Can't get PC (xbox) to connect to Mini via Ethernet for Internet sharing

Question

Can't get PC (xbox) to connect to Mini via Ethernet for Internet sharing

I'm hoping this is the right forum for this question - if not, please feel free to redirect me!

I have several Macs connected via wifi to the Internet via a Time Capsule.
My son got an xbox 360 for his birthday, and we've been looking for a way to get it online.
He tried connecting it directly to the TimeCapsule using Ethernet and that worked. The problem with that, is that his room is nowhere near the TimeCapsule, and I want to avoid running cables.

I thought that it might be possible to use Internet Sharing on the mac mini in his room, connecting to the xbox over Ethernet. The two machines appear to be seeing each other, but when he tried to configure Internet settings on the xbox, it says that it can’t connect to the mac.

Has anyone done this and got it working, or have any idea what settings (presumably in the Mac) that I need to change? I did try to do a manual connect from the xbox, but there was one setting that I couldn't find in Network prefs - I don't remember what it was off the top of my head, but if it might be relevant, I'll dig it up, and any other settings that might be important.

(I've also tried connecting using an xbox modem, but it doesn't like the .n/.g compatible network I have running on the Time Capsule. I'm guessing that it must be an older .g card in the xbox wifi thingy)

Thanks in advance!

David

Mac Mini, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Sep 30, 2009 10:18 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Dah•veed

Level 9

64,651 points

Sep 30, 2009 5:21 PM in response to DavideStevens

(A friend helped me with the information for configuring the XBox because I do not have one.)

Before you begin configuring either device/computer you will need the LAN IP of your wireless gateway/router and your Mac mini, as well as the subnet mask, which is often 255.255.255.0. If you do not recall them from configuring your router you can find them in Sys Prefs>Network>AirPort>Advanced>TCP/IP.

Now you can configure the Mac mini. You need to configure two System Preferences on the Mac to accomplish this. First in Sys Prefs>Network you need to make sure that in addition to the AirPort service that the mini uses for its internet connection, that there is also an Ethernet service which you will use to connect to the XBox. If the Ethernet service is not there, create it by clicking the + to the lower left.

Then in Sys Prefs>Sharing you set up sharing the wireless internet service with the XBox over the Ethernet service. Highlight Internet Sharing, but do not click the box. To the right configure to share the connection from the AirPort service to devices connecting to the mini by the Ethernet service. Lastly, check the box to begin Internet Sharing

Next configure the XBox. Now you will need the IP address of your Mac mini and your wireless router on your LAN.

Start up your Xbox and go to the Network settings;
For IP address, enter an IP similar to the Mac mini's, but enter a higher number that is not being used by another device/computer on your LAN.
For subnet, enter the number you found earlier.
For router/gateway, enter the IP for the wireless router.
Next go to DNS. Enter the IP address of wireless router in both the primary and secondary IP address fields.
Leave PPPoE and Advanced settings blank (i.e. OFF and Automatic)
You should now be able to connect the Xbox to the internet by sharing the Mac mini's wireless connection shared to the XBox over Ethernet.

Dah•veed

Reply

Answer 2

Oct 1, 2009 5:05 AM in response to Dah•veed

Hi David,

please thank your friend for the assistance.

nearly there - I've got the Xbox connected to the network now, but it's failing to connect to the Internet. It's telling me that the "console can't resolve the name of the Xbox Live server or xbox.com" And do I want to change the DNS settings.

Here's my settings:

Airport: IPv4 10.0.1.194 ; subnet 255.255.255.0 ; router 10.0.1.1

Ethernet: (DHCP with manual IP) IP 10.0.1.196 ; subnet 255.0.0.0

Xbox: IP Address 10.0.1.200 ; subnet 255.255.255.0 ; Gateway 10.0.1.196
Primary & Secondary DNS 10.0.1.196

I also tried putting the Xbox DNS settings back to automatic, but it still couldn't connect to the Internet.

One thing I wasn't entirely clear on from the instructions is : when you say enter the IP for the wireless router, do you mean the IPv4 address or the router address? Perhaps that's what I've gotten wrong?

Also, in Internet Sharing, Share Connection is set to Airport, and To computer has Ethernet checked, but both options are greyed out. Does this mean anything relevant?

Thanks

David

Message was edited by: DavideStevens

Message was edited by: DavideStevens

Reply

Answer 3

Dah•veed

Level 9

64,651 points

Oct 1, 2009 1:46 PM in response to DavideStevens

I looked into this issue for most of the morning. (Slow day, self employed!)

I have searched the discussions and have not found a solution, although many folks have asked the same question.

Sometimes I try to help because I know if I really blow it some hot shot level four or five cannot resist the bait and will jump in to help. No one is coming to the rescue. And nothing any of them suggested worked in the other threads that I have found.

