desperate for help with XBL

[hvt2773]

I can connect to XBL without trouble, send and receive messages, download stuff from XBL but when I try to "find match" all I ever get is waiting for 5 more players forever. When I accept an invitation to play, I get an error syaing " unable to connect to host".
I have tried opening ports on my router 88 and 3074, same problem, I have tried connecting directly to my internet connection same problem. Has anyone heard fo this kind of trouble before? I have a wireless ISP, dish is on the roof pointed at a tower not far away. My ISP is supposedly "up to" 3mbps download, not sure of upload speed. Most of the time I get between 25 and 125 kbps download speed, is this enough for XBL?

I have been using the one month free gold membership that comes with the Xbox, it is almost over now, all I have had is trouble and frustration with this. I called MS several times now, they keep on saying that I need an Xbox compatible router, which I refuse to believe. I can play my playstation3 online without much trouble ( my PS3 has been crashing on me lately... more trouble!!)


PLEASE HELP IF YOU CAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Spzombie]

Hmmm I was gonna say put your 360 on the DMZ outside of the firewall. But if you said the direct link does the same thing. I was pretty much having the same problem when I got that damn Belkin router. I got it to work eventually. So you don't need a 100% compatible live router. You just need the right settings, which looks like you have. Only other think I can think of is either DMZ thing I mentioned or the PPoP setting (I'm pretty sure that's what it's called) But the one that lets the plug in a play devices get recognized, that needs to be on. Other than that I can't think of anything else. Don’t forget if you go the DMZ route to put the static IP address outside of your routers assigned range or it won’t work. Found that out the hard way. If that doesn’t work I’m stumped.

[hvt2773]

Thanks zombie, I guess I will continue to muddle my way through the router settings, who knows I may have had it right at some point and not realized, I did not think that home networking would be so tricky.. I am learning as I go!

[lovekeiiy]

What are you getting for NAT when you test the XBL? You want to get OPEN. Strick just sucks, and moderate is a bit hard to say what exactly you'll get.

It could be your router, modem, or a setting. Heck, it could be your internet connection as well. Does the dish maintain a constant connection?

[mrsako]

there is a list of "compatible routers", but if directly connecting to the modem gives you the same results (make sure the results on the xbl test are the same with and without a router) then its probably not the router.

I don't have much experience with wireless internet providers, though I would imagine a wired connection would be more reliable and predictable. I think your best bet is to contact xbox directly and tell them who your ISP is and what modem they gave you. They might give you more information on the matter.

Also perhaps if you say that you haven't been able to use xbox live for the fraction of the duration of your free pass, perhaps you could talk them into giving you some free days so you can try the real deal.



btw when bandwidth is rated by an ISP it goes by BITS per second, while almost everything else is rated at BYTES per second.

approximately 8 bits = 1 byte (in some scenarios 11 bits = 1 byte)

therefore you could say 3 megabits = .3 megabytes or about 300 kilobytes

also when they say 3 megabits download that means it can go up to that speed in good conditions, but don't guarantee the speed all the time (unless your ISP said something different, but usually ISPs advertise a top speed, not a guaranteed speed)

I would imagine that your transfer speed is plenty, assuming that other computers on your home network aren't hogging up bandwidth. I think most xbl online games need about 50-100 kilobytes per second download and about 20 kilobytes per second upload (there might be a more reliable way to find this out, but that's a good estimate)

[hvt2773]

XBL NAT shows as open, the router has a NAT setting also, I set it as "enable" does not say wether it is open or otherwise. Dish maintains an always on connection, I have read posts from others who have the same router ( LINKSYS WRT150N) and have managed to play online.
This is killing me, how is it that I can send and recieve messages and downloads but not be able to play online?
remember that I can play my PS3 at least OK

[supafreak]

Unfortunately, it sounds like it may be your isp connection. If you connected your 360 straight to it avoiding your router, then it has to be your isp. If your 360 says Open nat you should be ok. I don't know alot about wireless isp's but maybe it's a latency issue.

