xbox live

ceewash

I want to buy xbox live gold for my son for Christmas. Can anyone tell me if I need anything else. I have broadband, not wireless and have bought him xbox 360. Do I need any leads etc. How does it work ? Do you play on computer or on TV? Do you need any special games to play it with or are the games online? Not sure how the whole thing works.

MercilessKiller

The Xbox 360 has an ethernet port in the back (Network cable port). You need a standard Ethernet Patch Network Cable to go from the Xbox 360 to your broadband router. (Does your broadband box have 4 ports? or is it a little thing that connects to your PC using a USB port.. )

Xbox Live simply allows you to play the Xbox 360 as normal, but with other players over the internet. So nothing else changes physically apart from the cable. You just need to buy the 12 month subscription or whatever.

ceewash

MercilessKiller wrote: »

The Xbox 360 has an ethernet port in the back (Network cable port). You need a standard Ethernet Patch Network Cable to go from the Xbox 360 to your broadband router. (Does your broadband box have 4 ports? or is it a little thing that connects to your PC using a USB port.. )

Xbox Live simply allows you to play the Xbox 360 as normal, but with other players over the internet. So nothing else changes physically apart from the cable. You just need to buy the 12 month subscription or whatever.

OOh! Too technical. The broadband plugs into a grey box thingy about 10cm square and has 3 flashing green lights. It has a blue cable which plugs into the pc.

ceewash

Will I need to buy the Ethernet thing or will it be in the box with console?

MercilessKiller

The grey box thingy... the blue cable that plugs into the grey box.. are there more ports for more blue cables?

i.e: http://www.gadgetcentre.com/news/images/NETGEAR_DG834PN.jpg
Where there are 4 network ports in a row... Have you got something like that? Or only 1 port!

If there's only one this may get a bit more difficult. If it has 4, then you need to buy a long enough cable to go from there to the xbox 360.. they're dirt cheap though.. standard Cat 5 cable Check ebay!

What is your ISP? Who do you get your broadband from? Are there any model numbers or anything on the little grey box? All that will help

ceewash

MercilessKiller wrote: »

The grey box thingy... the blue cable that plugs into the grey box.. are there more ports for more blue cables?

i.e: http://www.gadgetcentre.com/news/images/NETGEAR_DG834PN.jpg
Where there are 4 network ports in a row... Have you got something like that? Or only 1 port!

If there's only one this may get a bit more difficult. If it has 4, then you need to buy a long enough cable to go from there to the xbox 360.. they're dirt cheap though.. standard Cat 5 cable Check ebay!

What is your ISP? Who do you get your broadband from? Are there any model numbers or anything on the little grey box? All that will help

It is not wireless broadband , the grey box has BT voyager on it. Aol are the provider through BT phone line.

ceewash

Just checked. There are no spare holes in the grey box.

donnajunkie

ok, as a fellow novice who only recently got a 360 too this is what i did.
an ethernet cable was included with the console inside the box. you dont need to buy xbox live now because you will qualify for a free 1 month trial. just connect the console up to the tv as the instruction booklet says. connect the ethernet cable to the console and then to your modem. turn the tv, console and modem on. there are a number of menus on screen which you flick through by moving the left stick on the controller left and right. go to the xbox live menu with the orange background. select join xbox live. you then go through a process were they ask for information. you have to create a gamertag, put in your email address etc. you need to have a hotmail or msn email address to be able to complete the process i believe. anyway while going through the process you will get to a page asking which type of membership you want. select the free silver membership. it will then tell you you qualify for the free 1 month gold membership trial.
so remember you dont need to buy a gold membership now. however when you do need to buy a membership you can either do it on the console by inputing credit card details or you can buy it from a shop. when you select the membership you want to pay for onscreen it will ask you to either put in your credit card details or redeem your code that you have bought from a shop. i say again you dont need to buy it until after the free 1 month trial is over.
the games arent already online. if you want to play halo 3 for example then you need to buy the game to be able to play it online.

donnajunkie

just to add, which version you got might make a difference. did you get the arcade, pro or elite console? its just coz the arcade version doesnt have a hard drive and you need one i think to be able to play online. i dont think it includes the ethernet cable either. you can get the arcade version online. you would just need to buy the cable and get a hard drive for it. if you have the pro or elite then there is nothing to worry about.

ceewash

Thank you. This is just what I needed to know. I have bought the Pro version I think so the cable should be in the box. Many thanks to all who replied.

MercilessKiller

woooah hold on there for just a minute

What donnajunkie said is right except one thing which is "plug it into the modem".

If you're modem only has ONE possible network connection, then you need a box like a Netgear DG834GT where you can put more than one computer onto the internet at the same time I believe..