Help my old man - Xbox 360 and NTL

[Bada Bing!]

My old man has decided he's going to trade in his PS2 for a 360 tomorrow, and has broadband with NTL at the moment. Am I right in thinking that any old generic ADSL wireless router will not work with cable, and instead he'll need some pain in the arse cable router?

The modem is currently upstairs; I don't know what type it is, but I'm pretty sure it's not wireless. His 360 will be downtairs (mum will be pleased with that - not!) hooked up to his plasma.

Does he need to get NTL involved or can I tell him what bits to get and talk him through it. I'm an IT Manager, by the way so that side of things won't be an issue. I just don't know a thing about how cable broadband works!

I can't just go round and have a look because he lives 350 miles away in Leicester.

[NekoFever]

You should be able to get a basic router, as opposed to a gateway router, which won't have a modem built in. The modem goes into the wall and connects to the interweb, then the router plugs into the modem and everything else plugs into that. This one would work, or you can get one like this with wireless built in.

Other manufacturers make them too. I just like Netgear and tend to stick with them.

[Bada Bing!]

Thanks mate. I did my own homework and went for a Netgear wireless which is both cable and DSL compatible. I've used the model before at work so will use that.

I seem to remember NTL being bastards about having an XBox 360 but no one seems to have mentioned it so hopefully he'll be ok.

[MJ]

We've got NTL broadband (2 MB) and use a Linksys WRT54GS router. The Xbox, Xbox 360 and desktop PC are wired and two notebooks and a Nintendo DS are wireless. No problem.

[Nembot]

We've got NTL broadband (2 MB) and use a Linksys WRT54GS router. The Xbox, Xbox 360 and desktop PC are wired and two notebooks and a Nintendo DS are wireless. No problem.

Pretty much the same as MJ, I also use a PSP with no issues at all.

I know you already have a router but if you have any issues with it I can`t recommend that Linsys one highly enough, it`s quality!

[Bada Bing!]

Cool, thanks guys. For some reason I had it in my head that NTL blocked the ports necessary for XBL without paying extra. I must be mixed up with someone else.