Online console gaming is now upon us on two major consoles besides all of the excitement of this new experience, there are also feelings confusion, frustration, and anger. How do I get online? What is a gateway? Can I get online with dialup?
This small write up will be in FAQ format. An answer will follow a question.
Q. How do I get my PS2/Xbox online?
A. That’s too broad of a question. See the questions below for more specific questions/answers.
Q. I don’t have a broadband connection; can I join in the online gaming action?
A. Aside from any lag/slowdown you might have, the simple answer is yes. I like to say, if there is a will, there is a way! The PS2 network adapter does have a hookup for a phone. However, some games might not support direct dialup. If they don’t, then see the answer below for how to get an Xbox online without broadband.
“Isn’t the Xbox broadband only?” NO! Dial up users for the Xbox will not be left out in the cold if they know what they are doing. I am sure everyone has heard of broadband routers. I know you are saying, “I thought this was the question for dial up users.” Well it is, read on. Those same types of devices exist for dial up users. I have a dial up router made by Hawking Tech (www.hawkingtech.com). I don’t use it anymore but it worked great for sharing a slow connection between my old roommate and me. It has two external serial (like the small ports on the back of your PC with those 9 pins) ports on the back. You have to hook up 1 or 2 external serial modems to it, and then walk through a simple configuration for your ISP (internet service provider). If you hook up two external serial modems, you will get a nice boost in speed (two phone lines needed of course as well as two ISP accounts). When the router can, it will split the data it sends out and receives through the two modems. In theory your speed will double, but I would say real world experience is about a 60% gain.
Note! I highly doubt you will see ANY gain in lag or speed of online gaming when using two dial up connection instead of one.
Here is direct link to the one I recommend http://www.hawkingtech.com/products/ir8228.htm
There is an Amazon link on that page if you want to purchase it. The price is 86 bucks.
If you go this route (pun), you will still need a hub or switch and a network cable. Either will do just fine.
You can also share your PPP (dial up) connection from your computer to your PS2/Xbox. This is a little more complicated. You will still need a hub or cross over cable, a modem of course, a network card, and Windows 98 or greater.
There are a ton of good articles about setting this up on the net. If you are reading one, just substitute the second PC with your console. Networking is networking; it does not matter whether it’s a PC, PS2, or Xbox.
Here is a good article I found on how to set up Internet connection sharing (ics).
If that is not enough search google for Internet Connection Sharing or ICS
Q. I have broadband what can I do to get my Xbox, PS2 online.
A. You will have a couple of options as well. The first one is ICS (see the above question) from your operation system.
The second would be for you to purchase a dls/cable router or equivalent. Most DSL cable routers have a hub/switch already built in so you most likely would not need another one. You would just need the router, network card for your pc (which you most likely already have), and the appropriate cabling.
You also can do the following. There are two basic ways to bind an IP address to a user of a cable/dsl modem. The first is through the MAC address of the cable modem and the second is through the MAC address of the network card.
If your ISP binds to your cable modem MAC, then you can just disconnect your PC from your cable modem, hook your ps2/xbox to your cable modem (the same way your pc was) and then reset your cable modem. You should be good to go then.
If your ISP binds your IP to your NIC then you are really out of luck if you want to swap out your PC and PS2/Xbox once or twice a day. To do this, you would have to call your cable company every time you wanted to switch (ANNOYING FOR EVERYONE)!!!
Q. I have a USB cable modem, what can I do.
A. If I were a betting man I would put my money on the fact that you could use ICS (see above). However, I would NOT recommend this. I would get an Ethernet cable/dsl modem and take that USB piece of junk back (yes it is junk). Then I would follow the normal broadband advice above.
Q. Can my friend and I share the same connection while playing the same game online?
A. Most likely not. Games use certain ports. Your router would get confused when data was sent to the same port from the same source. It would not know whom the data was intended for.
Here are some more general questions/statements I have seen lately.
Q. I don’t have a gateway.
A. Well you might not, but if you are on the Internet reading this, then you do. A gateway is the first hop the data from your computer takes when it LEAVES your network. To find out your gateway in 98/95/ME, run winipcfg and select your PPP adapter if you are on dial up or your Ethernet adapter if you have a cable modem. In Win2k or XP, get a command prompt and type in “ipconfig /all”
Q. What is NAT / Connection Sharing?
A. This is when you have one public IP address that the world sees but one or many private IP address that only your private network uses. All the private IP addresses are seen to the real world as the public one. This is where the name network address translation comes from (NAT). If you are on a private network at home, and your IP private IP is 192.168.12.1 no one on the outside would see you as that. There could be 1000 or more other people on private networks with the same exact IP! That’s like having 1 phone number for your city.
Q. What is a name server or DNS?
A. This is the IP address of the server that translates domain names in to numbers. Computers deal in nothing but numbers but people find words easier to remember. So your DNS would translate www.operationsports.com to 206.246.220.126.
There are other reason that names are used as well (like load balancing ect.) but I will not dive into that.
-----------------------------
If anyone has anything to add to this, it would be appreciated. There is no need to have 80 million threads on how do I get online....This will hopefully be the only stop needed. Thanks to bdunn13 for hooking up this article. If there is anything else you need to add bdunn, let me know.
