Sweet, Cheap LAN config with two routers

Well, it took me about 10 hours but I finally configured my home network how I wanted it.

Flashback to circa 2003...

I am living in Detroit. I just got DSL and a new Linksys router; plugged in my Linksys wireless router upstairs in the office and hard-wired my computer (call it PC1) to the Linksys router. Good.

Hmmm... Xbox is in the basement. Halo via xbconnect is pretty fun. I have an extra computer (PC2) I can use in the basement to run xbconnect, but how to connect both PC2 and my Xbox to the same LAN without running a bunch of wires?

So I bought a wireless bridge (Linksys WET11) and a 5-port switch (also Linksys) to connect the basement LAN with the upstairs router. Which worked... albeit somewhat poorly.

The wireless router was 802.11b as was the WET11. The range on the Linksys router was very very bad. It barely worked. When it did work and I would shut down the Xbox and/or PC2, invariably the WET11 would eventually crap out from underuse and I would have to reboot the WET11 and/or wireless router. Always a pain. Plus my DSL connection was only 128k upload speed.

Eventually I moved to Indianapolis from Detroit for a new job in 2004. I was working from home, so I sprung for the "Pro" DSL package which is 384k upload or something a little better. I set up the wireless router on the second floor in home office 2 (next to PC1) and hard-wired those together. I got a wireless card for PC2 on the main floor of the house in home office 1 and used the wireless capability of my work laptop. In the new house we have a bonus room upstairs, so the WET11 and switch go there and feed my Xbox. Oh yeah, and I spring for Xbox Live and Halo 2 comes out! 

Laggy. Frequent disconnects. Always have to troubleshoot something and reboot the WET11 or the router. Or both. Multiple times.

So I move the router into the bonus room and hard-wire to my Xbox. I gotta buy a wireless card for PC1 now too. Meanwhile, PC2 and my work laptop are 25 feet further from my POS Linksys 802.11b router and they can't surf the web very well. I basically retire PC2 at this point cause it's old and slow (350 MHz Pentium II) even for 2005. I can't live with the slow access speeds, so I decide to get the flippin' fastest wireless router I can to replace the crappy Linksys I had. I get the Netgear WGT624 - tops out at 108 Mbps wirelessly. Sweet. Much better range for the whole house. I am pretty happy.

Later in 2005... I switch jobs and no longer need home office 2. I buy a 30" secondary HDTV for that room instead. My Xbox DVD drive keeps giving me "cannot load map" errors cause it's the Thomson model. Gotta buy a new Xbox. The old one goes downstairs in the old home office 2 and the new one goes in the Bonus room. I resurrect the WET11 and switch to try to connect them wirelessly.

It sucks. The WET11 is the bane of my existence. I buy some 75' cables and string them all over whenever I host LAN parties. Which is fine for LAN parties, but...

Now it's 2006. I decide to mod my first Xbox (Xbox 1). I buy an Xbox 360 also.

Now I would like to hook up multiple Xboxes downstairs and game against my Xbox360 (still Halo 2 at this point) upstairs. I would also like to use XboxMediaCenter on my modded Xbox and stream content from my upstairs office PC1 to XBMC without running a long ethernet cable.

The WET11 is not a viable option. I need a wireless print server or a better bridge or something. They're all $80 - $130.

I learned that you can actually use two WGT624 routers together. Keep the original one as a router+access point and hack the second one to act as a wireless client (with DHCP disabled). The second router only costs $40 - $60 currently so it is much cheaper than a bridge or separate gaming adapters for each Xbox (or even one gaming adapter for one xbox).

The trick to getting the WGT624 to work as a client instead of as an access point is to run a program called telnetenable on the Netgear router (after you set up the ID, channel, and WEP). Then you need to telnet into your WGT624 and change some settings. Then you need to disable DHCP on the WGT624. Lots of troubleshooting for me at every step (couldn't figure out the login/password for telnetenable, had some DHCP incompatibilities in my PC, had to get the WGT624 out of "noob setup" mode without an internet connection, set the router to "bridge" mode instead of "client" mode, "set remoteAP" returned an error in syntax one time and I have no idea why , timeouts when telnetting, etc.). There are instructions on how to do all this here: http://www.beatjunkie.de/Router_eng.htm. Not for the faint of heart, that's for sure.

So, ten hours later... it's all working!

I have a wireless router upstairs. You can plug 4 Xboxes (or PC's) into it wired, plus who knows how many wireless devices.

I have a wireless router downstairs. It is connected to the same LAN as the upstairs router because this router is configured as a client. You can plug 4 Xboxes (or PC's) into it wired, or connect a switch and plug even more Xboxes (or PC's) into it.

There are no wires strewn from upstairs to downstairs. The connection is fast, hopefully reliable long-term (obviously I don't know that yet), and I am DANG PROUD OF MYSELF FOR GETTING IT ALL SET UP!!! 

Thanks for reading this. I welcome any questions while I still remember at least 5% of what I did.

