Xbox Live issues and how to fix them

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!

I put my xbox on the DMZ and dont worry about port forwarding.

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.

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!

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.

I put my xbox on the DMZ and dont worry about port forwarding.

This is the best method bar none of resolving Live issues.

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.

Did you shave when you did all of that too?

Did you shave when you did all of that too?

Some random dog licked the peanut butter off his face.

Off topic, but I really dig the knightly Sir Rockford Avatar

Stylez wrote:
Did you shave when you did all of that too?

Some random dog licked the peanut butter off his face.

Off topic, but I really dig the knightly Sir Rockford Avatar :)

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.

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.

The white on grey kills me.

IMAGE(http://img398.imageshack.us/img398/5554/untitled1pf6.gif) IMAGE(http://img418.imageshack.us/img418/5320/untitled1in8.gif) IMAGE(http://img418.imageshack.us/img418/5474/untitled1me7.gif)

Hurray for transparency!

Edwin wrote:

The white on grey kills me.

IMAGE(http://img398.imageshack.us/img398/5554/untitled1pf6.gif) IMAGE(http://img418.imageshack.us/img418/5320/untitled1in8.gif) IMAGE(http://img418.imageshack.us/img418/5474/untitled1me7.gif)

Hmmm, I tried using the new image, but whenever I uploaded it, it made it have a black background for some reason.

I tried using the new image, but whenever I uploaded it, it made it have a black background for some reason.

Same here. Perhaps if we replaced it with "GWJ grey" it would look good...ever other post or so.

Try now.

IMAGE(http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/3730/untitled1ed0.gif) IMAGE(http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/2089/untitled2pu3.gif)

Edwin wrote:

Try now.

IMAGE(http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/3730/untitled1ed0.gif) IMAGE(http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/2089/untitled2pu3.gif)

Well, I hope you are happy.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

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?

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.