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The first time I truly played an Xbox 360 live game I was truly blown away. The game was Halo 2 and I was at a friend's house. This was the Xbox 360 live game that the system was built for. It truly revolutionized and changed my gaming experience.

Why Was The Xbox 360 Live Game So Different?

I am by no means a hard core gamer, but I have been around the block so to speak. I have played MMO's, been in guilds and clans, done the whole FPS on line thing, but I can honestly say the most fun I had was playing an Xbox 360 live game. It was not that the experience was really different than any of the other things; it was how the whole thing came together.

First thing I noticed when getting into this Xbox 360 live game was that the games were pre set up by Microsoft. While you could set up and do a private game if you wanted to, the main matches were grouped and setup through your Xbox 360 live subscription. At first I was kind of annoyed at this, but after a couple of matches I started to realize that my opponents were at my level and it may for more competitive and engaging contests.

The next thing I noticed about the Xbox 360 live game was that you had to use a headset to play. This was absolutely a god send as every on my team was able to communicate and strategize. This made the games extremely intense and strategy was very important. I also like the fact that you could talk smack before and after the matches with the other team.

Lastly it was how quick and easy it was to find a game. Games went one after another after another and just chained on for the entire night. By the end I had raised a couple levels, learned most of the maps, and was taking on stronger competition. The experience was so immersive and fluid that I truly felt like I was in the game. The outside world slipped away as I blasted my opposition, and got blasted in turn. This was truly one of the most eye opening and fun gaming experiences I have ever had. If you have not tried an Xbox 360 live game and are leery of consoles games, you should give a shot because you truly do not know what you are missing.

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In the late 1960's as large college universities and several research labs gained an ever increasing amount of computers, the need for interconnections that worked at high-speed was great, and the pressure was on. It was not until the mid 1970's that an answer to the demand was created, they called it LAN.

LAN stands for Local-Area Network, with the ability to cover small areas, such as a home or office or group of buildings (schools, warehouse, etc.), LANs have higher data-transfer rates, smaller range and do not require licensed telecommunication lines as opposed to WAN (Wide-Area Network). ARCNET and Token Ring were two LANs that were widely used in the past. Ethernet and Wi-Fi are two of today's most common LANs.

A LAN is an important component to gamers. By setting up a LAN, gamers can link together their computers and play with or against their friends. Games, such as "Diablo II" and "S.O.C.O.M.", allows gamers to cooperate together in a team while either on line or while their computers are connected by LAN.Games, such as "Unreal Tournament" and "Starcraft", allow gamers connected by the internet or a LAN to work as a team or to compete against each other.computers are usually linked by what is known as a Cat-5 cable to a HUB; and the HUB acts like a mediator. The Cat-5 cable connects to the back of the computer through the Ethernet port on the Network card, network adapter, LAN adapter or NIC (Network Interface Card). A network card operates on both the physical layer and the data link layer; it allows a low-level addressing system, using Mac Addresses, also known as an IP address, and physical access to the networking medium (the HUB). Not all LANs are the same; some use cables while others are wireless.

While other network technology exists, since the mid 1990's, the Ethernet network card has been leading the crowd, due to low cost and easy integration and use. A unique 48-bit serial number is on every Ethernet network card, stored in the ROM; the serial number is your computers Mac address. The Mac address for every computer must be unique; otherwise only one computer with a given Mac address could be on line and connected to the LAN at a time. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is responsible for each unique Mac address getting assigned to vendors of interface controllers; this is so no two network cards share the same Mac address.

At one point network cards were expansion cards that had to be plugged into the motherboard. Most new computers have the network card built into the motherboard; some may even have two ports built in so the computer can be connected to multiple networks. Some companies have started using optical fiber instead of Cat-5 cables or USB cords, because optical fiber is immune to electromagnetic interference. Optical fibers are made of glass or plastic, instead of metal, and carry light along their full length. The electrical signals sent along the optical fiber degrade less during transfer than signals sent along metal wires (Cat-5 cables and USB cords).

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for computer memory, PC supplies, and computer games. When shopping, we recommend the best online stores for PC supplies, LAN, computer memory, RAM.

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