Posted by dkhodz @ 11:55 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

The New Teabagging!

I want to get this out first.  I want to be the one who gets credit for "discovering" the new method of humiliating an opponent in Halo 3.

You are all no doubt familiar with "teabagging", "corpse humping", etc. which is done to a defeated opponent's dead body on the field of combat in Halo 2, Call of Duty, etc.  With the addition of the shield grenade in Halo 3 (see trailer), I predict, nay boldly predict: teabagging will evolve a bit.

In Halo 3, you will not only have your recently head-shotted, shotgunned, or noob combo-ed dead body desecrated by your opponent but if your lewd adversary really wants to humiliate you he will "pitch a tent", the two of you will "get a room", or you will be "on bivouac" under the canopy of the shield grenade for the dirty deed.

Remember, you heard it here first.  Unless you didn't.

Posted by dkhodz @ 12:38 pm EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments

Why did I wait for a 360?

I can't imagine keeping myself entertained without my Xbox360 now.  I'd have to make like 9 new friends in real life to keep myself as busy as my 360 keeps me.  Call of Duty 2 on Thursday nights, Halo 2 on Fridays, Chromehounds on Wednesdays, whatever on weekends, Geometry Wars, Texas Hold 'Em with my own soundtrack, streaming music just to listen to on my home theater speakers... the list goes on.

I guess I convinced myself that since it was a lot of money, I should wait for some reason.  I had 2 Xboxes already and enjoyed Halo 2 and... well, that's about it I guess.

If you're on the fence about a 360, you're missing a lot of fun.  Go buy it now!

Posted by dkhodz @ 11:36 pm EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments

The Story of Ninty Profits

The Story of Ninty Profits
by dkhodz

Once there lived a wee Irish laundromat owner named Ninty Profits. Ninty enjoyed cheese and chatting with his customers.

One day a large chain laundromat moved into Ninty's town. Ninty said "my customers are loyal, I don't need to change very much in my store to keep my customers."

However, the customers began using the large laundromat as well as Ninty's older, smaller, less-capable laundromat. Eventually almost everyone in town went to the larger competitor. Ninty Profits began to get lonely and finally took out a huge (for him) loan to refurbish the store. He invented a way to use smaller washers and dryers instead of the standard size. He painted his laundromat a bright blue color... actually he changed colors often and they were very bright. But the bright colors only attracted little kids like Timmy O'Toole and Timmy McCormick.

The Timmies loved Ninty Profit's bright store, but when they were older they began to use the large chain just like the rest of the town.

Ninty's competitor, meanwhile, had started treating their customers poorly. They had added no new features to their laundromat, except making it a little smaller and painting it black. The machines went a little faster than before, but the price was higher to compensate.

Ninty was so lonely, he was forced to consider completely restructuring his laundromat's hardware and design. He labored long into the night, keeping his customer's thoughts in the forefront of his mind as he went back to a standard, full-size load on his washers and dryers. He abandoned the wild colors at his store (at least for now) and chose a respectable modern color. Most of all, he labored at creating a pleasing experience for every customer that came to his store. When he was finished, he noticed what his competitor had been doing at the same time.

The large competitor had built an enormous monolithic laundromat/paper supply store/screen printing shop/petting zoo/oil change shop 20 miles outside of town. They began charging 5 times what they were charging before and began to stop fixing the machines in their old building, letting the building slowly deteriorate and fade into memory. The large competitor had a few customers, yeah. But they were all jerks and snobs. Just to get in and do their laundry, you had to pay for the petting zoo and walk through it first. Customers began coming back to Ninty Profit's small laundromat again. Even some new customers who had never been there before. And Ninty wasn't lonely ever again.

The end.

Epilogue: some accounts say that a third laundromat came into town shortly after the second one, but no one that ever visited the third laundromat ever went back to one of the other two.


Posted by dkhodz @ 2:37 pm EDT | Permalink | 5 Comments

Atari 2600 top ten

Hey hey, y'all... I decided to blog again.  Only on 2old2play (not at my normal blog)!!!

My ten favorite Atari 2600 games growing up (criteria: games I actually owned and I enjoyed):

10. Asteroids (my friends and I would take turns playing a single game, getting extra lives until late at night... maybe as late as 11 pm!!!  Hey, it's late for a 10-year old)

9. Kangaroo

8. Chuck Norris Karate Kicks (part of a Xonox Double-Ender with Artillery Duel, an angle/velocity-based strategy "shooter" game)

7. Crystal Castles (I was a complete brat when I begged my mom for this game until she gave in at the mall)

6. Astroblast (like Space Invaders on steroids)

5. Pole Position (I always thought the other cars looked like fences)

4. Missile Command

3. Tutankham (Tomb Raider precursor... except not a platformer)

2. Ms. Pac-Man

1. Dodge 'Em (simple, addictive arcade fun)

Honorable mention: Q-Bert, Space Attack, plus all the games I didn't own that were also good

Posted by dkhodz @ 10:20 am EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments