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Devices like the Xbox - with only an ethernet port and no built-in wireless - can be connected to wireless networks using a gaming adapter. How does a gaming adapter differ from a regular wireless adapter?
Emilio
Posted 2013-10-23T00:33:04.900
Reputation: 245
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The gaming adapter and the wireless adapter are the same thing. 802.11 Wireless on one end and network type "X" on the other end. This is called a network bridge.
Keltari
Posted 2013-10-23T00:33:04.900
Reputation: 57 019
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In addition to Keltari's answer, most wireless adapters that are marketed as "gaming adapters" feature Automatic Quality of Service (QoS), which is essentially like a priority lane for your gaming console's traffic. It reduces the TCP priority of other traffic, so you get the best performance possible from your connection. If you are interested, here is a decent article about QoS.
Most decent routers allow you to set up your own QoS anyway, so [if your console was supported] you could set your own priority traffic. The gaming adapter just does this automatically. This is how they get away with marketing as "a lag-free gaming experience", which is not necessarily true. It will only be lag-free if your network is not bogged down entirely by other traffic, and the network has a high enough throughput in the first place to support the game you are playing.
Paul
Posted 2013-10-23T00:33:04.900
Reputation: 4 434
I was thinking about this more. The gaming adapter is indeed a bridge (it knows nothing about IP except perhaps for configuration purposes), as the IP address would be on the Xbox's ethernet adapter when connected to a gaming adapter. But a wireless network adapter is the device that gets the IP address itself, eg it is analogous to the Xbox's ethernet port in this case. And the wireless adapter doesn't have a network on both sides, it has a PC bus/usb port on one side and the wireless on the other. Am I getting this right? – Emilio – 2013-10-23T01:36:38.390