I must see my wireless setup page more than any other website I frequent.
I can almost mark the exact day on my calendar; the occasion, however, is always changing. An ambiguous event haunts me every time I dare turn on my game consoles. On good days, running at about ten to twelve day sprees, I can kick back and enjoy my favorite past time. Then, roughly two to three times a month if I’m lucky, I get these fantastic messages sent to me, and they aren’t secret admirer love letters either. Here’s what I get: “You have been disconnected from Xbox Live”, “You have a moderate to strict NAT”, “This IP Address has already been taken”, and lastly, I’ll see “Signing into PlayStation Network” load for minutes on end.
You guessed it, I get continuous router problems.
Of course, a few of you will quickly comment that this is just a me problem. However, if that was the case, why are there countless forums on this kind of topic? Just Google keywords like “NAT types”, “Xbox 360/PS3 Online Problems”, “DNS Errors”, etc., and see how many people the world over have the same kind of problems I have. I still wonder why online gaming, or online connection at all for that matter is still such a hassle in this day and age.
I recently read an interesting article from the New York Times pertaining to exactly this-the home wireless network. The basis of the article was how complicated, unnecessarily mind you, it is to set up a basic home wireless network. The author, Eric A. Taub, stated something that really stuck with me:
“When one of the first instructions a popular wireless Internet router from Netgear gives its owner is a choice between the security protocols known as WPA-PSK (TKIP) and WPA-PSK (TKIP) + WPA2-PSK (AES), you know the home networking industry has problems.”
I mean, think about it-why must you be a rocket scientist in order to surf the net? Although I do know what those security protocols are, A) not many others do and B) it gets even more confusing after that initial question.
The article also mentioned how wireless companies see it normal for people to buy and return multiple routers if they don’t work from them. They say there are many possibilities out there, you just need to best one for you. Really? A trial and error process in 2010 is still the norm? I personally have gone through three routers recently, and if it isn’t one problem occurring, it’s another.
So, what do you do?
You scramble the internet, call customer service, fiddle around in the setup page, or just throw your controller in anger. There seems to be a general fix to the common NAT problem for game consoles, and that is opening up certain ports. Well, I’ve had them opened the whole time and I’ve yet to see any progress with it. And here’s a question, why does my 360 only have an open NAT when I set it to a certain IP Address? When that sucker is on dynamic it is always moderate-strict. Absolutely no reason for such a thing if you ask me.
Obviously, if I had it my way I’d have my entire game center hooked up directly to the router. Unfortunately, my game consoles were bought after the family desktop was set up, so all the main wires from the side of my house come in through the living room, and my bedroom is upstairs. I know direct links would certainly rectify all of my problems, but, this doesn’t solve my current problem, as well as the problem for many others. The constant string of random errors makes something so simple turn out to be a two hour phone call with customer service, and something needs to be done to rectify this process.
I hate how I must go through this constantly in order to team up with squad mates online.
Back in the day this never happened. If you wanted to play a video game with friends it was a simple as a quick phone call. Your friends came over, you ordered pizza, caused a great big mess in your living room and later got yelled at about said mess. The only problem that might’ve occurred was hooking up multiple televisions for a LAN party, but other than that four-player splitscreen provided hours upon hours of crazed excitement. Now, it’s not like that. You need a router, modem, ethernet cables, perhaps a wireless adapter, and a whole lot of patience.
Don’t get me wrong though, when everything works the way it should, paying online is a blast. I will say I don’t get the same joy as if people were directly next to me but still, nobody can deny how fun and ‘convenient’ online gaming is.
Maybe I’m just used to the simplicity of multiplayer gaming from the last generation. Then again, maybe multiplayer gaming this generation is harder than it should be. Again, 128 v. 128 in MAG is astounding, Halo rules, Left 4 Dead is the shit, but as a total package online gaming can be more trouble than it’s worth at times. This could also be the reason why I am so stoked for games like Conduit 2 and GoldenEye 007, because they heavily remind me of a time I enjoyed the most.
I wanna know though, do you guys feel the same way. I know at least a handful of you have had the same troubles I’ve had over the years-do you prefer splitscreen multiplayer over online multiplayer at times? Is simpler sometimes better? Let me know what you guys think in the comment section below, and perhaps even give me some pointers that could potentially fix my problems.
I got to say I’m with you. I still remember the NES-Cube days when you had to screw in the RF cable into the back of a TV that wasn’t flat. The most trouble you’d have was reaching around the TV and your fingers in pain as you tightened the adapter.
I had a LOT of problems over the years with online gaming. On my third router in 3 years. I’ve learned that setting up a console (I’ve done mine, my friend’s and my nephew’s)
is up to a week affair and going to involve customer services, writing down and forgetting 3 sets of 9 digit numbers, and more frustration than getting owned by a 9 year old who hacked MW2.
