Bridging

Spire · Posted: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 00:02:07 Post Subject: Bridging

Tell me if this would work...

Computer and Cable Modem/54g router downstairs

Computer with onboard NIC and 54G card upstairs...

XBOX plugged into upstairs computer's onboard NIC...

Bridge the wireless and onboard NIC on upstairs computer and the XBOX should have Online access right?

Bro- in-law's kid is getting an XBOX for XMAS and I want to make sure that this will all work come THE morning...

wsm · Rated R Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Posts: 78 Location: FOH

Ive done something like that to get a machine on my network to run updates and didnt want to find a long cord. used my laptop to do the bridge from the wireless network to the nic. I used MS built in ICS to share the Wireless connection to the nic. It worked well enough. I would only be concerned about the lag with all the jumps the connection makes. But yes in theory it should work.

Spire · Posted: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 00:27:10 Post Subject:

So I would still have to use ICS to make this work?

wsm · Rated R Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Posts: 78 Location: FOH

Thats how I did it. One would hope there is an easier way to handle the bridge.

BeerCheeze · Posted: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 12:13:42 Post Subject:

You are supposed to be able to bridge connections in 2000 & XP. I have never done this though. And like WSM says, it's going to add an extra delay, which in fast pace game like maybe Halo 2.... could spell {SPLAT} Grin

But that's just educated guess... I've never set up something like that.

Of course... I do have a 802.11b bridge that I no longer use, that for the right trade I would consider trading it.

Spire · Posted: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 14:38:18 Post Subject:

I never thought about the delay thing, I was just hoping that with "G" wireless, it might be fast enough.

It will be fun to play around with all of this and see what works and what doesn't.

In all reality, the kids room has cable, so what we need to do is put the cable modem and G router in the kids room, tie the Xbox and his computer direct and let the rest of the family deal with 54G connections.

Or talk him into running one ethernet cable up the side of the house and forget about wireless.

I think ICS is only necessary when sharing an internet connection. With a router, I don't think we are actually sharing an internet connection. The bridge itself should just pass through for network connectivity... Does this sound right?

BeerCheeze · Posted: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 14:52:21 Post Subject:

Don't forget wireless has more delay (latency) than does wired just to start with. Then when you are bridging a connection with a computer, the computer has to handle it's own traffic, plus any processing it's doing, and the bridging too.

This of course is just all in theory on how things work. Now the question is.... is there enough latency in all of that to matter, or not?? I really don't know, because I've never tried it. My guess is on average using an XP machine as a bridge your going to be adding between 5ms to 20ms to your connection. Then add the wireless latency (between about 2ms to 20ms depending on usage). So my guess is your adding between 7ms to 40ms latency by using your approach.

Now at an extra 40ms in games like Halo 2, does it matter?

T-shirt · Posted: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 16:44:03 Post Subject:

Plus higher missing packet and collision rates= more resent packets=more lag
while it will probably work, wired would be best, maybe a dedicated desktop WLAN adaptor would help (cutting out the middle man computer)