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GameCube (Games) PlayStation (Games) XBox (Games) Entertainment Games

Linksys Makes Wireless Play For Gamers 36

Posted by simoniker from the wireless-fun-for-everyone dept.
SycloneFX writes "According to an article on CNET News, Linksys have announced two new adapters that are designed to connect game consoles, including PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube. The article summarizes: 'The new adapters are available immediately, and are based on the 802.11b and 802.11g wireless networking standards. The 802.11b-based adapter, called the Wireless-B Game Adapter, costs $79, while the 802.11g-based Wireless-G Game Adapter costs $129.'" Seems like simple, easy-to-set-up wireless for online/LAN console gaming is a great way to go.
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Linksys Makes Wireless Play For Gamers More

Linksys Makes Wireless Play For Gamers

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  • Seems a bit pricey to me, the adaptors alone for the PS2 and GameCube are like under $40 and a 4 hub is like only $35
    • "Seems a bit pricey to me, the adaptors alone for the PS2 and GameCube are like under $40 and a 4 hub is like only $35"

      That's lots of clutter, though. I personally would go the wireless route despite the extra cost because I don't want to have some long ass cables running down the hall of my apartment.

      • latency (high) bandwidth (low) = bad for games
        • Well, (dons pedant cap) I think that was actually seven words.... (doffs pedant cap).

          It does depend a bit on the load running across the wireless link. I wouldn't like to serve a multiplayer game across a thin wireless link, but for most client-only connections it would suffice.

          802.11a/b/g all do seem to suffer from occasional retransmission errors that can induce a noticeable but transient lag.

          I think for a fair market segment the convenience will far outweigh the cost/performance considerations. T

        • Re:two words (Score:4, Informative)

          by Anonvmous Coward ( 589068 ) on Thursday July 31, 2003 @09:46PM (#6585053)
          "latency (high)"

          As long as it's under 100ms, it'll be just fine. Besides, don't you think Linksys is going to work on that?

          "bandwidth (low) = bad for games"

          Bandwidth is low? Compared to what? Last I checked, 11megabits wasn't slow to anybody playing games. As a matter of fact, ppl with only 256k can do just fine, and 802.11b can do that at quite a healthy range.

    • Re:Seems a bit pricey to me. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Thursday July 31, 2003 @09:22PM (#6584932) Homepage
      Well, it's a full wireless bridge. It may seem expensive, but remember a few things. First if you have multiple consoles (a DC, a PS2, a XBox, and a GCN all with broadband adaptors) you could use the one adaptor along with a hub to give them ALL 'net access. Also, if your PC is on one side/floor of your house and your games are on another, it's usually cheaper and better looking to get something like this and a wireless lan card for the PC than to run ethernet through the walls or even worse taped to the outside of the walls. This isn't for everyone (especially if you have ethernet near your consoles) but for many it would be a great thing.

  • What's the difference . . . (Score:3, Insightful)

    by CaptainStormfield ( 444795 ) on Thursday July 31, 2003 @09:37PM (#6585015)
    . . . between this and a normal wireless bridge? Judging by the Linksys Prodcut Listing [linksys.com], you still have to buy an ethernet adaptor for the console. It *does* look cool, and perhaps it is easier to configure than the wireless bridges that are on the market now?
    • XBox at least has inbuilt 100Mbit network.

      Q.

    • There isn't one. I think it's just smaller or is designed to fit in better (asthetically) with the consoles.
    • The difference is that these devices have a button on the box that lets you set up ad-hoc networks simply by setting the same channel on all the bridges. I assume there's a more complete configuration setup a la the WET-11 for infrastructure-based networks.
    • It's $50 cheaper than the WET11...that sucker is $130 from Best Buy, and you can't find these at Best Buy yet either. :(
    • It appears that it's just a wi-fi adapter, really. You already have to have a wireless network to connect the device, this just hooks up to the ethernet port on the console (assuming you have one if your console is a PS2 or GC) to get the console onto your wireless network. Or, as Linksys' site says, you can get a second one to connect to your wired hub/bridge (to act as the base station, basically). I think I'll just stick with my previous intension of getting a 4-port wireless bridge to sit behind my cons
  • WTF?