Do a speedtest at Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test and post your results. I would do a few tests. Do some at nearby cities and some far away.

[Quo]

i remember looking into this kind of problem when I had satellite internet service. My d/l speed was very fast... but the upload was very slow. There was more to it though, and I wish I remember what it was but I don't. Supa's comment about latency rings a bell. My pings were through the roof and XBL doesn't like that at all. You may need to upgrade your internet service in order to use XBL.

[MadBryan]

Originally Posted by Quo

You may need to upgrade your internet service in order to use XBL.

I'm gonna guess its his only option cause why else would someone use it?

[hvt2773]

Thanks for all replies, tried the speed test, I am in Ottawa Ontario
from Ottawa to Toronto 1.9 kb/s down, 167 up 52ms ping
from Ottawa to Vancouver 1329 down, 192 up 90m/s ping
From Ottawa to Dallas, 116 down, 413 up 82m/s ping

I have heard about latency before, my ISP speed does vary quite alot with the traffic, busy times = slower speed, one sunday morning I downloaded something at well over 300kb/s, later that day, I was only getting 15-50kb/s.
No other computers using bandwidth, except this one sitting idle.
As for the "incompatible router" I just dont buy it, I checked the list of "compatible" routers for the Xbox mine is not on it, but it also not on the "incompatible" list, I bought it at the future shop, they say it "should" work, and that they have not heard of any problems.
My ISP does offer a 5 mbs service that comes with a couple of static IPs, that means even more money ...wait till you see a pic of my mancave....no money left!!!

[SpartanZypher]

Yeah, I'd agree with the others and say try to upgrade your service.

[lovekeiiy]

You don't need the static IP. I would serious try to connect the 360 directly to your modem and see if you have the same problem.

Sometimes your modem looses it's connection to your ISPs servers. They'll be brief, maybe 3 to 5 seconds. It's enough that it can cause a hicup. I have an issue from that because of the VOIP adapter being before my router, and the adapter checking whatever info it needed the VOIP servers.

I have the Belkin Pre N router. It's like your in that it's not on the compatible list or the non list. I had to do some experimenting to get it connect right; it took me a few months to get the wireless adapter for the 360 to connect with the secure connection. Before that time, I share the internet connect via a laptop ad hoc connection that was connected wireless to my router.

Open is what you want for the NAT. And having the NAT enable in your router makes things easier; it you shut it off, you need to assign a static private IP to any device connected to that router, which makes the router just a bridge; hopefully have some other router connected. I would turn on the PnP if it's an option on the router.

I don't recommended keep it that way, but turn off you wireless security on the router and try connecting the 360 as well. I've had issues around that with the wireless adapter compatibility issues to the router.

[Crippler]

Oh man, wireless to a tower huh. I have never heard good things about wireless providers. You could be getting tons of interference from your dish to the tower and that may be triggering a disconnect or something on Live. Hell, interference in a house is a pain let alone blasting a signal across terrain outside. Go here and do the Line Quality test: Speed tests and problem diagnosis tools - dslreports.com

Good luck.

[namehater]

my brother has the wireless to a tower, its called 'fixed wireless' he has random problems with his, but i had his problems pegged to his ISP being a complete asshat, i dunno

i have dsl and used to have weird random problems, not sure if it applies to you at all, but i had to call my isp about it, my modem is apparently a gateway or something. xbox live test would show an open NAT, but wouldnt act like it was open. my modem has settings inside it like a router, i had to open the xbox ports through it, you might call your isp and see if theres any way you can access your modem so you can open a few ports

[hvt2773]

WHOOOOOOO... HHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I DUNNIT! YEAH BABY!! FINALLY I AM IN!!!
I was just on the phone for 2 hours with my ISP setup a static IP and now I am in

[mrsako]

very interesting of a situation, not sure how getting a static IP would of changed anything, unless they changed other things in addition to the static IP. but congrats man! xbox live rocks!

[lovekeiiy]

good news for you. Make sure to hit some of us for gaming. A lot of people have COD4. A good group of us play GRAW and GRAW2 Sundays at 7pm PST.