Hosting Connection Issues

[grumpyshrapnel]

For some reason lately I've been having issues with certain people connecting to games I host. I've never had issues before and played many games with the same players. On Tuesday FordhamSteve couldn't connect in GOW, Wed both Sylc and Circ couldn't connect in PGR3 and last night Sylc and Sard couldn't connect in Vegas.


I have same router I've always had and haven't touched any setting. The only thing new in network is second Xbox 360. Could this be causing any issues? I know last night I think Sard reboot modem/router and 360 and still couldn't connect. One of the nights I did the same reset everything and it didn't make a difference.


Does anyone have any suggestions? I don't have any ports forwarded and have DHCP enabled. If I forward ports will I be able to play Live on either Xbox?

[hitman23vtech]

You have uPnP running on the router? I know the 360 uses it to configure forwarding on the fly. Perhaps try putting one of the systems in a DMZ?

[Bourbon]

Myself, along with some others, have been discussing this very thing. Certain people can't connect, or are experiencing lag. It's just been lately too. And it's been people with no prior history of connection or lag issues.

[AzShrapnel]

Derek ... does this coincide with the "update" that happened to Xbox live?

[Sard of KC]

AZ: No, I don't think it has to do with the update since I couldn't get into Grumpy's room last week either. Prior to last week I never had issues joining Grumpy's room. Nothing's changed on my end.

[Graphlin]

I have the exact same issue connecting to my brother's xbox and him to me since he got his 2nd 360, but other people connect to him fine.


See if uPnP is on b/c the 360 def makes use of it. I'd also be interested to see an inventory of the routers people use who have two 360s and the routers of the folks who can't connect. Maybe there's a correlation?


To start, I've had trouble with 2 linksys routers. Neither of them allow him to connect to me. I now have a Buffalo w/ the Tomato firmware which I'm going to try with him this weekend. He has a D-Link

[FlipMasterFlash]

I've got no ideas, sorry. We saw it during BoW I when Frosty couldn't get into your room but the same 8 people could get into my room. I don't have anything special port forwarded even.

My setup is a DSL modem (has built in firewall and wireless) and then I just use a simple 5 port switch (2 actually) to fan out my wired connections, which is what the 360 is on.

I will note that when I was using a gateway rather than a switch I had all sorts of problems due to some things I probably don't understand, such as dual hardware firewalls and 2 things trying to act as gateways. If you've got a gateway, any chance that the modem is running duplicate services?

[grumpyshrapnel]

Derek ... does this coincide with the "update" that happened to Xbox live?


No like Sard said it was before update. Steve never used to have an issue either with GOW. Should uPNP be enabled? FWIW I have a Linksys WRT54G.

[FlipMasterFlash]

My friend (Hank E Pants) has the same router and had all sorts of problems with connecting in CoD 3. We put his 360 in the DMZ and that made things better, with his modem the Linksys has to act as a gateway rather than a simple switch or nothing would work (just tried that last weekend).

[Sard of KC]

No like Sard said it was before update. Steve never used to have an issue either with GOW. Should uPNP be enabled? FWIW I have a Linksys WRT54G.





I think I have the exact same router. I'm at work so can't check for sure. It's definitely a Linksyswireless one with 4 ethernet connections. I have the 360 connected with an ethernet cable, one computer connected with an ethernet cable and another computer that is wireless. I have not adjusted any settingsother than the wirelesssecurity on the router. I would be happy to try out some things if you have any suggestions.


Oh, and I have RoadRunner intenet service which iscoming in through a Toshiba cable modem.

[jigsawhc]

Generally I would not recommend turning on UPnP because it you did ever get a virus/trojan that makes it very easy for it to open up access to all of your network. But, if you trust yourself not to get infected then you could have it on.

Normally the easiest thing to d is put your Xbox in a DMZ. If your router allows for a "virtual" dms then to use that otherwise actually putting it outside the router. I believe that model does have the option to specify an IP address as the DMZ so you could list the IP address of the Xbox 360.

Since you have two Xbox 360s I sould put the primary one in the DMZ and then port forward for the second one (unless your router will allow for an IP address range for the DMZ. Then put them both in the DMZ.)

By putting the 360 in the DMZ you are basically telling the router not to touch and of th traffic that is headed for it. This would help if the issues people are having connecting is because one of the ports their system is trying to use is not open on your router, or vise versa.

[virtual-human]

I have a Linksys WRT55AG v1. I never had issues until Sunday. Until then, I had DHCP & port forwarding. Then I had connection issues with somebody I play with frequently who has always had a great connection to me; we couldn't join each others' games or connect a voice chat to each other. I ended up upgrading my router's firmware, which fixed the problem. But caused the same problem with somebody else I play with frequently who has always had a great connection to me. It worked itself out when they upgraded their firmware. But now my damn router stopped forwarding ports, even when I tried a static IP for the 360, so I ended up putting it in the DMZ. And now about once or twice a day I have to reset the router because it just stops working.

Anyway, you should be able to play Live on either Xbox if you forward ports. If your router lets you do so, just don't specify an IP to forward them to (or don't change the default IP which might be the router itself) and they should be forwarded to anything on your network.

[grumpyshrapnel]

I'll try moving the 360s to the DMZ. Sard if you around tonight maybe we can try a quick test with Vegas

[grumpyshrapnel]

I moved my 360 to DMZ and forwarded suggest ports to my sons 360. Hopefully this helps

[Motown5150]

FWIW I have a Linksys WRT54G.



<P mce_keep="true">


I have the same routerbut haven't seen any changes to mine recently. I have had my ports forwarded and placed itinto the DMZ ever since the debachle that was COD3. Once I did this, I no longer had any issues with that game or any other.


As far as others joining, I haven't noticed anybody having any issues joining butwill keep an eye open.Maybe something happened recently.Don't know.


If you needme to help you test something out over Live, let me know. I'll be around all weekend.


Good luck.

[grumpyshrapnel]

FWIW I have a Linksys WRT54G.



<p mce_keep="true">


I have the same routerbut haven't seen any changes to mine recently. I have had my ports forwarded and placed itinto the DMZ ever since the debachle that was COD3. Once I did this, I no longer had any issues with that game or any other.


As far as others joining, I haven't noticed anybody having any issues joining butwill keep an eye open.Maybe something happened recently.Don't know.


If you needme to help you test something out over Live, let me know. I'll be around all weekend.


Good luck.





So Sard and I tried and she still couldnt connect. There's no reason to foward ports on 360 in DMZ is there ? I forward ports coming through router to my son's maybe this is still wrong. I assumed DMZ 360 is wide open and anything going through firewall will hit my other 360.

[grumpyshrapnel]

Mototown

What do your NAT setting after you run test. I foward ports back to single 360 in DMZ and I get moderate

[Motown5150]

Mototown


What do your NAT setting after you run test. I foward ports back to single 360 in DMZ and I get moderate



<P mce_keep="true">


I'm open.


I will send you my setttings.

[TazmanAK]

Generally I would not recommend turning on UPnP because it you did ever get a virus/trojan that makes it very easy for it to open up access to all of your network. But, if you trust yourself not to get infected then you could have it on.


Normally the easiest thing to d is put your Xbox in a DMZ. If your router allows for a "virtual" dms then to use that otherwise actually putting it outside the router. I believe that model does have the option to specify an IP address as the DMZ so you could list the IP address of the Xbox 360.


Since you have two Xbox 360s I sould put the primary one in the DMZ and then port forward for the second one (unless your router will allow for an IP address range for the DMZ. Then put them both in the DMZ.)


By putting the 360 in the DMZ you are basically telling the router not to touch and of th traffic that is headed for it. This would help if the issues people are having connecting is because one of the ports their system is trying to use is not open on your router, or vise versa.





