Desperate for Xbox Live? Hook it up with a 3G phone

by Richard Mitchell { May 22nd 2009 at 3:30PM }

Let's say, hypothetically, that you really want to play something on Xbox Live. For illustration's sake, we'll say that something is Halo 3. Alas, the "high-speed interweb access" you bought from that guy behind the 7-11 turns out to be nothing more than a tin can with a string attached. You try to use your neighbor's wireless internet connection, only to find that it's been encrypted. Ungrateful jerks, that's the last time you give them a fruitcake at Christmas.

So what's a desperate gamer to do? Easy, just hook your Xbox up to your PC and tether it to your 3G phone. Killthrash over at 2old2play has posted a handy guide to connecting to Xbox Live using a laptop and a Blackberry Bold on AT&T's 3G network. It takes some work and it's not as smooth as a dedicated connection -- and will probably destroy your data plan -- but gamers do what they have to do, right?

Now, if someone can make this happen with a Mac too, then everyone wins.

Tags: 3g, diy, hacks, how-to, mods, xbox-live

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Urza @ May 22nd 2009 3:35PM

Weird.

Deezul @ May 22nd 2009 3:43PM

Not that weird. I have thought about taking my 360 when I've traveled and hooking it up using the free wireless connected to my laptop, then set up ICS to share the connection via the Ethernet port. Buy one of those USB adapters for Verizon or AT&T, same thing. Must be a slow Friday.

Oshi @ May 22nd 2009 3:43PM

Oh yeah, I've totally done this before when we were setting up a convention gameroom and we needed to download shit on the consoles... It's why I keep a crossover cable in my laptop bag, heh.

Fafhrdd @ May 23rd 2009 3:13PM

I havedone this too...

My G3 phone is speed tested at over 1 meg a sec download and over 300k for upload.

MadMike @ May 22nd 2009 3:45PM

I'm assuming the "guy behind 7-11" is Comcast and their evil "bag of hurt" they throw their unwitting customers into.

mattclarkie @ May 22nd 2009 3:47PM

You shouldn't be telling people stuff like this. These are the type of crap connections that make Xbox Live a pain for other users. I'm sick of lagging matches, and the last thing we need is people on 3G connections barely better than dial-up.

Alex (The Pope NJ) @ May 22nd 2009 4:15PM

3G speeds can be as good if not better than DSL it is the same as a T1 line if you get a good connection. Granted It can drop but most people only have 1Mbps upstream anyway which is normaly shared with other computers in their house so you may be better off over 3G. Oh yea upstream is what actually maters in gaming.

revnja @ May 22nd 2009 6:52PM

Actually, latency is what matters in gaming -- and latency over 3G can be pretty crap.

Alex (The Pope NJ) @ May 22nd 2009 4:11PM

I have done this many times its a little slow but works I do it with a blackberry 8100 that I hacked to get it to access the internet without a data plan let me tell you that pissed off my carrier. They locked my phone out once but ten min later hacked it again.

UNSCleric @ May 22nd 2009 4:22PM

I hope I never get matched up with one of these cheap bastards.

Scott @ May 22nd 2009 5:40PM

Oh I see, because that would affect your game somehow.

mdsmith2019 @ May 22nd 2009 4:59PM

on a mac, plug tether your phone via USB (or bluetooth) and in system preferences you can share the internet connection via ethernet (or airport) then connect your XBOX and boom!

now everyone wins.

Dragod @ May 22nd 2009 5:24PM

Astro A40's... The most magnificent headphones money can buy.

Stephen J. Galbincea @ May 22nd 2009 6:00PM

Amen. Best money I ever spent for gaming.

