Airport Extreme and Xbox 360

[caligurl]

i have been all over the internet and cannot find how to connect the xbox 360 with the latest version of airport extreme.

i found several with an older version but the steps they show to use aren't the same....

can someone please give me step by step (the for dummies version) instructions of getting the xbox and airport extreme to play nice!

thanx!

[Weaselboy]

I use an XBox 360 with a Time Capsule, which is essentially an Airport Extreme with a hard drive inside, and it required to configuration at all. Just connect the XBox and the Airport Extreme will open the ports it needs automatically.

Are you having some trouble with this?

[Richdmoore]

I own a Xbox 360 and an AirPort Extreme, and didn't have any issues at all either. It just worked straight out of the box, open nat and everything.

I read older posts about people having issues when the Xbox 360 was new, but I guess they were resolved with updates from apple or Microsoft, since I never had them.

[caligurl]

UGH! well that just frustrates me even more now!!! everything else runs perfectly (probable even a bit snappier than with the link sys we were using) and set us couldn't have been easier... but hubby gets the error message on the xbox about changing the NAT (or something like that....)



not sure what to do now? his is the MW3 version.... so not old....

[Weaselboy]

Originally Posted by caligurl

UGH! well that just frustrates me even more now!!! everything else runs perfectly (probable even a bit snappier than with the link sys we were using) and set us couldn't have been easier... but hubby gets the error message on the xbox about changing the NAT (or something like that....)



not sure what to do now? his is the MW3 version.... so not old....

I wonder if there is something else going on with your setup.

Tell us exactly how you connect. Are you wired directly from the cable/DSL modem to the AE? Then from the AE to XBox? Any other hubs or anything in between?

Check to make sure your cable/DSL modem is JUST a modem and not one of the combo modem/router things.

If all else fails, you can put the XBox in the DMZ with the AE.

Do this:

1. Follow this guide to get the MAC address for your XBox and write it down.

2. Go to this screen in Airport Utility and click the plus.



3. You will get this window. Type Xbox DMZ in the Description field. Then type the MAC address into the correct field exactly like you wrote it down from the Xbox. Make sure to include the colons in between and everything. In the IPv4 filed enter 10.0.1.253. Now click save.



4. Now click Network Options at the bottom of the window. That will bring up the below window. Check on both the boxes like in my grab and the IP 10.0.1.253 should appear as the default host. Click save. Then click update at the bottom right. The router will restart with the new settings.



After the router restarts it should issue IP 10.0.1.253 to the Xbox and will let the Xbox bypass the routing of the Airport Extreme and clear the NAT errors. If you go back to the Xbox settings from the first step you should see that the Xbox now has the IP 10.0.1.253 assigned to it.

[caligurl]

Originally Posted by Weaselboy

I wonder if there is something else going on with your setup.

Tell us exactly how you connect. Are you wired directly from the cable/DSL modem to the AE? Then from the AE to XBox? Any other hubs or anything in between?

Check to make sure your cable/DSL modem is JUST a modem and not one of the combo modem/router things.

we are wired directly from the modem to the AE. the xbox is connected wirelessly. no other hubs.

i believe that the modem is one of their modem type but it is set to bridge.

i just put in the configurations you said and he still has the Nat: moderate notice on the xbox

[Weaselboy]

Originally Posted by caligurl

we are wired directly from the modem to the AE. the xbox is connected wirelessly. no other hubs.

i believe that the modem is one of their modem type but it is set to bridge.

i just put in the configurations you said and he still has the Nat: moderate notice on the xbox

Confirm after those settings the XBox now shows it is using IP 10.0.1.253 from the network screen in the XBox itself? If it is, with this config, the Xbox is in the DMZ and the AE is not the problem.

If the modem is also a router like you mentioned, are you sure it is in bridge mode? That is the only other thing I can thing of.

[caligurl]

Originally Posted by Weaselboy

Confirm after those settings the XBox now shows it is using IP 10.0.1.253 from the network screen in the XBox itself? If it is, with this config, the Xbox is in the DMZ and the AE is not the problem.

If the modem is also a router like you mentioned, are you sure it is in bridge mode? That is the only other thing I can thing of.

positive it is in bridge mode.... i checked

and the xbox does show the correct DMZ.

[Weaselboy]

Originally Posted by caligurl

positive it is in bridge mode.... i checked

and the xbox does show the correct DMZ.

I'm outta ideas. That should work with the XBox in the DMZ.

[SandboxGeneral]

Hmmmm.... I'm going to quote myself below from another thread because I was having some issues for a while with my AEBS and Xbox as well. Check it out and see if applies to your situation as well.

For a while, my Xbox could not download system updates no matter what I did with network, firewall, and Ethernet settings. Online gameplay worked just fine under my "standard" everyday network configuration; but not system updates.

In order to get the Xbox to to download the system updates, I would have to plug it into the cable modem directly and bypass the whole network and router. That was a pain because all my other computers and devices were offline during the update download.

The baffling thing was that when I first got the Xbox, and for a good while thereafter, system updates worked and then one day stopped. Now I don't turn the Xbox on all the time, so I don't know what may have changed between the time it last worked and when it stopped.

