Modem/Router

[Cupid Stunt]

Looking to buy a new modem/router. My current one is God knows how old & while perfectly fine for computer stuff or with just 1 xbox but connecting 2 xBox 360s is a sh*tfight. It wont hold the ports open that I set even though it apparently should. So while it works to some degree the NAT settings on MW2 will be on STRICT & this sucks when trying to find a decent lobby.

Looking for some suggestions on what works consistently for people running more than 1 xbox at a time. As I said computers & 1 xbox isn't a worry so it's only with multiple consoles.

Also if anyone has a strong knowledge of networks & thinks certain settings could help please share!

 

[cupid]

My Linksys works perfectly well, using both my Xbox 360 and PS3

 

[Cupid Stunt]

360 & PS3 at the same time? What model is it?

 

[perverse]

you are talking NAT and port forwarding... but i'm not sure what your problem is. from what i've just read briefly using google, you are supposed to use DMZ to just forward all ports to your ps3 or xbox... but to the best of my knowledge, you can only have 1 ip on DMZ for most, if not all home routers, at the same time. having said this - port forwarding should only be a problem for when you are hosting a game... if you are just connecting to other peoples games you shouldnt need any ports forwarded.

your only other option, as i see it... is to forward ports on a game-by-game basis to either your xbox or your ps3. each game will use probably use a different port (or different set of ports in some cases), and as long as you have static ip's set at both your xbox and ps3 this should be the way to go. where you will run into problems with this solution is that if you come across a game on your ps3 and a game on your xbox that use the same ports.

no perfect, easy answer to this question as i see it. i'm kind of curious how you have your xbox and ps3 set up, cupid?

 

[cupid]

The router has four ports in the back so i just connect them into that

 

[perverse]

The router has four ports in the back so i just connect them into that

not exactly the answer i was looking for...

but what this does tells me is that it's likely possible to use UPnP instead of static port forwarding.

Cupid Stunt - try logging into your router and enabling UPnP. without knowing your level of technical knowledge or the brand and model of your router i can't really help you beyond that.

this should allow you to host games on your ps3 and xbox simultaneously. i don't use either console to game online (PC gamer primarily), so i'm not too familiar with what is required.

 

[Firey_Dragon]

My Linksys works perfectly well, using both my Xbox 360 and PS3

PS3 and 360 use different ports for their respective networks, so that performance isn't really that relevant here, any router has the bandwidth to handle it. You're likely to have issues with most entry to mid-level routers having 2 or more 360's running simultaneously because you can no longer forward all incoming port requests to a specific IP address. You're relying on UPnP and NAT which is inherently problematic on tasks that require low latency.

There is one fix that "may" work if you only have 2 xbox's. Forward all the xbox live ports to one xbox IP. Then add the 2nd xbox to your DMZ.

 

[perverse]

i wish i had read his initial post properly. i thought it was a ps3 and xbox that was the problem... which seemed immediately odd to me.

here is the answer to your question

simple port forwarding is not enough to get the behaviour you are after, nor is DMZ. you do need UPnP enabled, and you will also be needing a feature in your router called Port Range Triggering. you need to trigger ports 53, 80, 88, and 3074 with this feature. that should solve your problem. which modems support this and whatnot i will leave up to you to find out - it may be called different things in different brands of router, however the author of the solution uses a Linksys router - and it is called Port Range Triggering. if you give me the make and model of your router i may be able to help you further than this... but if you're planning on buying a new router for reasons other than this anyway... then i suppose get a Linksys. try and do some research on which models of Linksys routers are good and which are bad, it is quite likely there will be a very big difference between some of them, and a bigger price tag is not always necessarily a guarentee of a better product. different routers from the same manufacturers often use different chipsets made by completely different companies... and nothing beats a bit of research before you buy in the tech world... even if its just user opinions on the device. if there is something horribly wrong with a product, you can be damn sure there are people whinging about it somewhere on the internet.

good luck, mate.

 

[Cupid Stunt]

Thanks for the info, that's the sort of thing I was after. The port forwarding I was already doing, though for some reason it doesn't appear to save as a setting even though I click "save & reboot", no biggie though. Not sure what Port Triggering is but my modem/router (D-Link G604t) supports it apparently so that'll be a bit of research. I'm really surprised there isn't a comprehensive walkthrough about this, speaking to people on Live & IRL there's more than a few who are struggling to rectify it.

 

[Firey_Dragon]

Thanks for the info, that's the sort of thing I was after. The port forwarding I was already doing, though for some reason it doesn't appear to save as a setting even though I click "save & reboot", no biggie though. Not sure what Port Triggering is but my modem/router (D-Link G604t) supports it apparently so that'll be a bit of research. I'm really surprised there isn't a comprehensive walkthrough about this, speaking to people on Live & IRL there's more than a few who are struggling to rectify it.

Depending on how old your D-Link G604t is there were problems with the web interface which were resolved by upgrading the firmware on the device. You can get it from the d-link website. Also only make changes to the router using IE, it tends to have problems with other browsers.

 

[Cupid Stunt]

Yeah I learnt the IE bit a while ago, thankfully on someone elses setup! :lol: It does need a firmware update, I'll get to that soon, as they are dated I can see I'm not far behind at least.

I can do just about anything while using a computer but having set up or helped set up 4 networks in recent times I'm coming to the conclusion that this for people who aren't me. Fine tuning this stuff sux!