The recommended method is to enable UPnP. But that being said I personally put my 360 in the DMZ. But being in the DMZ this technically means that your 360 has no protection so if someone ever figures out a way to hack a 360 or a DNS attack you will be wide open. The main thing to test is to run the network connection test on the 360. If you have an "Open" NAT then you should be fine. Anyone that has a Moderate or Strict NAT will have issue with some people connecting and also in joining games.

[TazmanAK]

Mototown


What do your NAT setting after you run test. I foward ports back to single 360 in DMZ and I get moderate





Sorry missed this part. Actually what I had to do to get mine to open was to go into the router and tell it to assign the MAC address of my 360 a static IP (rather than doing it on the 360, so my 360 is currently set to dynamic although the router assigns it the same port every time) Then I put that IP in the DMZ in the router. I also have a priority setting on my router so I tell it to give the 360 more priority for bandwidth over my computers.

[jigsawhc]

The recommended method is to enable UPnP. But that being said I personally put my 360 in the DMZ. But being in the DMZ this technically means that your 360 has no protection so if someone ever figures out a way to hack a 360 or a DNS attack you will be wide open. The main thing to test is to run the network connection test on the 360. If you have an "Open" NAT then you should be fine. Anyone that has a Moderate or Strict NAT will have issue with some people connecting and also in joining games.



Still, I know of at least two virus/trojans that use UPnP to open more ports to allow themselves more access. I do work in the IT/security field so I hear about stupid stuff like this at work all the time when our not-so-bright customers get viruses. Generally it UPnP is probably fine is you have good anti-virus protection on your PC, but I'd rather not risk it personally. I guess it is probably just a matter of personal preference.


In theory someone doing a DOS or hacking your Xbox 360 on a DMZ could happen, but in reality unless someone really did not like you they would probably not bother with a DOS for a single personal IP address. If you were hosting a website of the same network or something along those lines then maybe you could have DOS type attacks, but for a home DLS/Cable connections I don't see that it should ever really be an issue.

In then end as long as Xbox Live is working for you that is all that really matters. [:)]

[AzShrapnel]

Grumpy ... have you tried (just for the heck of it) connecting a single 360 straight to the cable/DSL modem? If that works, then see if the Linksys' DMZ is a true DMZ in that it doesn't even attempt to do NAT on the 360 and lets it get its own IP address from the ISP.

[grumpyshrapnel]

Well Friday night when we were playing GOW my son's is behind firewall and NAT is strict but I didn't have any issues. I fowarded the following ports from MS article (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/908874)


According to Linksys page in router if its in DMZ its truly open to everything. I guess we'll see when I get my repaired 360 back




Xbox 360: Port settings for Xbox Live
View products that this article applies to.
Article ID : 908874
Last Review : February 6, 2007
Revision : 3.5


SUMMARY
This article describes situations where you may have to configure port settings on your networking hardware to connect to Xbox Live.
MORE INFORMATION
Most broadband routers use Network Address Translation (NAT). Windows Internet Connection Sharing also uses NAT.

For most devices that use NAT, port forwarding is not required to connect to Xbox Live. This is especially true if you use an Xbox Live certified device. Port forwarding should only be needed if you use a proxy server or a true firewall device instead of, or in addition to a NAT. Sometimes, you may have to configure port settings on a non Xbox Live certified router or gateway.

If there is a firewall device between the Xbox console and the network device, you may have to configure the firewall to enable communication on specific network ports. If the NAT status in the Network Status area of the Dashboard is "moderate" or "strict," you may have to configure port settings.

The following ports must be available for Xbox Live to operate correctly:
• UDP 88
• UDP 3074
• TCP 3074
For information about how to configure port settings on a firewall, router, or gateway, see the documentation that came with the device. If you are using an Xbox Live certified device, and the NAT status in the Network Status area of the Dashboard is "Moderate" or "strict," verify that the device has the correct firmware. For information about Xbox Live certified devices, including the correct firmware version for the device, visit the following Xbox Web site: