Using ATT's 3g for Xbox Live

What do you do when your internet goes out and there is no other free wireless in sight? Use your phone of course.

I recently saw a post in the Halo forums regarding the possibility of using a cellular 3G network to connect to Xbox LIVE and play Halo 3. I decided to test this by tethering my Blackberry Bold to a laptop and enabling ICS (Internet Connection Sharing). In theory, you could set up a 360 in your car and pwn some noobs cruisin’ the 95 with some beetches in da back. Here are instructions on how to set this up alongside my results over Halo 3 matchmaking.

1. Install the Blackberry Desktop Manager software onto your PC.

2. Create a new standard modem under “Phone and Modem Options” in the Windows Control Panel. Plug in your Blackberry Bold, run the Desktop Manager software, under Phone and Modem Options, click on the Modems tab, and “Add….”. The Max Port speed should be 115200, under Diagnostics, you should see Hardware ID “mdmgen”. You should also be able to “Query Modem” to get a response. On the “Advanced” tab, enter the following string under “Extra initialization commands:”

AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","wap.cingular"

3. Create a new network connection. Call this “AT&T Blackberry”. Click on “Network Connections”, and enter the “New Connection Wizard”. You’re going to set this up Manually, the number you’re dialing is *99#. You’re going to leave the user name and password blank. Once you’ve built the dial-up connection, right-click and go to “Properties”. Under the advanced tab, enable ICS and you’re sharing the home networking connection with the “Local Area Connection”. Now click on “Settings”. You’re going to build all ports necessary to run Xbox LIVE per Microsoft. Under the name or IP, you can just type in your laptop or desktop’s network computer name.

4. Note: your Blackberry Desktop Manager MUST BE RUNNING to connect via dial-up to your Blackberry modem. Once your Desktop Manager is running, connect using your new Dial-Up connection. Your Blackberry should now say “Modem Mode Enabled” on the main screen. Open a web browser and try a website to make sure you’re connected to the internet.

5. Plug your Xbox 360 Ethernet cable into your Ethernet jack on your PC. You should now have two connections going on your PC – one for your Blackberry and one for your Xbox. Test your Xbox LIVE connection using your System Settings on your Xbox 360 dashboard. I’ve found that my NAT is always Moderate while tethering to the Blackberry. Once you’re connected to LIVE, good hunting!
 

Halo 3 Test Run

I found I was able to accept a game invite, voice chat and find a game in Matchmaking relatively quickly. It took a very long time to load the DLC map variant in matchmaking, so be patient! Once loaded and the game started, I (killthrash) was good to go. About 3 minutes in, I found some choppiness, but after 1 minute of chop, it started to run smoothly again. I put the game in my file share, it’s Team BRs on Ghost Town titled “AT&T 3G” in slot 1.

(editor's note:  We're fairly certain, after a brief consultation with our lawyers, that Killthrash's little software fix will void the warranty of you 360, your Blackberry and your PC, that it violates any number of standard lease and condo co-op agreements, that it allows trojan horses into your system that will stream cash to killthrash's offshore bank accounts and marks your address with a pheromone that will lead tribes of flesh eating zombies to your door during the impending apocalypse.  Please use at your own risk and don't sue us).