Media Centre Extender disconnects and a surprising solution...

After setting up my XBOX360 as a Media Centre Extender, I ran into a quite annoying problem – at random intervals (but often associated with interacting with the Extender interface – starting/stopping videos, etc.), the connection broke off with the message “would you like to reconnect?”, which dumped be back into the Media Centre root menu.

Looking for the weakest link, I immediately looked at my Wireless-N bridge that I use as a connection between my living room and the office. Other options that occurred to me included the virus scanner and the firewall. After changing numerous configuration items with no positive effect, I received a hint from a colleague pointing me into a completely different direction: The onboard NIC that connects my PC, through a direct cable connection, to the wireless bridge.

Bingo! After installing an add-on NIC based on a different chipset, all my problems went away.