Xbox Live issues and how to fix them
Friday, December 1st, 2006 - 11:30am
I've had problems connecting to certain games on Xbox Live lately. In Gears of War, it seems dependent upon who is hosting. Then last night on Burnout Revenge, it didn't seem to matter who hosted (which makes sense, actually, because I believe the servers are actually located at EA).
Linksys Live Chat couldn't help me. Xbox.com couldn't help me. Then I googled "Gears of War port" or somesuch and found www.portforward.com. There I selected my router and game (Xbox Live 360), and it told me exactly what to do. Turns out this information is also available on a Microsoft page, although I couldn't find it anywhere on the Xbox site, including the part that is supposed to deal with these issues.
So, I got my ports forwarded and unchecked a few boxes and now I appear to be golden. And I thought writing this up might help other people.
One other thing - there is a diagnostic tool on your Xbox in the settings area called something like "Test Xbox Live Connection". It would be a great idea for everyone to run it. When I did, it told me that my NAT was "Moderate". Apparently, MS classifies every form of NAT as either Open, Moderate, or Strict, and Open is the way to go to ensure that you can connect to games hosted by anyone.
Once I followed the steps at PortForward, I re-ran the diagnostic tool and it said my NAT was now Open. I was also able to join the Burnout game that I hadn't been able to before (but ditched immediately to go to sleep - sorry, guys!).
Hopefully, this helps some people. And hopefully, they'll fix the microphone bug that happens when you join a game in progress!
Quote:
Would be a good idea. I plan to have Logan sit in for me when I am on my honeymoon.
- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
I put my xbox on the DMZ and dont worry about port forwarding.
Unfortunately, if I slash my wrist with my lightsaber it cauterizes instantly. - PurEvil on emo Star Wars plots.
If your router supports UPnP, enable that. The 360 will talk to it and the right ports will be forwarded without the need for manual configuration. Azureus likes it that way too. That's the only reason I found out.
Xbox Live | Steam | Last.fm
I've tried going static ip and opening the Live ports before, but it didn't make a difference. I'm going to give it another shot, thanks!
Certis beat me to it. - Elysium
Great find Fedaykin. Luckily my Test has always came back optimal for the 360. But, I'm sure this will help a lot of people who have problems connecting to Live games.
Ulairi wrote:
Xbox Live: Sir Rockford | PSN: SirRockford | Twitter
This is the best method bar none of resolving Live issues.
You can't do this!
Of course I can, I'm Will Wright, bitch! - The Simpsons Game
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Xfire/Xbox Live: StylezXP
Odd. I updated my router firmware, forwarded the ports but I didn't give the 360 a static IP yet. But the router NAT test shows "Open" now. Weird.
Certis beat me to it. - Elysium
Did you shave when you did all of that too?
Ulairi wrote:
Xbox Live: Sir Rockford | PSN: SirRockford | Twitter
Some random dog licked the peanut butter off his face.
Off topic, but I really dig the knightly Sir Rockford Avatar
You can't do this!
Of course I can, I'm Will Wright, bitch! - The Simpsons Game
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Xfire/Xbox Live: StylezXP
Thanks, but I have to give credit to Certis for updating my name to match my gamertag, and Nei for updating my Avatar for me.
Ulairi wrote:
Xbox Live: Sir Rockford | PSN: SirRockford | Twitter
Certis - you don't have to have a static IP on the Xbox (I don't), but I would imagine that it may prevent some future problem.
Ghastly, Stylez - what is this DMZ that you speak of?
Hemi - with my router, there's actually an issue (according to xbox.com) where you want to turn UPnP OFF.
If anyone has problems that the instructions at portforward.com doesn't fix, or just success stories, post them here for us to celebrate or try to put our heads together on.
Quote:
- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
The white on grey kills me.
XBox Live|Tshirts|xfire | Last.fm
Hurray for transparency!
XBL/PSN: zeroKFE | BHA: zeroKFE
Hmmm, I tried using the new image, but whenever I uploaded it, it made it have a black background for some reason.
Ulairi wrote:
Xbox Live: Sir Rockford | PSN: SirRockford | Twitter
Same here. Perhaps if we replaced it with "GWJ grey" it would look good...ever other post or so.
You can't do this!
Of course I can, I'm Will Wright, bitch! - The Simpsons Game
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Xfire/Xbox Live: StylezXP
Try now.
XBox Live|Tshirts|xfire | Last.fm
Well, I hope you are happy.
Ulairi wrote:
Xbox Live: Sir Rockford | PSN: SirRockford | Twitter
DMZ is the demilitarized zone. If you put a device as the DMZ it has full, unfettered access to the internet. Therefore, if you put a 360 in the DMZ the 360 would show the NAT as open.