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Old 01-21-2006, 09:41 PM   #1
mst3kman
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Forwarding Xbox Live ports to Original Xbox in OS X.4.4


Anyone else have this problem? We have a LAN connected to the internet through an Apple Airport basestation. Now I have an XBox with Xbox Live, and in putting it on the LAN I've found that an Airport's NAT is considered "strict" so I have trouble staying connected. After some reserach, I've found that in lieu of buying a new router, my only option is to forward the XBox Live ports (88, 56, and 3074 if I'm not mistaken) to the Xbox.

However, we have a cable moden and our IP is dynamic. (Not static.) Any network savvy people here have any ideas?
 
Old 01-22-2006, 05:48 PM   #2
Centinul
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Well your IP is dynamic on the WAN (Internet) side of your Airport. Since you mentioned NAT, I'm under the impression that the router translates the address from the private space (192.168.X.X) to the dynamic address. I do not know the features of your router but is it capable of Static DHCP? Or can you setup static IP addresses? If it is capable of either your XBOX will always have the same address and therefore port forwarding will work. I really would think that these functions are available on your router but I'm not sure. Hope this helps. Write back if you have any questions.

Just as a sidenote if you don't know:

Static DHCP is when you configure your router so that it hands out the same address (i.e. 192.168.1.101 or something like that) everytime that machine is connected to the network. The neat thing about Static DHCP is that you can still have your machines behind the router configured to grab the IP automatically.
 
Old 01-23-2006, 09:15 PM   #3
mst3kman
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I'll try that static DHCP thing, though I tried assigning the Xbox it's own static IP and port forwarding seems to have been unsuccessful...

Another question, in case I can't get it to work from behind the router: would it be possible to simply buy a second modem and hook my Xbox up to the internet without the router? (And have the rest of the computers on the network stay behind the router...) Would this involve paying my ISP for another connection, or anything like that?
 
Old 01-23-2006, 09:31 PM   #4
Centinul
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It would most likely involve paying for another connection from your ISP. From what I have seen from ISP's they will only allow a cable modem if they know the MAC address of that. In that case you would have to call them and tell them the MAC address and then they might want to charge for another connection.

A lot of people have successfully gotten port forwarding and XBOX's working behind routers. There must be a way to do it. I'm not sure with your particular router but I bet there is a way. Keep reading, trying things and posting back here and we can see where we go from there. Good luck.
 
Old 01-24-2006, 08:47 AM   #5
mst3kman
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Odd thing is, I can connect in the first place, but the connection regularly gets dropped. The folks at MS say it's due to my NAT, but I don't see why the NAT would even be invovled if my XBOX has it's own static IP...

Yarg. I don't wanna pay for another connection/router. CURSES.
 
Old 01-24-2006, 11:36 AM   #6
Centinul
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NAT (a.k.a. Network Address Translation) exists whether you set a static IP on your router or not (that is if it's setup in gateway mode). What the router does is takes the private address (in this case your XBOX) and converts it to the public address (the one everyone sees from the internet). That is the process of NAT'ing. It appears from your configuration that you do have NAT enabled on your router. So in a way M$ is correct in saying that it is a problem with your NAT. It doesn't appear that when your router gets requests from the internet on the XBOX ports that it is correctly forwarding them to your XBOX private IP address. Until you get this resolved your problem will not be fixed. Let me know how it goes.
 
Old 01-24-2006, 02:25 PM   #7
mst3kman
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Ohh... for some reason I was thinking of the process of the router giving out internal IPs to all the machines on the LAN. M$ classifies the NATs thusly:
* Open NAT means that either the port assignment policy is minimal or the router 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 there is address or port filtering taking place.
* Strict NAT means the port assignment policy is aggressive.

So it would seem my only option to continue with Live is to get a router with "open" NAT, which seems silly to me because every other system I know of that goes online has no such problem. I hope I can find an XBox-compatible router for dirt cheap...(Meh. This is why I always liked the PS2 better.)
But anyway, thanks a lot for helping clear up all this NAT stuff, Centinul.

Last edited by mst3kman; 01-24-2006 at 02:52 PM.
 
Old 01-24-2006, 02:31 PM   #8
Centinul
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No problem with the help, that is what LQ is for . What is the exact manufacturer and model of your router. I find it hard to believe that it doesn't have the sort of functionality that you require. Most common routers will have the port forwarding or UPnP option on them. I'm not sure what your routing needs are but I recently purchased a Linksys WRT54GL (allows for third party firmware with more features) for $65. They also have a cheaper model that is about $50 but it does not allow for third party firmware support. I still think there is some solution to your problem. Let me know.
 
Old 01-24-2006, 04:38 PM   #9
mst3kman
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At the moment we're using an Apple Aiport. The XBox website had a list of specific routers that are compatible with Live, but as I understand it the Xbox is the only system with this issue (even the 360 doesn't have it) so I donno about getting a whole new router for a system whose obsolescence is so rapidly impending...

But here's something I contemplated: Do you think it might work were I to hook up an ethernet hub to the modem, and them plug the router and the Xbox into the hub seperately? (Ironic, now I'm wanting to string a 50 ft Cat5 cable through the house to avoid going wireless...) The DHCP might give the Xbox and router two seperate IPs, dynamic or otherwise it'd effectively keep Xbox away from NAT, right? But... then my ISP might charge for an extra IP...

Yeesh. Guess I need the occasional reminder as to why I pointedly avoid M$ stuff.
 
Old 01-24-2006, 09:34 PM   #10
Centinul
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Yes you could put a hub inbetween your cable modem and your router and run the router and xbox into the hub. Some ISP's will give out more than 1 IP address. Mine for example will give out up to 5. So you might be in luck with this free alternative. Yes this would keep you away from the evil NAT
 
Old 01-30-2006, 08:43 AM   #11
primussucks
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this may be an old post, but i used to have the same problem.
I wasnt using an Airport, but just a dlink router(my main computer is a Mac thats why i read this post). my xbox would connect sometimes and sometimes it wouldnt.
Im not going to get all technical cause i dont know much about this stuff, but i do know, that when i use a hub it works everytime, when i use a router it works when it feels like it.
 
Old 08-16-2006, 09:21 PM   #12
va rocky07
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i couldnt connect to a majority of xbox live gamers, because my NAT was Strict. I have a Linksys WRT54GL router and all i did was go to the security settings and disable the NAT redirection option. The NAT switched to open, but i still cant connect to a majority of xbox live gamers. Anyone have any idea what could be causing my problem? Again the NAT is open, yet i still cant connect.
 
  


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