This small write up will be in FAQ format. An answer will follow a question.
Q. How do I get my PS2/Xbox online?
A. That’s too broad of a question. See the questions below for more specific questions/answers.
Q. I don’t have a broadband connection; can I join in the online gaming action?
A. Aside from any lag/slowdown you might have, the simple answer is yes. I like to say, if there is a will, there is a way! The PS2 network adapter does have a hookup for a phone. However, some games might not support direct dialup. If they don’t, then see the answer below for how to get an Xbox online without broadband.
“Isn’t the Xbox broadband only?” NO! Dial up users for the Xbox will not be left out in the cold if they know what they are doing. I am sure everyone has heard of broadband routers. I know you are saying, “I thought this was the question for dial up users.” Well it is, read on. Those same types of devices exist for dial up users. I have a dial up router made by Hawking Tech (www.hawkingtech.com). I don’t use it anymore but it worked great for sharing a slow connection between my old roommate and me. It has two external serial (like the small ports on the back of your PC with those 9 pins) ports on the back. You have to hook up 1 or 2 external serial modems to it, and then walk through a simple configuration for your ISP (internet service provider). If you hook up two external serial modems, you will get a nice boost in speed (two phone lines needed of course as well as two ISP accounts). When the router can, it will split the data it sends out and receives through the two modems. In theory your speed will double, but I would say real world experience is about a 60% gain.
Note! I highly doubt you will see ANY gain in lag or speed of online gaming when using two dial up connection instead of one.
Here is direct link to the one I recommend http://www.hawkingtech.com/products/ir8228.htm
There is an Amazon link on that page if you want to purchase it. The price is 86 bucks.
If you go this route (pun), you will still need a hub or switch and a network cable. Either will do just fine.
You can also share your PPP (dial up) connection from your computer to your PS2/Xbox. This is a little more complicated. You will still need a hub or cross over cable, a modem of course, a network card, and Windows 98 or greater.
There are a ton of good articles about setting this up on the net. If you are reading one, just substitute the second PC with your console. Networking is networking; it does not matter whether it’s a PC, PS2, or Xbox.
Here is a good article I found on how to set up Internet connection sharing (ics).
If that is not enough search google for Internet Connection Sharing or ICS
Q. I have broadband what can I do to get my Xbox, PS2 online.
A. You will have a couple of options as well. The first one is ICS (see the above question) from your operation system.
The second would be for you to purchase a dls/cable router or equivalent. Most DSL cable routers have a hub/switch already built in so you most likely would not need another one. You would just need the router, network card for your pc (which you most likely already have), and the appropriate cabling.
You also can do the following. There are two basic ways to bind an IP address to a user of a cable/dsl modem. The first is through the MAC address of the cable modem and the second is through the MAC address of the network card.
If your ISP binds to your cable modem MAC, then you can just disconnect your PC from your cable modem, hook your ps2/xbox to your cable modem (the same way your pc was) and then reset your cable modem. You should be good to go then.
If your ISP binds your IP to your NIC then you are really out of luck if you want to swap out your PC and PS2/Xbox once or twice a day. To do this, you would have to call your cable company every time you wanted to switch (ANNOYING FOR EVERYONE)!!!
Q. I have a USB cable modem, what can I do.
A. If I were a betting man I would put my money on the fact that you could use ICS (see above). However, I would NOT recommend this. I would get an Ethernet cable/dsl modem and take that USB piece of junk back (yes it is junk). Then I would follow the normal broadband advice above.
Q. Can my friend and I share the same connection while playing the same game online?
A. Most likely not. Games use certain ports. Your router would get confused when data was sent to the same port from the same source. It would not know whom the data was intended for.
Here are some more general questions/statements I have seen lately.
Q. I don’t have a gateway.
A. Well you might not, but if you are on the Internet reading this, then you do. A gateway is the first hop the data from your computer takes when it LEAVES your network. To find out your gateway in 98/95/ME, run winipcfg and select your PPP adapter if you are on dial up or your Ethernet adapter if you have a cable modem. In Win2k or XP, get a command prompt and type in “ipconfig /all”
Q. What is NAT / Connection Sharing?
A. This is when you have one public IP address that the world sees but one or many private IP address that only your private network uses. All the private IP addresses are seen to the real world as the public one. This is where the name network address translation comes from (NAT). If you are on a private network at home, and your IP private IP is 192.168.12.1 no one on the outside would see you as that. There could be 1000 or more other people on private networks with the same exact IP! That’s like having 1 phone number for your city.
Q. What is a name server or DNS?
A. This is the IP address of the server that translates domain names in to numbers. Computers deal in nothing but numbers but people find words easier to remember. So your DNS would translate www.operationsports.com to 206.246.220.126.
There are other reason that names are used as well (like load balancing ect.) but I will not dive into that.
-----------------------------
If anyone has anything to add to this, it would be appreciated. There is no need to have 80 million threads on how do I get online....This will hopefully be the only stop needed. Thanks to bdunn13 for hooking up this article. If there is anything else you need to add bdunn, let me know.