Haohmaru (PSN - DimmuBurgerKing XBL - A Real Puppet ) @ May 26th 2009 2:47PM

How funny. I just ordered an A40 set last Friday. They can't get here soon enough. :P

CB17 @ May 22nd 2009 5:51PM

It should be stupid easy on a Mac. Just look up how to share a 3G data card connection and it should be the same thing (Hint: Just enable Internet Sharing under the "Sharing" menu and specify the connection you want to share)

Shafnitz @ May 22nd 2009 6:00PM

It won't really destroy your data plan if you're only using it for playing games on Xbox Live. Monitoring Halo 3, I found it only uses 50KB/sec which is less than a megabit/sec. If you're going to download content this way, good luck...

rapture @ May 22nd 2009 6:07PM

Here how to do it on Windows Mobile (article from 2007): http://hushedcasket.com/node/2610

:)

THR1113R @ May 22nd 2009 6:29PM

This how I always play... its more reliable than my neighbor's wireless lol.
I used a program for called ICS for windows mobile. Just installed the program on my phone, connected it to my laptop, pressed connect on my phone. from there my laptop had access to the web. The next step was to do the "Bridge Connections" method that can be found anywhere.

I heard Halo 3 uses about 50-60MB per hour. Most carriers wont bother you til you've used more than 5GB in a month... and even then you have to exceed 5GB for consecutive months.

Rhamsey @ May 22nd 2009 7:39PM

I knew you could use your laptop as a wireless router for the 360, but this is interesting.

kris @ May 22nd 2009 8:51PM

I did this all the time when my family went on road trips. Kept the kids happy and allowed them to play their games online. Most areas on the major interstates along the east coast have continuous coverage of network and the majority have 3G. Just hook the iphone up with a usb, load PDANET, enable internet sharing, connect an ethernet cord, turn on the xbox. Works fine and doesnt really use that much data. Can play most games of 8 players fine with no lag.

sleepydumbdude @ May 22nd 2009 9:20PM

I used to use the edge network to tether with my old blackberry and download content when I wasn't at home. I haven't tried playing games though and haven't tried with 3g yet.

Jordan Brown @ May 23rd 2009 3:08AM

I did this for a while. With my Motorola Q, and later a data card.
It was terrible. I was on 3G on Verizon and on COD4 I was happy with a yellow bar. I had to have like 150 or more losses just from lagging out of games.

It was my only option at the time, but finally I was offered crappy DSL from at&t.

The shit I went through to play COD.

Paul B @ May 23rd 2009 2:12PM

I don't know why that article would tell people that this would void all their warranties. I see nothing intensive that would void either your phone carrirer or Xbox Live's terms of service.
Scaremongers!

mike k. @ May 23rd 2009 3:27PM

If you have android, windows mobile, or a hacked Iphone.. you can just find some wifi tethering applications and connect your xbox directly to that, and do away with the laptop in the middle really..

sepirioth @ May 23rd 2009 7:25PM

can we please not people how to do this over tethering :/ the same article couldve been written RE wifi :)(no?)

pibs @ May 23rd 2009 11:16PM

I use a MBR 1000 router hooked up to my blackberry so I need no bridges. Speeds aren't fast enough for games but its good enough for sending messages and talking to friends on LIVE. Its more of an emergency backup thing for me atleast.

MC Ownage @ May 24th 2009 12:36AM

It isn't really the smartest thing to do. Though you may get Xbox Live. Your cell phone company will look at the usage of your cell phone in their service. They don't really like you using it for other things especially if you were to download a 1.3gb demo. That will make them upset.

Aeikozz @ May 25th 2009 4:45AM

Guilty of this. I did this on my Acer which has 3G built in. Played fine it's just when the network starts roaming you and knocks you into GPRS mode which is like 2G which is like 56K modem speeds. Thing about cell phones are they constantly alternate between GPRS 2G (56K Modem), EDGE 2.75G (128K IDSN) and UMTS 3G (7MBPS according to my pc...).

As long as i am on UMTS no problem. Speed is just fine, of course it's KILLING my data plan like over 1 gig used in a matter of an hour. However if it drops back to those other two just once during play time? oh man... LAG City. It's like trying to play a game of Chu Chu Rocket. The games i've done this with was Street Fighter IV and Peggle.