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You may well have you Xbox 360 happily connected up to a router via an Ethernet cable (or you have shell out cash for an horrendously expensive wireless adaptor) but maybe when you go around to your friend's house they may not have a router. Oh despair not if you have a mobile broadband dongle as this guide will tell you just how you can get online over a 3G network.
Now, this should be pretty straightforward to achieve, although you can't plug a dongle directly into the USB port of the Xbox - there are no drivers on the console and no way to install them either. But fear not as we will detail just how you can.
Assuming that your mate is the kind of person that hasn't got a landline so has no ADSL they can connect a wireless router, but they do have a broadband package from the likes of Virgin Broadband or 3. The dongle can be inserted into a laptop or desktop and assuming that this computer has also an Ethernet port, it can be connected with a cable to the Ethernet port on the back of the Xbox.
It should be a simple case of turning on internet sharing in Windows (assuming it is running XP or Vista) and Xbox Live should work. But there are caveats.
{mospagebreak}We say this because mobile broadband providers use slightly different settings for these services than are used in normal ADSL or cable connections. The important difference is the Network Address Translation. In layman's terms this tells the computer what ports are open over the internet connection. And this is very important as Live uses different ports than the standard ones used for internet,IM and email.
As the ports govern how data can traverse the wireless broadband provider's infrastructure, it is important for the Xbox to find out how it can connect. It does this by testing the internet connection and identifies three types - Open, Moderate and Strict.
While the Open connection is best for gaming, a Strict connection doesn't mean the end of gaming as we know it. Basically, if you have a Strict connection and another gamer also has a Strict connection, there will be no play. Also with a Strict connection you won't be able to host games with others that have a Moderate of Strict connection.