I brought my iMac in and set it up close to my Mac mini and tried to reproduce what we are trying to do here and I cannot get it to work. I switched my gateway and mini to a wireless connection and then connected the iMac to the mini with Ethernet. I tried vary the order of configuring things. I ignored sharing the internet and concentrated on a good Ethernet connection between the two Macs and after that was established I then configured the mini to share the internet with the iMac and it all breaks down. The moment I share the internet with the Mac, the mini's internet goes down.

What it seems to boil down to is configuring the Ethernet on the mini's side of the connection. No matter whether I let they Macs work it out dynamically or manually place the settings, something is not correct.

Apple says it can be done, but it is all very superficial information and I cannot find explicit instructions in the knowledge base of how.

Sorry!

Dah•veed

Reply

Answer 4

Oct 1, 2009 3:10 PM in response to Dah•veed

Good grief! So it won't even work with 2 macs! How bizarre.

Well, thanks for all the work you've put into this - I really appreciate what you've done. I guess I'll just fiddle around with the settings a bit more and see if I can get it to work.
I'll post back here if I come up with a solution.

thanks again David.

Reply

Answer 5

Dah•veed

Level 9

64,651 points

Oct 1, 2009 5:15 PM in response to DavideStevens

The crazy thing is that I can make it work Ethernet to wireless in less than a minute.

I can take my Mac mini Ethernet connected to my gateway and share the internet with the iMac over a wireless connection and it works flawlessly. I figured this out about a week ago for a guy who wanted to share his Mac's Ethernet internet with his iPhone wirelessly.

Dah•veed

Reply

Answer 6

xMATTx

Level 1

0 points

Oct 3, 2009 8:30 AM in response to Dah•veed

I've been having a similar issue, only I'm trying to get my 360 to connect via MacBook Pro (v10.6) and a USB/Ethernet adapter. I can successfully get the 360 to connect to the Ethernet adapter and the Mac realizes this but the Mac can't find the authentication server (we use PEAP at my school).

I looked at the instructions that they had on the website and it says that Macs don't support connection sharing over an 802.1X connection, but I doubt that.

I think that there's something wrong with the connection sharing, because the 360 connects to the adapter just fine and the other ethernet to the internet just fine. But when I hit connect for the USB adapter, it says "Authenticating" for about 1 minute and then it says that the authentication server isn't responding. Any ideas? Sounds like you guys have made progress so I just wanted to ask around.

Reply

Answer 7

Oct 30, 2009 2:15 PM in response to DavideStevens

Hey guys I just got my xbox running on live here is a great guide for it
http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2007/04/26/xbox-live-via-a-mac-laptop/

seamus

Reply

Answer 8

juan08

Level 1

0 points

Dec 19, 2009 8:44 PM in response to DavideStevens

David,

May be too late but the problem seems to be that you use in the gateway the ip of the ethernet, not the one of the router (10.0.1.1) and the same goes to the DNS (10.0.1.1).

Cheers

Reply

Answer 9

Dah•veed

Level 9

64,651 points

Dec 28, 2009 6:47 AM in response to DavideStevens

David, I do not know if you and your son are still looking for this solution but yes as the other two posts show, there is a solution.

That solution is to manually configure the XBox and to make sure that you are using the correct routing addresses as Jaun says in his post.

You will need two pieces of information to manually configure the XBox; the IP address for the Ethernet port while your Mac is using a wireless Airport connection, and the IP address of your LAN's router.

You can easily get the Ethernet port's IP by using Terminal (Apps/Utilities). Enter +ifconfig en0+ (that is a zero, not a capital o). Look for the IP next to inet. To get your router's IP go to Sys Prefs/Network/Airport/Advanced/TCP/IP.

So as an example my Ethernet's IP when I am using an Airport connection is 192.168.2.1, while my router's IP is 192.168.1.1.

First, configure the Sharing settings on your Mac in Sys Prefs/Sharing to share your internet connection from your Airport connection to computers using an Ethernet connection. Next configure the XBox manually using the IP addresses you retrieved above; (In this example I use the information from my Mac)
1. In the XBox go to Dashboard/System.
2. Select Network Settings/Edit/Basic Settings
3. Set IP Settings to Manual.
4. Set the IP Address to your Ethernet's IP plus 1; 192.168.2.2.
5. Use 255.255.255.0 for Subnet Mask.
6. Set Gateway to the IP of your Ethernet port; 192.168.2.1.
7. Press Done.
8. Set DNS Settings to Manual.
9. Set the Primary DNS Server and the Secondary DNS Server to the IP address of your router 192.168.1.1.
10. Press Done.

Hopefully after this you are sharing the Mac's Airport internet connection with the XBox over Ethernet.

Reply

Answer 10

Frankdr

Level 1

5 points

Sep 21, 2013 10:18 AM in response to Dah•veed

Hey, I am experiencing a similar problem as listed in this post but with slightly different symptoms.

My Wifi is Good

Ethernet has IP, but not a Router number/status in the advanced window.

My full issue is posted here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5327052

I have tried all the method and instructions going, except DahVeed's post here about manually configuring the settings, due to the lack of my Ether-Router number etc.

Would really appreciate the help guys!!!

Thanks

Reply