Mac OS X internet sharing with Xbox 360

15th June 2009 • 0 Comments

I've recently obtained myself a shiny new Xbox 360, and of course wanted to get it online. This is done via the Ethernet port on the Xbox which can either be connected to your router directly, or via a PC, as detailed in the instructions.

However, I didn't want to boot into Windows every time I wanted to play online, so here's how you can get the Xbox 360 connected via your Mac! (Note: I'm using OS X Leopard here).

Firstly, make sure your 360 is fully set up as per the instructions in the manual. Dumb thing to say I know!

Next, in OS X, go to System Preferences and then Sharing. Click down onto Internet Sharing and you should see something like this:

Make sure you're sharing your connection from Airport, to computers using Ethernet. Then, enable Internet Sharing by clicking the checkbox next to where it says "Internet Sharing" in the list view to the left. A dialogue will come up askig if you're sure, click "Start".

Now comes the more technical bit. We have to assign the Xbox manual IP addresses, gateways and DNS settings. Don't worry, I'll walk you through it.

Firstly, we need some info from your Mac still. Open Terminal and then type: "ifconfig en0" (that is a zero and without the " marks) and then hit return. A screen similar to the following should appear:

I've gone ahead and highlighted the line that you're interested in, it's the one starting "inet". Write down (or just keep this window open) the value here, you'll be needing it later. Mine in this case is 192.168.2.1

Note: If you have two entries starting "inet", you need to turn your 360 off and run this last step again.

Now we need the IP address of your router. This is easy to find, go to System Preferences, click Network, select Airport and then Advanced, and finally TCP/IP. In here there should be an entry for Router. Again, write this number down.

So in may case, it's 192.168.1.1.

Now, fire up your 360 and go to My Xbox, then System Settings, and then Network Settings, then Configure Network.

You can stay in the basic settings here. For the IP settings, choose Manual, and then input the following:

The IP address is the address you pulled from Terminal, with the last number incremented by 1. So, my number was 192.168.2.1, meaning that my 360 is 192.168.2.2.

The subnet mask is 255.255.255.0

The Gateway is the number that you pulled from Terminal, without any alterations. So, mine is 192.168.2.1.

Select Done.

We now need to configure the DNS. Again, choose Manual in these settings, and then for both DNS Server 1 and DNS Server 2, input the IP address for your router, in my case this was 192.168.1.1.

Click Done again, and then go ahead and test your connection. All should be right with the world!

Hopefully this all works for you guys and you found this entry useful! I'm off to play some Left 4 Dead!