Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter

Many Xbox 360 gamers start off using their console for single player games. While the number of multi-player and Xbox Live network-play games have increased over the years, the majority of the games being put out there today have single-player mode as an option.

Over time however, many gamers are going to want to play a game that is only available to play on Xbox Live with no single-player mode made available. As soon as this switch takes place the gamers has to figure out how he’s going to get his system to connected to the internet. Is he going to use a traditional wired connection or spring for the (kinda) expensive Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter. Some wonder whether they need an adapter at all!

The simple answer to that is “Probably”! You will need some type of Xbox wireless adapter if your console is not close enough to connect it to your broadband router with a standard Ethernet cable. Even if your Xbox is easily connected with a cable today, it might be wise to consider getting an Xbox 360 wireless adapter anyway as if you ever decide to move to a different location or move around your furniture you might not be able to connect with a cable anymore.

The official Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter gives you a wide range of WIFI signals that it can use to communicate between your Xbox console and Xbox Live from pretty much any room in the house. Most of the time, the router and game console can even be on different floors.

Xbox Wireless USB Adapter

Another reason to consider purchasing an Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter is for the simplicity of setup. I don’t know about you, but my life is already full of enough frustration as it is. The Xbox console comes with enough connections that have to be dealt with just to get it properly integrated with the TV and sound system. I don’t like setting that up either. In fact, these days I’m all about keeping my stress level down and the concept of snaking CAT5 ethernet cable though the floors and walls just so I can get plugged into Xbox Live is about as appealing to me as a double-root canal without any Novocain.

To make the prospect even more unappealing is the fact that my house sits on a crawl space. This means I would have the happy prospect of doing an Army crawl through the dirt under my house to get this thing connected up. It’s for people like me that Microsoft decided to put the Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter out there, and it’s probably also the reason they decided to make it one of the most expensive little gaming gadgets on the market today. They know they’ve got you!

Let’s contrast the hassle of this whole experience of establishing a wired Xbox Live vs syncing up using the Xbox wireless adapter. The adapter is USB in nature and thus pulls it’s power from the Xbox 360 itself. This is a big improvement over the black Xbox Wireless adapter that was developed to be used with the original black and green Xbox which required a separate power supply to work properly.

Black Xbox Wireless Adapter

In addition to helping you start gaming online, the Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter actually transforms your gaming console into a wireless media center. You can easily import videos and music to be stored on your Xbox for future viewing and use. Very cool.

If you are looking for a cheap Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter Alternative, you can set your laptop next to the console, connect the two together, and enable the game system to “piggyback” off of the WIFI signal of the laptop to connect to Xbox Live. If you are interested in this type of workaround, a detailed video tutorial is available a link to the left.

The obvious drawback to this is that the computer is pretty much unusable to other members of the family for the period of time that it’s being used as a WIFI bridge. If there’s not more than one computer in the house, this can develop into a large problem.

This is why most serious gamers will always cough up the extra cash and purchase the official Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter. It’s simple to install and easy to use. The only drawback is the expense and you only have to deal with that once.