How to Set up Windows Media Center on your Xbox 360

In this tutorial, I'm going to walk through the process of setting up Windows Media Center on an Xbox 360.  It can be quite easy if your desktop/laptop PC is setup correctly on the same Network as your Xbox 360, or it can be quite daunting if you run into any issues.  Before we begin, let me tell you what my desktop/ laptop computers and Xbox 360 network configurations are:

• To connect my desktop, laptop and Xbox 360 to the internet I'm using a Linksys Wireless-G router (Model No: WRT54G)
• Xbox 360 is connected wirelessly using the Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter, when setting up the private wireless network (I named the wireless network "jamiroquai")
• Dell Desktop PC with Windows Vista Ultimate (and Norton Internet Security 2009) is connected to the internet with the "Local Area Connection" using an Ethernet cable. The Local Area Connection private network name is called "Network 2"
• Dell Laptop PC with Windows Vista Ultimate (and Norton Internet Security 2009) is connected to the same wireless network "jamiroquai" as my Xbox 360.
• I'm not using the Windows Firewall on either computers, instead I use Norton's Smart Firewall in Norton Internet Security.

The reason I wanted to show you my pc/laptop network setup is because when I first tried to connect my Xbox 360 to Windows Media Center to my Dell Desktop PC, I was unable to connect. I thought this had something to do with the firewall on Norton Internet Security preventing the connection. However, what I came to realize is that because my desktop is on a wired ethernet network (Local Area Connection) and my Xbox is setup on a Wireless Network Connection that I called "jamiroquai", my desktop PC and Xbox 360 were unable to connect because they were on two different networks. 

However, I was able to successfuly connect Windows Media Center using my Laptop to Xbox 360.  This was due the fact that my Laptop and Xbox 360 are setup and connected to the same wireless network (my desktop PC is not connected to this wireless network).  So essentially what I learned from this is that to connect to Windows Media Center from your Xbox 360, to your desktop PC or Laptop PC, your Xbox and PC must be on the same network (wireless or wired). 

So with all that said, here's how to setup Windows Media Center on your Xbox 360:

1. From your Xbox "My Xbox" menu, select "Windows Media Center", then click the "Continue" button.
2. If you get asked to reconfigure your network hardware to support 802.11a, you can just click "Continue" to use your current setup. In my case, the linksys router that I have supports 802.11b and 802.11g, which seems to work fine with Windows Media Center.
3. The Setup Key screen will appear, write down the setup key that appears (you will need the key for setting up Windows Media Center on your computer), then select Continue.
4. Now on your Windows Media Center computer, go to the following website address: www.xbox.com/pcsetup and follow the instructions on that web page for setting up your computer.
5. Once you've successfully gone through the Windows Media Center extender setup process at www.xbox.com/pcsetup your Xbox 360 should connect to your Media Center automatically and you should see the Windows Media Center start page.

That's it... Now the fun begins!

Note: Unfortunately, I have not been able to connect my wired ethernet PC (Local Area Connection network) to my Wireless Network Connection, which my Xbox 360 is on.  I'd like to combine my wired and wireless network into one network or at least be able to access the Wireless network from my wired desktop, but I haven't quite figured out how to do this.  Any suggestions?