    It's just a mini wireless->ethernet bridge. I would have been impressed if they were hawking expansion slot devices that provide wireless ethernet support for games, simulating whatever wired MAC would have been standard for the game console. That would seriously kick ass.

    Setting wep keys via SNMP... awwww nawww...

    But alas, they take the gay, done-before route. Yawn!

    (to their credit, I imagine building a legitmately marketable compliant wireless broadband adapter would be very pricey due to licen
    • Relax and take a deep berath. This product addresses a few concerns:

      a) Most console gamers don't know WHAT a wireless bridge is.

      b) Both models appear to be cheaper than Linksys' other bridges (though the prices may come down if these "gamer bridges" would work with a PC just as easily).

      c) Apparently, the software is designed to be more user friendly and I'm sure the instructions will be written with gaming (and each console) in mind, rather than traditional LANs.

      This looks like an excellent move to

      • Product manual is here: ftp://ftp.linksys.com/pdf/wga11b_ug.pdf

        Reading through the documentation real fast:

        • The bridge will lock onto an open (no WEP and SSID being openly broadcast) wireless node by selecting the right channel number via pushing the big blue button alone. Real quick and slick.
        • Or if you run into a situation where you have a WEP enabled network and/or hidden SSID, you can set up to 3 (P1, P2, P3) custom setups each with pre-defined WEP Keys and SSID's that I assume you toggle through w
  • Really.
    Gaming, especially online gaming, is a potentially lucrative market for sure

    Props to linksys for seeing the need in the market for 'plug and play' networking products marketed as console exclusive.
    They know what they're doing, at least in this endeavor.

  • I just purchased linksys wireless-g products for my apartment, which can't be more than 30x20'. at first, just getting a connection to work, even on a 10', one-wall run was buggy and difficult, and we all had the same problems. so i figure my difficulties at the opposite corner of the apartment aren't range or intereference. How many ways can I be wrong? then I switch back to cat5e and first thing, load up slashdot and I see this story. Puh-ffffffff-tuh. Indeed.
  • I had hoped this would be a usb wireless device like i have for a desktop, not just s fancy wireless brige.

    Oh well.

    I would love to use the wireless device i have on the ps2. Its usb. Its a standard... why can't they make a driver for it?

    -Tim
    • Because console games shouldn't have to include special drivers for all the various USB devices that someone might want to hook up to their PS2, and developers would certainly be reluctant to start putting in some sort of starting config panel on every game to activate drivers for those devices.

  • 802.11b is fine, sure why not.

    But 802.11g is useless for gaming. 802.11b is already much faster than a broadband Internet connection, so what is all that bandwidth for?

    Only theoretical use I can see is for people running Linux on their X-bosen. Oh yeah, and selling to dumbasses. I guess this won't be the last higher priced pointless 802.11g item we'll see on the market.

    • Re:802.11g???? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by amorsen ( 7485 ) <benny+slashdot@amorsen.dk> on Friday August 01, 2003 @04:25AM (#6586378)
      Putting 802.11b devices on the same network as 802.11g devices slows down the 802.11g devices. That is why there is a point to buying 802.11g even for devices which do not need the extra speed themselves.
      • Well I use 802.11g AP to get the greater bandwidth. I still use 802.11b devices, and a couple of 802.11g devices, however my entire wireless network boogies because it's not sharing 11 Mbps between all of the wireless computers, it's sharing 54 (33 actuall) between all of the computers, which makes things happen much more quickly :)
  • Amazon has it [amazon.com] for $69.98, but to be honest I have been dissapointed by all this wifi thing. Nothing but problems in the 3 offices I visit regularly and 2 friends houses. Good old cables seem to do the thing just great.

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