This guide is for all of the ebayers who were smart enough to google this topic before paying ten dollars to purchase it off ebay. The wireless network adapter cost $100 at most places, this guide will save you that $100 if you already have a laptop w/wireless capabilities and windows XP, wireless access point/router, and a short ethernet cable.

First thing you need to do is turn on the internet sharing on the laptop. To do this go to start/control panel/network connections then right click on the connection you are using to access the internet, and go to properties. Then click on the advanced tab. In the internet connection sharing box check the box that says “Allow other network users to connected through this computers internet connection.” And check the box that says “Allow other network users to control or disable the shared internet connection”. Click OK.

Then take the laptop and place it somwhere near the Xbox and connect the 360 and the laptop using an ethernet cable. A cross over cable works too but it is not neccesary. The ethernet cable that comes with the 360 works fine. After connecting the two, run a network test on the 360 to make sure everything passes. If it does then sign into to xbox live and play.

Ahh… charging for Xbox live, the only flaw to the 360. All you have to do is hook up the Playstation 2 with a network cable and can play online for free. Well I found a way to get around the Xbox live fees. The first thing you need to do is go to the Tropicana twister page here.

Sign up for a free account and then you will be taken to a gaming page. On this page click I don’t have an access code and Tropicana will give you one. Then go back to the gaming page and enter your code and the security ID and click lets play. If you win a prize thats great. If you don’t, Tropicana will give you a code for a free 48 hour trial of Xbox live gold membership that will give you full access to live.

You can do this once a day everyday. So if you do it for a week then you will have two weeks of live membership built up. Just keep repeating the procedure it only takes a couple of minutes and you will have free Xbox live for your enjoyment.