frazzled mum needs help connecting x boxes.

[Sweets]

Hi

Please be patient due to the fact that I am a mum who understands very little tech speak!

I have two teenage boys, plus a game playing hubby and accompanying them a host of gear that needs connecting to the internet!

I recently upgraded my internet speed and was advised by Virgin media to use their own netgear router rather than the Belkin we currently ran. We connected everything up fine, and did see an actual improvement in the speed of our main computer. Our problems arose when my boys tried to connect to X box live with their X boxes.....we quickly realised that only one of the ports on the router had the NATS open and the rest were set to strict. Whoever got to turn their machine on first got the open nat.

We contacted Virgin media for advice on how to open all the nats (as we had done with the Belkin) and were told that they wanted us to pay £10 a month for the next six months before they would give this advice, although they did confirm that it was possible to do this!!!!
Needless to say we declined.

So after much rambling we come to my questions.....Can I open all of the nats or is this something that only Virgin media can do remotely?....if I can open them how do I do it?

Thanks
Wendy.

[pabscars]

This link may be of some use to you

http://www.unofficialguidetolive.co....net-connection

Below copied from the same site

The only way to get Open NAT on multiple Xboxes connected to the same router is via UPnP or Port Triggering and it has to be the right router and right firmware.

Not many routers will give both of your Xboxes a NAT status of Open. This is crucial for the best gaming experience. If your router cannot do this, both of your Xboxes may not even be able to play in the same game. Your router must fully support UPnP for this type of setup. Lots of routers have this functionality, but not many actually implement it correctly to allow an Open NAT on multiple Xboxes
The size of your internet connection is crucial. If you want to use two Xboxes on the same Internet connection I would recommend 2Mb or above. Obviously the more Xboxes you use, the more bandwidth you require.


Cable Customers


All of the networking equipment listed on the Microsoft sites above here and here will allow you to use two or more Xboxes "out of the box" with no extra configuration, if you use the firmware version listed for the particular router on that page.

(UK users look here although if you can get a router from the US list, do, as the UK version is very limited, they US one's will still work here)

Also the following routers that may not be on the official list also work with two or more Xboxes:-

Belkin F5D7231uk4 (version 2) (firmware F5D7231-4_UK_5.01.03) - Ensure you enable UPnP, details for Belkin here
Dlink DIR-655 Extreme N Gigabit router (tested with firmware 1.03, higher versions of firmware may also work)
Dlink DIR-300/301 Wireless G Router(Also known as DKT-110 when bundled with wireless PC adapter
Dlink DIR-825 (firmware 2.01EU, higher versions may also work)
Linksys WRT160N v3 DD-WRT (Third Party Firmware) NEWD K2.6 Mini Generic http://www.dd-wrt.com/routerdb/de/do..._mini.bin/3407
Linksys WRT310N v1 DD-WRT (Third Party Firmware) generic mini version build 14929


Not sure if this is all up to date but hopefully it might help

[Sweets]

Thank you very much for your reply.

I know the router we have will support more than one X box playing with open Nats because the technician we spoke to at Virgin Media confirmed this was possible.
It is not knowing enough about how these things work that is causing the issue, because I have no idea how to facilitate it.
I have been able to access the routers home page and I have checked that the 'plug and play' is enabled...I just don't know what to do now.

[pabscars]

Virgin Media quite rightly will only support equipment they provide which is probably why they recommended their router to you, unfortunately they are also quick to say they don't support online gaming.

I never found virgin supplied routers to be much cop so the easiest thing to try would be to connect up your other router and see how that goes as you said it worked ok before the speed upgrade.

Dependant on what speed you upgraded too your old router may work just fine and if so then your problem should be sorted.

If you try it and it's still not working post back with a little more info regarding the type of router supplied by VM, what speed your supposed to on etc the more info the better, then hopefully those more knowledgable than myself can give you the advice you require.

[Sweets]

Thank you for your advice which we are going to take....we will reconnect the old Belkin tomorrow and see what happens

[pabscars]

Your most welcome, fingers crossed it works out.

Be sure to post back tomorrow if it works ok, you never know it might help someone else with the same problem as you.

I can relate to your problem because I have a PS3 and an xbox 360 and have had my fair share of NAT issues, but as I don't have 2 consoles running simultaneously I cant be sure to offer the best advice.

From the little I've read about trying to run 2 consoles at the same time, you need a router that handles UPnP properly and chances are the Virgin router simple isnt doing this.

I think the NAT issue is to do with both consoles wanting to use the same ports at the same time (which isnt possible) so what the router should do is use different ports for the second console, all of which should be taken care of by UPnP.

[Sweets]

Hi

Well we have the issue solved but I am sure that our solution is anything but advisable!!!

We have connected the old Belkin router directly into one of the Netgear router ports and then configured all of the machines (computers and X boxes) to access the Belkin.

We now have 3 X boxes with open nats that we can currently play simultaneously and the computers seem fine.

I am not sure if this is going to last, after all things seem to deteriorate quite a lot in an evening anyway...but fingers crossed its enough.

Thank you very much for your help, it was much appreciated

[pabscars]

Glad you've managed to get it set up and working correctly. I never thought of combining the two routers, but as long as your happy and its working as you want then its all good