How do I connect Xbox360 to Windows 7 (RC) Windows Media Center?

I have the following setup:

Desktop running Windows 7 RC (32-bit)
Xbox360 Elite with wireless adapter
Both devices are connected to a local wireless network (802.11n Draft 2.0 300Mbps)

I went through the setup procedure detailed on xbox.com, but after I enter the 8-character password - setup process times out after a few minutes.

I have tried disabling Windows firewall on the desktop, but that didn't help.

Has anyone been able to connect Xbox360 to Windows 7 RC over a 802.11-n (Draft 2.0) network? Any ideas on why the process is failing?

Arnold Zokas

Posted 2009-07-15T13:15:13.643

Reputation: 661

I tried doing the media center thing with Vista and the xbox and it was a royal pain in the butt. I had to try it over and over again to get it to work. In the end, I never used it because it would stream any AVI files! Ridiculous. – Chris Thompson – 2009-07-17T05:42:00.613

Answers

Managed to get it working in the end by switching to an Ethernet connection.

Arnold Zokas

Posted 2009-07-15T13:15:13.643

Reputation: 661

Does it work on Vista? It does sound like it could be a Windows 7 issue. My Xbox used to connect to my Vista PC automatically.

Ross

Posted 2009-07-15T13:15:13.643

Reputation: 2 848

Good point. I will try that. – Arnold Zokas – 2009-07-15T13:46:39.390

According to this knowledge base article the X-Box 360 does not work correctly on 802.11n and Draft-N wireless networks. I am assuming you are using the Wireless adapter for your X-Box based on your post.

I would suggest trying it temporarily using a wired connection and see if that works to eliminate the problem above.

On my wired network my Windows 7 box saw my X-Box directly and I just did the setup from there. The only reason I don't have it working at the moment is because of me re-segmenting my network and my X-Box is outside of the safe zone.

BinaryMisfit

Posted 2009-07-15T13:15:13.643

Reputation: 19 955

It is 802.11n-only, but 802.11n is backwards compatible with 802.11g. So far I've had no problems connecting to Windows Live, only to my Media Center. – Arnold Zokas – 2009-07-27T16:23:15.900

Thanks for the info! That definitely exlpains the problem. Unfortunately my console is too far away from the router, so wired connection is not an option. I guess I will have to wait for wireless-n to be officially supported. I am glad that at least the internet connection is working correctly. – Arnold Zokas – 2009-07-17T08:16:36.763

No problem. I ended up running a 20metre network cable in my old house to solve a similar problem. Wireless is just to slow for me. – BinaryMisfit – 2009-07-17T08:18:17.960

1That knowledge base article seems to show that the 360 won't be able to work at all using the network (no IP address). This seems like a different issue. Also, it sounds like your last paragraph refers to basic media sharing and not extender functionality (as I don't think you can setup the extender remotely like that). – Ryan Versaw – 2009-07-17T19:18:11.837

1@Ryan - I have done a few of these and it has always worked this way for me. I have over passed the information on to one of the X-Box MVP's and awaiting a response from MS. – BinaryMisfit – 2009-07-17T19:20:20.740

1I see. I've never used a wireless connection on mine, so my experience here is limited. @ArnieZ - Is your router an 802.11n-only router, or does it support other formats? If it is indeed 802.11n-only, then it appears that article should be updated. – Ryan Versaw – 2009-07-17T19:36:32.557

When doing this, are you connected to Xbox Live? When connecting to a Windows 7 (pre-RTM) Media Center PC a connection to Live is required.

If your connection to the PC was already setup and you tried connecting (without a connection to live), you would receive this message: This game requires a connection to Xbox LIVE. As you didn't receive this message, I'm guessing this isn't your issue, but when you're setting up the connection initially, it may be different.

Ryan Versaw

Posted 2009-07-15T13:15:13.643

Reputation: 148

Thanks - I find that interesting. I did a setup at my PM's house the other night without Internet and we got the Media Extender working on Windows 7 RC 32Bit. My home system is always connected to Live. – BinaryMisfit – 2009-07-17T19:37:12.057

Odd. That post didn't specifically mention the RC (only the beta), but the RC was out at the time and I saw commenters mention it having issues too. I'm surprised it worked fine for your PM! – Ryan Versaw – 2009-07-17T19:45:02.753