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Salat
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 28
Location: Mobile, AL
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 Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 4:51 pm Post subject: Open NAT Connection for XBL on the 360 |
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When you run an Xbox Live connection test, the last thing the test will report is your NAT status. There's a great link on the xbox support site here: http://www.xbox.com:80/en-US/support/connecttolive/xbox360/connectionmethods/troubleshootliveconnection-testnat.htm about what NAT is, and what it does. The bottom line is that the NAT information doesn't reflect a setting - at least not on your Xbox console, but is rather an indication of who you'll be able to connect to on Xbox Live.
There are three types of NAT, and they mean:
| Quote: | The classification system boils down to something called a port-assignment policy.
Open NAT means that either the port-assignment policy is minimal or the device has a fully compliant version of UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) enabled by default.
Moderate NAT means that the port-assignment policy is minimal, but the device is filtering addresses or ports.
Strict NAT means the port-assignment policy is aggressive. |
In addition, the support page shows how NAT affects who you can connect to using this table:
So - I tested my Xbox Live connection and found, to my horror, that I had a Moderate NAT connection. I wanted to get to Open NAT, and it took me a while, but here's what worked for me.
First - realize that NAT will be affected mainly by your router setup, but you do have to make one change to your XBOX network settings as well. If you're running a firewall or other security features, you may run into NAT problems in Xbox Live.
Second - Assign a static IP to you XBOX - or you may have to do the next step every time you turn it on. The easiest way I found to do this was to select an IP address that was outside my router's dynamically assigned IP range (for my router, the first IP that it will dynamically assign over DHCP is 192.168.1.100). So I selected 192.168.1.10 as my XBOX IP, and used that in the manual IP address section of the XBOX network settings blade. You also need to know your netmask and gateway IP. You can get these from any PC on your netword by typing: ipconfig /all in a command window, You can also get this info from your router. For my network, the netmask is 255.255.255.0 and the gateway IP is 192.168.1.1. Pretty standard stuff for my Linksys 54G router.
Third: Configure your router to forward 2 ports to your XBOX IP address. For XBOX Live, the ports are 88 and 3074. In both cases you want to forward both TCP and UDP traffic to your XBX IP address.
Fourth: If you're running the linksys WRT54G like I am, there's a bug in how it deals with Universal Plug N Play (UPnP). In this router, you go to the administration tab, and disable UPnP. Other routers may not have to have this done, but I found that portforwarding didn't make a bit of difference if UPnP was enabled.
Fifth: Probably optional - relax your firewall rules. In the WRT54G, you simply go to the security tab, disable the firewall, and then enable the multicast filter. You can uncheck the box for Filtering Anonymous Requests.
While going through this, I found the tools at www.portforward.com very helpful. Select "Forwarding" from the Top Menu, then find your router manufacturer and model on the next page, and then select "XBOX Live 360". After that, follow the instructions on the screen, and you should be connecting with an Open NAT setting in no time. |
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Angry Alex
Site Admin
Joined: 22 Jul 2006
Posts: 30
Location: New York, NY
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| Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 7:33 pm Post subject: |
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| This is great info. It's really key that those of us playing Chromehounds try to get the NAT set to "Open", because I think this is what is causing problems when we play other people and run into "communication errrors." CH requires all players be able to connect to all other players, and if we have any non "open" people, we could run into issues. |
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Kid Flash X
Joined: 25 Jul 2006
Posts: 6
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| Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 12:53 am Post subject: |
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| I'm OPEN. Yay! |
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Sinistar
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 2
Location: Orlando, FL
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| Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 3:46 pm Post subject: |
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Salat tells no lies, it works. I'm as open as I can be!
THANKS SALAT! |
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Salat
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 28
Location: Mobile, AL
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| Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2007 3:55 pm Post subject: |
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After having to replace my 360, I found that I was back to moderate NAT. I tried everything above, but that didn't fix the issue. I then found this post that said:
| Quote: |
it seems the following ports need to be forwarded in order to get an OPEN nat:
53 - TCP & UDP
88 - TCP & UDP
3074 - TCP & UDP
22042 - TCP Only
22043 - TCP & UDP
13139 - UDP
6500 - UDP
22044-22050 - TCP and UDP |
I forwarded them all in the "Applications & Gaming" page on my Linksys router and now have Open NAT once again! |
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