G-TM as a receiver:

a. Under Setup Tab (Basic Setup sub-tab):

i. Make a router name that is different from your main routers name (for identification purposes)
ii. Change local IP address. My main router before I started everything was 192.168.2.1 so the new router MUST be in the same IP subnet in order to communicate. Thus I changed the WRT54G-TM from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.2.20 (I chose 20 to make it easier to remember for myself). I also then had to change the Gateway and Local DNS from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.2.1.

iii. After these settings take effect you will need to re-connect to the WRT54G-TM using http://192.168.2.20 since you just changed its IP.

b. Under Wireless Tab (Basic Settings sub-tab):

i. Wireless Mode: Client Bridge (this means you are giving your router the ability to bridge other devices into your network)

ii. Wireless Network Name: Make this the same SSID that your main router uses.

c. Under Wireless Tab (Wireless Security sub-tab):

i. Security Mode: Change to what your main router uses

ii. WPA Shared Key/Passphrase: Depending on which security mode you use you will need to enter your main routers password

d. That should be it!

8. When all is said and done you will have spent $20 to connect your Xbox 360 to your wireless network. What you gained is a learning experience, the excitement of now knowing how to do it yourself, a wireless adapter with more functionality and a stronger signal, and the ability to plug in multiple devices to connect to your network. If you ever get a new device in your entertainment center that utilizes an internet connection all you need to do is plug it in through the wireless client bridge and voila! I would not recommend using the original Xbox wireless adapter even though it can be found cheaper as it does not support WPA encryption.

Turn a Skill in to Profit

For the true entrepreneur at heart, you could even buy a bunch of routers, flash them all, and sell them for profit on eBay or Craigslist :)

Let me know if you have any suggestions or if you have any questions. I will try and answer them to the best of my knowledge and if I don’t know I’ll play with my home network to find out.