 Wireless N - Achievement Unlocked! |
| Review Date: November 19, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Michael Baran, Chicago, IL |
Can't route Cat-5 cable? This latest A/B/G & N Wireless Adapter, from Microsoft, is the next best bet. Emphasis on the "N."
Do you use the Apple Airport Express or the Apple Airport Extreme as your router? No worries, there are no compatibility issues; nor are there any NAT issues that interrupt game play, an issue that plagues certain routers on the market.
If you do not have an 802.11n capable router, but can spare the extra money, spring for this latest A/B/G & N wireless adapter. The Xbox 360 wireless adapter conforms to all four current wireless network standards and will work with any devices that support such.
Concerned about the color of the adapter not matching the color of your console? Regardless of how you display your console, horizontally or vertically, the adapter (if plugged into the rear of your console) is hidden and all that is visible are the grey antennae.
This newest adapter shares the same, almost plug-and-play, installation as the previous A/B/G generation wireless adapter. Simply plug the adapter into the back of your console and power the console on. If you are not already online, navigate to the system area of the Dashboard. Within the system area, enter in your network settings, test the settings, then log into Xbox Live and you are ready to go.
I was able to tell the difference in speed immediately, even when testing the Xbox Live connection in the network settings. Gone are the issues with streaming, and Netflix looks amazing in high definition. And most importantly, I am gaming multi-player lag free!
Things to consider: If you use wireless controllers with your system, you may get better performance using the 5-GHz band for your network connection, since the wireless controllers operate in the 2.4-GHz band. This also holds true with other common household devices such as cordless telephones and microwave ovens. Also, your 802.11n network only operates as fast as your slowest connected device. Therefore, if you want best performance it is suggested to switch to 5-GHz 802.11n only when gaming. Or, better, have a dual-band router dedicating feeds to the appropriate devices. |
Works well if you have your router set right
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| Review Date: November 21, 2009 |
| Reviewer: M. Owens, El Dorado Hills, CA United States |
I was getting ready to ship this adapter back after two days of tinkering with my network to get it to work with no results. My old Xbox wireless-g adapter worked fine, albeit with marginal connectivity and speed. I upgraded to this wireless-n adapter to solve those problems but found that it worked so poorly that I barely had a connection and couldn't use media center at all.
I spent two days tweaking everything I could think of on my network and then, as a last resort, I just switched my router (Linksys WRT330N) to operate in the 20MHz band instead of the 40, where I had it set previously. That was all it took, and now it works great with a strong signal. So, if the adapter doesn't work for you, make sure your router isn't set for wide-40MHz channel. |
Pricey but effective and completely worth the upgrade!!!
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| Review Date: November 19, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Tarun Chachra, Hillsborough, NJ |
Bandwidth is what we all need with HD over IP becoming a reality. This adapter definitely fits the bill with the extra gain in speed that is achieved. If you are an XBOX 360 user and use it as a media device to stream your content and or Netflix, etc...then this is something that you absolutely must get. We are using our 360's for Netflix more and more and with the addition of the new PlayTo features in Windows 7 the 360 is becoming the center piece of our home theater and family room. Naturally the old wireless adapter worked well but there were some delays and sluggish performance...with the addition of Wireless-N to this adapter the delays and sluggish behavior has all but disappeared and the performance is awesome.
My only negative is the price....in the end its a simple wireless-n adapter with a USB cable on it...why not make it cheaper and let more people enjoy the ecosystem that now exists for multimedia streaming. Are you listening Microsoft???
5/5 - even with the price - but it could sell a whole lot more and get adopted faster if the price was in the 49.99 area.
If you have any questions about this device and or need more information, please comment and I will answer as soon as I can. |
Great Performance, Simple Plug and Play Install
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| Review Date: December 8, 2009 |
| Reviewer: R. Neal, Bloomingdale, IL USA |
Let's be clear upfront, if you are only using wireless for gaming, you won't see much improvement in speed in selecting a "N" band adapter versus a "G" band adapter. However, the "N" band adapter does give you slightly more range.
So why do you want this adapter then? For same reason as me, I purchased this to support streaming of audio and video to my XBox from my PC. I didn't want to run Ethernet cable between floors either. If that's your goal, or you are looking to stream Netflix to your XBox, then this adapter is what you want.
I should point out that in order to use the "N" band, your wireless router must support "N" band as well. I would think that's pretty obvious, but maybe not to everyone. I am using a DLink DIR-655 router that supports "N" band. One more thing, you need to ensure your router is set to support WPA and WPA2, these are the only encryption methods that support "N" band. If you have your router set to WEP, you'll need to change your router configuration.
INSTALLATION:
I found the installation of this to be very simple, plug it into back of the Xbox, turn your Xbox on and configure the adapter. This was done in only a couple of minutes. If you are replacing your existing XBox "G" band adapter with this one you shouldn't need to make any changes to your XBox set-up, run a "test network connection" to verify everything is working as expected.
The adapter can attach directly to the back of your XBox. However you'll probably want to install this using a USB cable so you can extend that away from the console to get a better signal. The adapter comes with feet that you can extend to stand it up.
PERFORMANCE:
Once my XBox wireless network was set-up I checked the performance. First, I verified the connection of the adapter on my router. It was listed as 802.11n (2.4GHz) as expected. The connection speed was showing between 220 and240. My router is on a different floor than my XBox, but still find this to be quite good. I then ran the network performance tune on the XBox. The graph showed I had a full connection suitable for TV as well as HDTV!
I tested the actual performance of the adapter by streaming a movie from my PC (high resolution) using Media Center. The movie started buffering first for about 2 seconds and then my movie started playing immediately. I watched the movie for about 5 minutes and noticed no delays or interruption in the playback. I also used Media Center to stream audio, as well as display my collection of family pictures in the background. I left this to play for over an hour with no interruptions in the playback.
CONCLUSION:
I did try another wireless "N" adapter before getting the Microsoft adapter. I was VERY displeased with that adapter. You can read my review on the Trendnet Wireless Adapter, "Save Yourself the Hassle if Using on Xbox 360 - Get the Microsoft Adapter Instead" TRENDnet Wireless N Gaming Adapter-Black (TEW-647GA) (V1.0R). The Microsoft adapter is as simple as you can make it to add wireless "N" to your XBox. Performance is excellent. Sure it cost a few bucks more, but as I noted in my Trendnet review, you'll save yourself a lot of time and frustration, will easily justify the additional $$ to get Microsoft's "N" band adapter. As always, shop around for the best pricing. I've seen these offered for $79. |
xbox wireless n adapter
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| Review Date: December 24, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Jeffrey S. Moore, |
I had the g adapter before this and it was just ok... so I decided to upgrade.
It works just like promised just plug and play. It wouldn't run N on my linksys router though neither thee 300n or 160n would broadcast n. I plugged in a netgear router though and it worked in n flawlessly |
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US $56.00
