Introduction: How to Get on Xbox Live With Dialup

By Jake Turner
About: Where to start... I get bored and reach for either a soldering iron or a keyboard. I have a short attention span. I love working with electronics, eating pizza, and making all sorts of things. I've been busy i…

In this day of highspeed fiber-optic data networks, there are still people who have no viable way to access the internet, other than using the accursed Dial-up service. I am one of them. My parent's house is too far out for companies like Embarq to consider providing DSL to the residents of my road.

As if that wasn't bad enough, I also own a Xbox 360. 80% of the awesomeness that makes up this console comes from online function, and with the lack of higher-speed internet, you won't get to enjoy that 80 percent.

....well, maybe 60% of the fun. I can help you get to 20% of it though. By making your PC share it's dialup connection with your Xbox 360 (or pretty much anything else with a Ethernet jack), you can access Live.

EDIT 04/22/2008: I just got done talking to a friend on the headset, it was perfect aside from some skipping. Sweet!

EDIT 04/23/2008:
It seems I've made the news sites as well.

http://gizmodo.com/381808/experience-the-joys-of-constant-lag-with-xbox-live-on-dial+up
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=106515
http://kotaku.com/381902/xbox-live-on-dial+up-is-no-fun-for-anybody

But G4 had to be an ass about it:
http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/684747/Run_Xbox_360_on_DialUp.html

So this is my comment to them, as posted on the article's page:

Hey all, I'm Dr.Professor from Instructables.

If you had gotten your facts straight and read the last step of the tutorial, "Whatcha Can and Can't Do", you would have read that this isn't meant for multiplayer. It's for the guys and girls who want that DivX update most among other ones, who want to put their gamerscore online or who want to chat with people on their friends list.

Libel hurts. If this got on TV along with the "stupid and useless" part, then I believe you owe my parents and me 6 months of satellite internet, along with the 300 dollar setup cost.

I did this for people with no easy/cheap alternative, and you guys managed to turn it into a PS3 vs. 360 argument splattered with a few hateful comments. If you don't think I'm the author, check the front page of the tutorial. I've edited this letter into the front as a disclaimer for any new visitors.

Sincerely a tad pissed,
-Jake "Biggs" Turner

Step 1: Whatcha Need

To pull this off, you'll need:
A PC with a working dialup connection, running Windows XP (Should work on Vista as well)
An Ethernet Cable, long enough to reach your Xbox (For the uninitiated, these have plugs that look like bigger phone cord plugs)
And an Xbox 360.

Step 2: Whatcha Do on the PC Side

To pull it off, you need to connect the 360 to your PC using the Ethernet cable. Power up the 360 and the PC if they aren't already on. "Fire" up that dialup connection, and get ready to work the magic.

Open the Control Panel in Windows, then go to Network and Internet Connections.
Open Network Setup Wizard, press next.
Ignore the checklist and press next, then select "This computer connects directly to the Internet.".
Press next, and select your dialup connection as the way you connect to the Internet.
Press next again, and select "Local Area Connection" as your private connection.
Leave any names for your PC alone, and click next.
Leave the workgroup name alone, click Next.
Turn on file and printer sharing if you want to stream videos from your PC to the 360, click next.
Review the settings, and click next to apply them.
Let them apply, and select the last option that pops up, something like "I do not need to run Network Setup Wizard on the other computers."
Reboot your PC (then re-dial-up) if necessary.

Step 3: Whatcha Do With Your Vista PC

XP (and older) users, skip this one, the last step was for you.

So, you wanna get on Live, but you have a Vista PC. For some dumb reason, Microsoft took out the connection wizard that older versions of Windows have. Don't fret, you can still has your Livez, but you'll need to manually do what the connection wizard does.

I'm going to list what I think worked for me, as I just did a bunch of crap until it worked. If one of the Vista users could comment back and tell me if I'm right/wrong, I'll correct as needed or edit out this "crapshoot" sentence.

First, you'll need to give your Ethernet connection an I.P. address, then you'll tell Vista to share the dial-up connection to any PC/360 plugged into your network. You'll need administrative rights to do this.

Note that if you have any type of pre-existing network set up, you might mess up a connection to it if your IP wasn't manually assigned to begin with.

Right, let's begin. Start by opening Control Panel and clicking "Classic View" on the side panel to keep things simple. Open "Network and Sharing Center", and click "Manage Network Connections" in the sidebar. This will be the window where you'll do everything. You should see the your dial-up connection and the Local Area Connection listed.

Right-click the LAN connection icon and click on "Properties". Highlight "Internet Protocol version 4" and click on the Properties button. Check the "Use the following I.P. Address", and type one in (if there isn't one beforehand, and you weren't connected to any LAN networks, use 192.168.0.1 . It's just a simple one to use). Type in a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 if it doesn't fill in automatically. Leave the Gateway box and DNS fields blank, and click OK.

Back in the Network Connections window, right-click your Dial-up connection, click Properties, go to the Sharing tab, and check "Allow other network users to connect through this PC."

That should be all you need to do. Again, comment if this works/or doesn't.

Step 4: Whatcha Do on the 360 Side

Now that your PC is configuratified, go to the System blade and select Network Settings, and select open "Test Xbox LIVE Connection". It will run a test on the cable connection, I.P. addresses, and the like. When it gets to the Xbox LIVE test, it will ask you to download updates if it's successful. Go find something else to do (not on your 360 or online on your PC) while they download.

If all goes well, you should be able to make your profile LIVE-enabled. I can't remember how I did it, but I'm sure you'll figure it out (or post how to in a comment for me to splice in).

Step 5: Whatcha Can and Can't Do

Right, just because you're on Live doesn't mean you have all the features available to you that highspeed gamers will.

No multiplayer, with or without a Gold account. The lag will make it worthless.
No movie-on-demand. To be specific, a SD movie will take over a week of nonstop downloading.

But you can still:
Download Live arcade games and demos
Download game demos if you wanna wait that long
Update your console and games
Get themes, gamerpics and all that jazz
And you can still access MSN messenger.

Step 6: Whatcha Don't Need to Comment About

If you're reading this saying to yourself, "Self, this is useless", or "Self, these guys need to get off their n00b-asses and pay for highspeed", please refrain from commenting. This is for the people who for one reason or another cannot access highspeed internet, yet wish to update their console or get some XBLA games. It's hard enough for a 56K pimp without people trash-talking.

So if you thought this was useful or have questions, don't refrain from commenting, or adding me to your Live friends list. If the photo didn't tip you off, my GT is Radical Jake.

Instructables FTW!
-Dr. Professor Jake "Biggs" Turner.