Vista Home Premium not finding XBOX 360 Extender

Alright, I have a lot of information to go through, so please bear with me!

First, I have been searching for an answer to this problem for about 4 or 5 days in total. I have found many people with similar problems, but I have not found an exact answer. I have tried a number of different fixes listed, but nothing has worked yet.

I am running Windows Vista Home Premium. I have a WRT150N router and a WUSB300N Wireless N USB Adapter. Now, here is where the interesting part comes in. I have tried connecting the XBOX 360 directly to my PC via CAT 5 cable, and the Extender is found. I then connected my PC and XBOX to the router via CAT 5, and the Extender re-connected (I didn't remove or add anything from the direct connection set up) and everything worked perfectly. As soon as I disconnect my PC and try to use the wireless connection, the Extender cannot be found.

I've removed everything from the XBOX (as far as the Extender is concerned) and started from scratch on my PC. I have actually gone through and started every last service (that could be started) on my PC (as a fix action from a post somewhere) and nothing new. I actually was fairly convinced that I was missing some service somewhere, but now I know that is definitely not the case. I have even tried an odd fix where I move a file called "infcache.1" and reboot so the file is rebuilt.

Now, while my PC is connected wirelessly, I can see my XBOX in my Network folder. I can right click it and go to properties where I can see the MAC address, IP, Serial Number, and even Unique ID. However, if I try to ping the IP address, Request Timed Out. I tried to do a tracert on the IP just to see if it was even making it to the router, and it didn't show anything for even a single hop.

I have made sure drivers and firmware are updated on both the router and the USB adapter. I reset my router to factory defaults, because I thought maybe I had tightened things down too much, but still nothing from bare bones settings.

At this point, I just don't know what to do. I have tried absolutely every last thing I can think of, as well as a number of things I've read on literally hundreds of posts. It seems like a lot of people have been having this problem almost since the XBOX 360 came out, and some have found answers while others have not.

I thought I was doing good when I got things narrowed down to the problem being something to do with the Wireless connection. My XBOX is still hard wired and I know my router is good. My USB adapter is all up to date.

I should also probably say that I had the Extender up and running for months up until a week ago. I had a WRT45G router with SpeedBoost and a Wireless G USB Adapter. About 3 weeks ago, I started having some funky problem where my Internet connection would drop down to limited connectivity anywhere from 1 minute to 4 hours after a reboot. I couldn't find a fix anywhere and had wanted to upgrade to N series stuff anyhow, so I took the opportunity. Now, I'm just ready to pull my hair out!!!

I don't know if this is the 100% correct forum to be posting this in or not, but I have seen some similar posts. If anyone out there has experienced the same thing, or knows of anything else I could try, please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

Josh

I moved this into the good post...

Anyhow, I've made sure the ICS service was turned off, and I thought that was all you had to do. Are you saying there are adapter specific settings somewhere or did you just turn the service off as well?

I went through this big long list of fixes to try and now I can't remember where I found them at (some forum reply somewhere). Anyhow, none of that stuff made a difference.

It has to be some setting with the wireless... either on the router or the network adapter. I hard wired my computer to the router again (XBOX is already hard wired) and it connects within seconds. As soon as I unplug that connection and go wireless, it can't find the extender. The weird thing is, I can still see the XBOX in my Network folder (or on my network), I can check out the properties on the device, see the IP, MAC, etc., but I cannot connect to the extender. My router software sees the XBOX and everything (even lists it as an extender). The Linksys EasyLink Advisor software if anyone is wondering.

I cannot ping the device when I'm on a wireless connection either. Even though I can see the IP through the properties on the device on my Network. I do get Request Timed Out rather than destination host not found or any of those other messages, so that tells me it knows the device is out there somewhere, it's just not responding.

Thanks for the response though!

Even I’m struggling with very similar problem. Earlier my Vista Home premium was not having any problem sharing media on Xbox 360 with my older linksys router. But as the router got broken, I bought a new Netgear wgr614 v.9 router. Installed it properly with all required drivers and other settings. But since then, don’t know what gone wrong, Xbox is no more able to recognize the Media Center on my Vista. Vista is able to see Xbox, but unable to connect the extender.

I wish somebody here can help me to get it work.

I’m well aware of this problem as I too faced it recently. Here is how you can fix it. Start with wireless setup on your xbox console. During this process you will come through a screen which tells you to make sure certain ports are open. Note that ports, open Windows Firewall and add them to exception list.

That’s it.

Thank you very much for the help hawkin’s. I already managed to get it work two days. However i appreciate your help.