I got to say customer service is a F^cking nightmare because you never know what went wrong. The console, the router, the modem, the wire, the service, the ports, or some drunk redneck who crashed into the telephone poles (true story). The worst part is everyone you call 3 things happen.
1. You’re pressing buttons after listening to automated messages for 15 min.
2. The guy on the line can barely speak english.
3. After a half hour of being on the phone checking basic stuff you already check they tell you it must be a problem w/ another company. Comcast vs microsoft, lynksys vs speedstream, ect.
To be honest the best thing to do is online research and know it’s going to take you AWHILE. Also if you’re going wireless God help you. I had to impersonate my military brother while he was deployed and ask the Verizon guy to walk me through the wireless setup on my nephew’s 360 or he still wouldn’t have it. There’s just too many codes and digits when you should really be able to set it up FIRST and THEN set up the security sh1t.
Great article. I found my setup for now. Hope you find yours.
I used to have some of the problems you mentioned, but ever since I disabled the media server, everything works swimmingly for me. You may want to try it out or maybe you have different problems.
I have a wired connection and I still have problems from time to time, I troubleshooted the crap out of my router to get it to work with Call of Duty, which mind you was the whole point of me troubleshooting, every other game worked fine. But I can say that the old days are sadly taking a backseat with the introduction of making online gaming the norm. I personally play better when I am alone and have headphones on, I can really tune in. As to when my friends are over we are all conversing and having a blast I might not do as well. Those are my thoughts.
And why is the Call of Duty server so problematic huh?
Long live the Axe!
I have the same issues. In my house, the router is in a lower postition to my room, which is on the second floor. The sad part is that the games I want to play, won’t connect. I was looking soooo forward to actually trying to play Red Dead Redemption, but because of the bad connection I have, all I find when I started up the free roam is an empty world and just a few gang hideouts to tackle alone. And then when the FUCKING coop missions came out, all I could do was cry over my loneliness. I had the same issue with GTA IV, but I had higher hopes of it being a technical problem on Rockstars part, and not my poor choice of sleeping quarters. I guess I have to stick to the small scale stuff.
My router decides to take a crap every once in a while too. I have no idea why. But you can usually fix it (without going to that router screen) by unplugging the black power cord (from the back of the router not from your power strip) from the router for at least 10 sec and then plugging it back it. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries but it works fine after that.
If that doesn’t work, then unplugging the cable modem (which will reset it) and replugging has worked for me too.
Although this won’t necessarily solve your router problem, I would highly recommend a HOMEPLUG setup for home networking.
You’ll get speeds of up to 200Mbps with no dropouts, it’s like being hooked up directly to your router. I have 3 sets of Homeplugs in my house and they are great because you can plug them anywhere and use them with any console or PC which has an ethernet adapter.
You can pick them up now from only £40 a pair so it’s much better value than going for the likes of the Xbox Wireless adapter, you’ll get double the performance and you can also use it for your PS3 or PC.
I totally agree about routers being too complicated, god knows how my parents manage…oh yeh i went round and sorted it for em…
Also for anyone who doesn’t know about it – PortForward.com is a godsend for helping solve router problems. I’ve used it to help with countless games, and the “strict NAT” problem on Xbox Live in the past.
I don’t know how to best formulate this, so don’t take it personally, but all these problems are your own fault. Your lack of knowledge creates these errors. However, if companies weren’t run by idiots, you wouldn’t need to know these things, they’d be hidden from you just like a GUI hides the command line.
The NYT article makes some good points (and a bit of BS, the signal interference isn’t as bad as they make it sound). Fact is that wireless is rubbish, even N is still far too slow. 15-40 MByte/s (on N) isn’t as fast as it sounds when you’re feeding several wireless devices.
It is up to the industry to offer a simplified interface to users that don’t understand this shit without removing the advanced options for those that do know what the hell they are doing. At the same time, it’s also up to the others to not simply buy the cheapest wireless router out there.
I just laid down a hundred bucks for the DIR-655. It has four gigabit ports for the home network (house is ethernet wired) and has two ten port gigabit switches attached so truly every ethernet socket is live, even if not connected.
The wireless is set up for g/n and it runs on 2.4. Wireless phone on 2.4 in the house. No issues what so ever. We only have two laptops in the house connected, but you can really stress it with high speed downloads.
Cheap routers crash. They have weak processors and little RAM. They can’t handle all the connection thrown at them. Remember that a lot of console games run P2P – this is actually quite stressful for routers, believe it or not. It makes your machine send and receive a shit load of request. Now there’s congestion!
If you actually put down money, this shit is a lot less likely to happen. Sure, if you set up your BT client (lol torrents – amateurs) wrong, it will crash your network regardless.
It’s not a direct connection. Routers are a relay. Relays need power and time.
As for NAT types… consoles actually make it more complicated by not explaining shit to anyone.
