How Xbox Live Works

So how does Xbox live work? Well first of all what IS Xbox live? Xbox live is this handy-dandy little thing that allows you to communicate with people all over the world (who also have Xbox as well). So you can leave a voice message for your friend in Whales and then turn around and play Halo with a dude living in Arizona. Nifty right? I thought so. Now there are two ways to be on Xbox live: Live Aware, where you can talk to other people and receive messages and Live Enabled, which is the good one where you can talk to other people AND play in tournaments and games with/against them. You can also use Xbox live to buy and download games. For Xbox live you have a "gamertag" which is technically your name during the game. Now don't get too excited because it's not free. You have to pay for it per year and also need an Ethernet cable to connect your Xbox to a modem because you must have the internet for it to function. Some modems have been deemed "Xbox Live Compatible" so you know those will be able to connect, but if you want to use the internet on say a computer while having your brother play on Xbox live, well your going to need to get some new fancy mechanisms. You'll need a router. This will allow you to hook up more than one Ethernet cable to the internet. Then you'll need another Ethernet cable for however many connections you need to make. Once you get all of that settled well you can go play Call of Duty with your friends in Britain. Have fun!