Truly bizarre Xbox Live problem... - by pdenton
pdenton on 2/3/2011 at 18:57
I've called Xbox's support line, scoured the Internet for answers, hell I even tried asking my local Gamestop for help when I was picking up a game (yes I was that desperate). If you guys have any insight, even providing a snarky "hey look I found the answer in google in five seconds you moron" link, that would be much appreciated. But I honestly don't think you'll find it because I've spent the last week searching pretty extensively.
Anyways, three weeks ago I was getting kicked from my party's Bad Company 2 games pretty routinely. I checked my NAT and to my surprise it was set to Moderate (I had opened it a year or so ago when Modern Warfare 2 was released). So I opened the ports again, put the router in DMZ mode, and sure enough my NAT was open and my connection was fast as ever.
Then a week ago my connection gets really slow. Netflix, games, signing in, it all takes forever. So I did a router and modem restart. Nada. I checked my wireless adapter on the Xbox, it was still lit up green. A few days later I couldn't connect to live at all. When I tested the connection it read my home network and even connected to the Internet but it couldn't connect to Live. I restored every setting I had fucked with in the past week and started over. Still nothing. It was giving me the MTU error (I've tried setting it to Auto, 1364, and 1492 but nothing worked). Finally it tells me my ISP might be blocking Live but that's NEVER happened before. What's more distressing is that after my last router/modem restart I was able to sign in. It was still a bit slow. A few hours later I couldn't sign in again. I didn't change a damn thing.
I can't wire the connection because of the distance of my xbox from the router. A friend is bringing his wireless adapter over today so I'm gonna see if that might be it, but I doubt it. The Internet in my house is totally normal so I know it's just the Xbox that's affected by this.
I really appreciate you for making it this far through my novel. If you have ANY insight I'd love to hear it. Thanks again :p
pdenton on 2/3/2011 at 19:07
tech troubles just keep piling up, how can i delete this? I haven't been here in a while...can we still delete our topics?
june gloom on 2/3/2011 at 21:16
Quote Posted by pdenton
tech troubles just keep piling up, how can i delete this? I haven't been here in a while...can we still delete our topics?
Just wait. It'll get moved.
Yakoob on 2/3/2011 at 22:53
So did you actually call your ISP or just assumed it's not them?
pdenton on 4/3/2011 at 07:30
I don't want to bump this if it's gonna get moved but....so be it.
Yes, I've called my ISP and they say it's definitely NOT blocked. But here's a development: I can get online now but it's slow as hell. When I run the test connection it says I have full bars and there's no warnings or issues whatsoever.
Hell, I even sign in pretty quickly. But whenever I get into a game, and I've tested Bad Company 2, Black Ops, and Crysis 2's demo (which I know was problematic to begin with) ALL of them are unplayable. Any ideas??? I'm stumped. Again, internet in the house is fast as ever.
Al_B on 4/3/2011 at 13:31
Quote Posted by pdenton
I checked my NAT and to my surprise it was set to Moderate (I had opened it a year or so ago when Modern Warfare 2 was released). So I opened the ports again, put the router in DMZ mode, and sure enough my NAT was open and my connection was fast as ever.
I've seen router's firmware being updated by the ISP automatically (BT's ADSL service springs to mind) and this could have caused the initial settings change. You don't say which router or ISP you're using but this could be a possibility.
I'm not an expert on the XBox. However, I'm a little puzzled why you're both opening ports and (presumably) putting the XBox in the DMZ. I did a quick google search and found a guide that suggested doing both these and enabling UPNP on the router but I'm struggling to understand why this would be necessary.
I would be tempted to remove port forwarding and disable the DMZ first. Then, enable UPNP if your router supports it and try the connection again after restarting your router and XBox. If not, then enable port forwarding first. As a last resort I'd put your XBox into the DMZ and remove the port forwarding rules.
Quote Posted by pdenton
It was giving me the MTU error (I've tried setting it to Auto, 1364, and 1492 but nothing worked).
My hunch is that this could still be the route of your problem and causing slow / sporadic performance even if it's not giving you the MTU error. Are you able to check what the MTU is set to on your router in both the internet connection properties and also for your wireless settings? If you can post which router you're using it may help in giving advice (assuming the manual is available online).
