How do i get my modded xbox onto my windows network.

September 20, 2006 6:31 AM

How do i get my modded xbox (ie xbmc) onto my windows network.

I have a software modded xbox, running xbmc (build 1.1.0) trying to connect to my windows network to share files. I am using a Netgear dg834g router. Normal cat 5 cable running from xbox to router. DHCP turned on in router settings, but cannot get xbox to locate network. Also tried manually assigning ip on xbox but no dice

From the limited testing I have been able to do it does not appear that the Xbox is connecting to the router at all (limited testing includes checking attached devices in router diagnostics, pinging expected ip range of xbox from pc on network and using another prgram to share files from pc but xbox did not detect this).

i am pretty sure it is not;
windows network problem as other computers are able to connect to this network
cable problem as i have used this cable to connect another pc to this network and also tested the cable when i made it.

Is there something i need to do to get DHCP to work. or anything else i can do to get this connected. i am bored of burning dvds.

posted by lrobertjones to Computers & Internet (14 answers total)

are you using xbmc as your dashboard? if not what dashboard do you use?
posted by phil at 6:51 AM on September 20, 2006

I've manually set the ip (192.168.0.105 for my network) on my xbox. A good way to test if this is working is to try and ftp from your computer to the xbox's ip (username/password should be xbox/xbox).

In order to see folders on my computer through xbmc, I've first shared the folders on my computer (ip is 192.168.0.101 and username/password is backwardsguitar/mypass). I've got a folder with the shared name "DMusic". In XboxMediaCenter.xml I use the following bookmark to access it:

<bookmark>
<name>DMusic</name> <path>smb://backwardsguitar:mypassword@192.168.0.101/DMusic</path>
</bookmark>

I'd suggest you try being able to ftp to the xbox first. Once that's working try working the other way. Also, when you log into xbmc do you see the rss feed scroll across the screen? That's a good indication that you can at least see the internet.

You might find more answers at http://forums.xbox-scene.com/. This question gets asked pretty often over there.
posted by backwards guitar at 7:01 AM on September 20, 2006 [1 favorite]

Check the MS Dashboard settings and the dashboard you used to install xbmc on. Did you softmod or chip? You might try setting a static IP on your router and entering the information manually again.

I have mine set up in network settings under XBMC to use the default (MS Dash settings), then I go into programs and fire up the MS Dash. Check your network settings there and run the diagnostic. It will at least tell you something.

Other than that, try another cable, or try a patch cable hooked to an extra nic on your pc. Try turning off your mod and logging into live to check your ms dash settings as well. Yugster.com ran some logitech wireless paired adapters recently. I switched over to that and I have had zero networking issues since. You might try that if your problems continue, they are pre-paired.
posted by eleongonzales at 7:07 AM on September 20, 2006

I'd really like to help, but I need to know more about your setup. Specifically, do you use XBMC as your dashboard or do you first boot into Evox?
posted by maxpower at 8:10 AM on September 20, 2006

piggyback: if i am currently running evox as a dash, and I want to run xmbc, is it just a matter of copying over the xbmc dash and renaming it to something that'll boot before the evox? I've got the DUOX2 mod chip, but I didn't do it myself, and so I'm not familar with the install process and am worried i'm going to have a non-booting xbox. ).
posted by fishfucker at 11:01 AM on September 20, 2006

Response by poster: maxpower - i dont believe i am running xbmc as my dash. I am at work so not 100% sure what i am running, but when i start it gives me a list something like;
play dvd
dashboard
launch menu
possibly something else.
with a pretty blue picture in the background.
does that sound like evox?



additionally if i am wanting to modify files on my xbox as backwards guitar or fishfucker has mentioned, do i modify them on my pc then ftp?

also going to pickup a crossover cable today, to see if that helps.
posted by lrobertjones at 6:49 PM on September 20, 2006

Correct. If you want to modify stuff on the XBox (like the xbmc xml files), you need to ftp them to your PC, change them, then ftp them back (because there is no text editor or similar).

It shouldn't matter if you're not running XBMC as dashboard. I haven't tried with a softmod, but it really is simply a matter of plugging in the ethernet cable. I noticed the latest build didn't like DHCP for me, so I set the IP address manually. The simplest way to manually set your xbox IP would be to copy the IP settings from your PC (IP, netmask, gateway, and DNS; run ipconfig from the command line to see them), and just increment the last number of the IP address by one.

Fishfucker: yes. Grab a copy of XBMC (torrent the latest version), ftp the whole thing across to e:\apps\XBMC (or perhaps f:\apps\XBMC if you have a big hard drive), then follow the instructions for installing it as the main dashboard. I think this requires downloading an additional launcher program which you put in the c:\ root, and rename to overwrite the original dashboard (after backing that up).
posted by pivotal at 7:36 PM on September 20, 2006

pivotal:

if that dash doesn't boot, I'll have to use an install disc to get my dash back, correct?
posted by fishfucker at 8:27 PM on September 20, 2006

Response by poster: picked up a crossover cable today and the xbox is now connecting, but asking for a username and password? do i just use an accountname and password on the pc i want to share files from?
posted by lrobertjones at 8:14 AM on September 21, 2006

Yes, you should be fine using the same username/password as on the pc. For example I log into my computer with:

username: backwardsguitar
password: mypassword

and the bookmark to access the shared DMusic folder on my computer (local ip 192.168.0.101) is:

<bookmark>
<name>DMusic</name> <path>smb://backwardsguitar:mypassword@192.168.0.101/DMusic</path>
</bookmark>

I should note that if there's a problem connecting with my PC, the xbox prompts me for a username/password - so it is possible that you're not actually connecting. Were you able to ftp okay?
posted by backwards guitar at 6:22 AM on September 22, 2006

fishfucker: Turning xbox media center into my main dashboard was very simple. I just did Option 1 from the XBMC manual:

As A Dashboard

Basically you download a default.xbe that you rename to evoxdash.xbe (or whatever your current system is using in the C drive's root. Just backup/rename the original file first) and then make a file called evoxdash.cfg with the full path to your XBMC directory, and it does the work for you.

Worked quite simply for me. Not sure what would happen if the dashboard had failed - but assuming you could still ftp, you could just rename the original file back to it's original name and be okay.
posted by backwards guitar at 6:30 AM on September 22, 2006

yeah, I just started messing with it yesterday -- got the slayers boot disk, so I'm covered in case of a dashboard screw up, so I feel pretty comfortable with tweakin' stuff now.

finally got the SMBs set up (well, sorta -- they seem to fail out randomly -- maybe my wireless connection is flaky) and wow -- XBMC is one of the most awesome things I've seen. It streamed a DVD rip across my wireless network AND resized it from PAL to NTSC on the fly. Incredible. Can't wait to thumbnail and tag all my items once I get internet hooked up.
posted by fishfucker at 11:43 AM on September 22, 2006

BTW, lrobertsjones -- there's a setting for "default username/password" in your Network menu that you might want to set.

Windows shares are always a little funky, so you may have to do some tweaking on the windows side to in order to get stuff working.
posted by fishfucker at 12:13 PM on September 22, 2006

fwiw, my SMB problems appeared to be a flaky wireless connection.

Apparently, FTP is much better at recovering from lost packets than windows networking.
posted by fishfucker at 10:07 AM on September 25, 2006