First off, what is NAT? Basically NAT is what your router does to make sure your request is sent to the server and then back to you. Basically you have your internal network IP and your external IP. The internal is provided by the router, the external is provided by your ISP. When you go to EBA in your browser, you send a message to your router with your request. The router then logs your IP, which IP you want to access and on which port. It puts this into a map and translates it so the site receives a request with your external IP. This way the site knows where to send the data back to. As far as the site knows, it’s a single device, not the router making the request. Your router receives the info, then via the map looks up who to send it to.
This creates a transition table for the router, which internal IP allows which external port requests.
This analogy is simplified and ignores security, but should get the basic concept across.
Imagine your internal IP address was a house. Imagine every port was a door in that house. The doors cannot be opened from the outside, only from the inside. Once the doors are open, people can go in and out of the house until it’s closed again.
However, now if someone (an external IP) knocks on that closed door, you know you can trust it.
Having DHCP set up is like moving house every time you get a new IP. Since the list of trusted sources was built for another house, it’s discarded. Static, you obviously keep the same list.
Now a lot of routers try and assign you the same IP again after expires so this table is kept alive, but plenty of older routers did not do this. If you do have DHCP set up for convenience (and why not), you should still be able to set a static IP in your devices within a network set up for DHCP, just make sure it’s in the range and preferably, at the higher end, since usually routers hand out the lowest available IP.
Now, where was I going with this? Oh yeah, console NAT. Consoles try to sniff you NAT type… except what they return (1,2,3 or open, strict, moderate) makes no fucking sense since there are actual terms and it’s hard to tell how it’s supposed to correspond. Also, those terms and that whole sniffing of NAT type, it’s all deprecated because it has been proven to be faulty and unreliable. This is a huge problem. I’ve seen my 360 read it wrong and not allowing me to connect to games because of it.
Basically the problem exists because TCP and UDP are used. UDP is stateless and TCP requests are launched from the outside. What exactly this means isn’t important, what is important is that your router handles them correctly. Mine does, I know a lot of cheaper models don’t. This is why you do port forwarding, so your router knows it can deal with it instead of ignoring it (thinking it’s an attack). If the router has UPnP, it actually disguises itself as an internet gateway, again, the specifics aren’t important, but basically it means that devices on the internal network should be able to dynamically open and close ports as necessary – this of course requires the device/application to know how to send to requests. Even then, I have seen cheap routers fail at simple upnp requests. This is why port forwarding is still there, legacy devices.
On the other hand you can set up a DMZ and then your router will allow you to make end-to-end connection, it however also opens you up to attacks. It opens up all your ports all the time.
I’m tired and sort of forgot how I was going to wrap this up. Take from it what you will.
Good sir I feel your pain. I live in an urban area with the best DSL package I can get in my area. I never thought my connection was something strange until I bought Red Dead Redemption. I was getting kicked from Free Roam every 10 seconds. I put in a service request and Rockstar couldn’t help me with anything except that I should directly connect to my modem. I was hardwired to a router, but that still wasn’t good enough. So if I wanted to experience I had to cut off all other internet access to the house and reconfigure my PS3 settings. Let’s just say that that game hasn’t been dusted off in awhile.
Why is this such a hard thing to make happen. Other games do it well and have extremely successful matchmaking and connection status. Oh well.
Buy a proper router that cost more then a bag of nudles and you will be fine. Im an IT-tech but ive never had to go into the advance settings of any router to get everything to work. If you get a decent router you wont have to open any ports manually.
Take a look at D-link dir-855. Now thats a router for you.
That’s overkill, the 655 is plenty good. 855 only if you need multiple networks, that’s the benefit over the 655. Even the 825 is more sensible.
Well I would just like to thank you guys for your hefty feedback
and would also like to mention to Nick Anderson that, while I did look at that 855, it may just be a bit too much.
Perhaps the 655 would be good enough.
However, besides buying a new router, any troubleshooting tips besides the obvious ones? Any ‘secrets’ I’m missing out on?
Later dudes.
Hehe yeh its probably a little bit much for a lot of people. I use it because when i moved into my new place i had a vision to make everything wireless and this router makes that happen with good performance. All mobile devices is on the 2.4band and all the computers are in the 5.0band. Streaming 1080p content from my desktop to my mac mini via wireless works like a charm and playing online games well lets just say my ping is as low as they get.
Go for Attackofthethumbs advice and get the 655, its a very good router for most people. Im just a swedish tech nerd!
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Multiple Consoles… That’s the problem…
If you had 1 console opening ports with uPNP, you wouldn’t have any issues.
The problem is that the Xbox & PS3 have shared ports. So they’re always vying for the same ports on the router.
My solution is to have my console in a DMZ, then swap them when I want to play on the other… It’s a pain, but the only solution I’ve found to work proper.
Step 1: Choose a console.
Step 2: Add its IP to DMZ in your router GUI.
Step 3: ?
Step 4: Profit!
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