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Unlike the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360 does not have built in wifi. You’ve got to string out an ethernet cable to your 360 if you want to get on Xbox live if your router isn’t close to the console.

Microsoft has an easy, yet overpriced wireless solution in their Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter. This device is likely the easiest solution on the market, but it’s $80 - $100 price tag leaves allot to be desired. I was determined to find a cheaper solution to the overpriced adapter.

Linksys makes the Wet11 and Wet45G. While far more robust then the MS adapter, it as far more than I needed and wasn’t any cheaper. Logitech made the wireless playlink bridge sometime back, but that was a bulky, slower and not all too efficient. The wireless playlink bridge basically worked in the 900MHZ range (think older cordless phones) with speeds up to 1.5 mps.

While browsing a buy.com email ad, I came upon the
SMC EZ Connect G 2.4GHZ.54MBPS Wireless Ethernet Bridge
and the price is right. It’s $30, -$10 if you use Google checkout for the first time. $19.95 shipped isn’t a bad deal at all and beats $80-$100 MS adapter any day of the week.

The SMC2870W EZ Connect G 2.4GHZ.54MBPS.Wireless Ethernet Bridge isn’t for the faint of heart. While it can act as an access point or a wireless bridge, you must upload the firmware for it to be either of the 2, but never have the option to toggle between both modes simultaneously with the same firmware. Also, the interface isn’t the smoothest or best laid out in the world. On the other hand, it’s got mac address filtering, wep and wpa encryption and works with 802.11b and g wireless networks. Through 3 walls, the SMC EZ connect had a steady 84% signal strength, which was far better then any wireless card that i’ve had in a notebook.

Bare in mind, if you use permission based MAC addressing you’ll have to enter in the mac address of the SMC2870W AND the mac address of the Xbox 360 or host device into your wireless router. Most wireless routers pick up available mac addresses within range, so adding it should be easy. You might want to double check your mac addresses first, just to make sure you aren’t adding someone that isn’t supposed to be getting on your network. You can find the mac address of the SMC on the bottom and the 360 should be in the dashboard under network configuration.

If you are wondering how cross brand compatible the SMC wireless bridge functionality is, I have it bridging a signal from a Netgear MR814 wireless router that’s acting as an access point and the SMC connects without a hitch. The SMC also has a repeater/wireless extender functionality they have named WSA, but this only works with other SMC2870W units.

Just encase you are wondering, the SMC should work with any laptop, notebook or other device that has an ethernet port. The original Xbox and PS2 should also work with this, though I did not do any testing on those consoles. SMC includes a crossover cable, which is needed to connect it to the previous mentioned devices. This isn’t a bad deal in itself, when you consider BestBuy will charge you $20-$30 for a crossover cable.

In short, the SMC2870W was the cheapest 802.11b and 802.11G wireless solution I could find for the Xbox 360. At $19.95 or $29.95 it’s a supreme bargain compared to spending up too $80 more for some of the alternatives.

On a related note, you must open the following ports in your router (not the SMC, but your wireless router or whatever device is handling nat/your firewall) and forward them to the IP address of your Xbox to have the full functionality of Xbox Live. To test to see if your ports are open, one easy test is to go inside the 360’s dashboard and run the network configuration test. If you get “Open” you know you are good to go, but if you get “Strict” or “Moderate” you need to open the follow ports:

• UDP 88
• UDP 3074
• TCP 3074

Many consumer grade routers come Xbox Live ready right out of the box, so you don’t have to worry about it. However, if it doesn’t and you don’t open and forward the ports, you may still be able to get on Xbox Live but might not be able to play with some other gamers. In fact, a large percentile of online multiplayer games will be inaccessible to you.