Since the XBox 360 model that I own doesn't provide wireless connectivity to the Internet, I've had to run a long phone cable across the kitchen floor and out to the living room, so that I could hook up my modem and router at that location, and then connect to the 360 via an Ethernet cable. This was the only short-term scenario I could come up with, because there's no phone jack in the living room or anywhere close to it. For weeks I've been investigating and considering different solutions to this problem, including:
- buying the "wall-plug" Ethernet pair of devices that allow you to provide 'remote' RJ-45 (Ethernet) ports at a location removed from your router ($40 - $80, low availability) by use of your electrical system
- buying the same sort of devices as above but for phone jack outlets (not RJ-45 Ethernet ports) such that we'd then 'have' a phone jack in the front room to plug the modem into (cost unknown, but had already borrowed a friend's set and they'd worked as phone jacks but my router wouldn't function correctly when plugged into one)
- paying to have Bell come and add a phone jack to our living room ($99 service call)
- buying the over-priced Microsoft Wireless Network Adapter for the XBox 360 ($130, high availability)
- buying a wireless bridge device that would provide RJ-45 ports at a 'remote' location by way of wireless communication with the router ($60 - $100+, medium availability)
- buying a Wireless Game Adapter that is like the wireless bridge but limited to just one RJ-45 port ($30 - $60, medium to high availability, depending on the model)
- figuring out a way to run the phone cable through the floor or walls so that I could keep everything the way it is now, but sans the annoying eyesore in the kitchen (free, but requiring handyman skills so as not to wreck our lovely house)
- just live with the damned phone cable running across the kitchen floor! (though I didn't want to do that to Vicki)
I also bothered the Man from Mars about this, because I just had a sense that he knew home networking well (he did). He was able to quickly show me why Jamie's initial offering wasn't what I needed, and then he, too, located some devices that would do the trick, for varying outlays of cash. By the end of the day, I'd ordered a $30 Wireless Game Adapter and figured the problem would be solved as soon as it arrived (a few business days later).
But then the Man from Mars sent me a link to some user feedback on the device that I'd just ordered, and the more I read, the more convinced I became that I'd never get it to work reliably! It sounded like you had to really, really know what you're doing when you set it up (I wouldn't) and that you'd run into a whole lot of headaches if you happened to use WEP encryption (as I do now). So as I cooled down from my bike ride home and read negative review after scathing indictment, I was feeling a bit at my wit's end!
So then I took a look at the living room wall that I wanted the modem and router to be near (for proximity to the 360). I noticed a cold-air return vent there, and went to look at it more closely. I thought that it was screwed into place but further examination revealed that it was just firmly wedged into the gap in the floor trim. I gently pulled it away from the wall, and looked at what was behind it. I could see the wide metal duct that was taking the cold air back to the furnace, and started thinking about whether or not I could get a phone cord to come into the living room that way.
The turning point in those ruminations came when I gave up on the notion of getting the phone cord from its current point of origin (the far side of the kitchen), and instead focused on using the phone jack in my study in the basement (almost directly below me). Once I began down that promising path, I realized that all I was going to need was a small hole in the ceiling of that room and I'd be able to thread the phone cable along that basement ceiling, into the hole I'd make in the ductwork, and then up into the room where I needed it, via the vent opening. I wouldn't have to buy anything; I wouldn't have to risk adding new technology to the picture; I'd simply be able to remove the eyesore cable from the kitchen and keep the excellent high-speed Internet availability I'd been enjoying on the 360 lately!
With some invaluable help from Vicki - me in the basement, her in the living room - and my trusty power drill, we pulled it off in less than half an hour! I now have the modem and router in the living room, tucked away out of sight under an ottoman, and the only clue to their existence is a thin, white phone cable running for about two feet - along the wall - between the vent and the ottoman. I still have the Ethernet cable strewn for several feet across the living room floor, between router and XBox 360, but disconnecting that - when company comes over, say - is a 10-second operation, at most. Sweeeeet!
Needless to say, I'm a happy boy right now. And Vicki doesn't have an ugly cable running across the length of her kitchen anymore!
Thanks once again to Jamie and the Man from Mars for taking the time today to assist me in this matter. And each of them did, of course, suggest the "just run the cable through your walls, dude!" angle at various points during the day.
P.S. Naturally, I've canceled the order of the $30 Wireless Game Adapter that would've just caused me endless grief anyway.
1 comment:
gotta love a low-tech solution to a high-tech problem!
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