• Guide to Home Networking
  How to set up your own home network quickly and painlessly.
• Routers and Xbox Live
  Everything you need to know about routers on Xbox Live.
• Diagnosing Xbox Live Connections
  Use the Xbox Dashboard to solveICMP, MTU, and NAT issues.
• Lose the Lag
  We've got a few pointers to help you avoid laggy games and host lag-free ones

Direct Connection

A direct connection is the easiest Xbox Live connection type to set up. However if you want to share your Internet connection with your PC while using Xbox Live (for example, if someone was using your PC whilst you want to playLive), choose a different connection type.

Steps:

1. Turn off your Xbox console and your cable/DSL modem before connecting any cables. You should disconnect your modem from its power source to turn it off.
2. Connect the Ethernet out port on the cable/DSL modem to the Ethernet port on the back of the Xbox console using the Ethernet cable. Most modems use a standard (straight-through) Ethernet cable. However, some modems require a crossover Ethernet cable. See your modem documentation for more information.
3. Turn on your cable/DSL modem, then your Xbox console, with no disk in the disk tray.
4. From the Xbox Dashboard, choose Xbox Live.

If the Xbox Live screen is displayed ('Account Management, New Account, Network Setup') congratulations! You are connected to Xbox Live. Next, sign up for Xbox Live.

If your Xbox console cannot automatically connect to Xbox Live, you will receive the following message: 'Could not connect to Xbox Live. Do you want to troubleshoot your network connection?' See Troubleshooting your direct connection for more detailed information about the problem and the steps you can take to fix it.