Once I realized that this was a problem, Apple pushed out the newer AirPort Utility and I installed it. Then I had no firewall logging to see what was happening.

Well, today, I finally figured it all out. Since Peace showed me I could install the older AirPort Utility; I got logging back. I turned the Xbox on today and saw a system update was available. I opened up the AirPort Utility (5.6), got to the logging section and pressed Update on the Xbox and this is what I found:

I had an old WiFi password stored in the Xbox from a long time ago and never updated it when I changed my WiFi password. I didn't do that because the Xbox was now using Ethernet and wasn't supposed to use WiFi. I removed the WiFi settings altogether from the Xbox and restarted it, tried the system update and lo and behold, it worked on the Ethernet without me having to plug it into the cable modem directly.

All this time I was thinking that something had changed and it was either Apple's or Microsoft's fault that my AEBS and Xbox wouldn't talk to each other nicely. I was even considering buying a new router too.

This story may be insignificant in importance, but it does highlight the need to have some form of firewall logging on any and all routers - Apple are you listening?

[caligurl]

grrrrr.... i'm about ready to pack up the new iMacs and airport extreme and take them all back to apple... we didn't have these problems with our HP notebooks and crummy link sys router....

[macnoober]

Originally Posted by caligurl

grrrrr.... i'm about ready to pack up the new iMacs and airport extreme and take them all back to apple... we didn't have these problems with our HP notebooks and crummy link sys router....

This is the best I could do, hope it helps:
Here's a simple guide to resolving the strict/moderate NAT problem for your Apple routers and Xbox Live:

If you want to try the DEFAULT HOST option(this is referred to as putting your Xbox in the DMZ; it puts the Xbox IN FRONT of the router, your internet connection bypasses the router and goes straight to the Xbox). This is the easiest/fastest method:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcAtB5NUqKs

If you want to try NAT PORT MAPPING PROTOCOL- https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3414
here's the ports you'll need:
Port 88 (UDP)
Port 3074 (UDP and TCP)
Port 53 (UDP and TCP)
Port 80 (TCP)

If you're using the Xbox wireless adapter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofz2-MhxBVg

[macnoober]

Originally Posted by Weaselboy

I wonder if there is something else going on with your setup.

Tell us exactly how you connect. Are you wired directly from the cable/DSL modem to the AE? Then from the AE to XBox? Any other hubs or anything in between?

Check to make sure your cable/DSL modem is JUST a modem and not one of the combo modem/router things.

If all else fails, you can put the XBox in the DMZ with the AE.

Do this:

1. Follow this guide to get the MAC address for your XBox and write it down.

2. Go to this screen in Airport Utility and click the plus.



3. You will get this window. Type Xbox DMZ in the Description field. Then type the MAC address into the correct field exactly like you wrote it down from the Xbox. Make sure to include the colons in between and everything. In the IPv4 filed enter 10.0.1.253. Now click save.



4. Now click Network Options at the bottom of the window. That will bring up the below window. Check on both the boxes like in my grab and the IP 10.0.1.253 should appear as the default host. Click save. Then click update at the bottom right. The router will restart with the new settings.



After the router restarts it should issue IP 10.0.1.253 to the Xbox and will let the Xbox bypass the routing of the Airport Extreme and clear the NAT errors. If you go back to the Xbox settings from the first step you should see that the Xbox now has the IP 10.0.1.253 assigned to it.

Why do you have to use the networks tab/DHCP reservations and all that? When I did it the way you described, mine actually went back to moderate from open. All I did was check the default host option, and manually configure the 360 network settings w/ the 10.0.1.253 ip address. Seems to be working fine. Is the set up you're showing supposed to be better/optimal?

[Weaselboy]

Originally Posted by macnoober

Why do you have to use the networks tab/DHCP reservations and all that? When I did it the way you described, mine actually went back to moderate from open. All I did was check the default host option, and manually configure the 360 network settings w/ the 10.0.1.253 ip address. Seems to be working fine. Is the set up you're showing supposed to be better/optimal?

Either way will have the exact same result... that is having the XBox in the DMZ. DHCP reservations just assigns the IP address to the XBox without having to mess with the Xbox's network settings. I just find it easier to explain. Either way is fine.

[macnoober]

Originally Posted by Weaselboy

Either way will have the exact same result... that is having the XBox in the DMZ. DHCP reservations just assigns the IP address to the XBox without having to mess with the Xbox's network settings. I just find it easier to explain. Either way is fine.

Oh, I gotcha. Thanks for the quick response!

[Kellahlaleen]

Hi I just got a new airport extreme yesterday. Everything in my house works perfectly except for the xbox. For some reason, it can not find the signal anywhere, event though it is in perfect range. Any reply would be appreciated.

[qamaro]

Originally Posted by Kellahlaleen

Hi I just got a new airport extreme yesterday. Everything in my house works perfectly except for the xbox. For some reason, it can not find the signal anywhere, event though it is in perfect range. Any reply would be appreciated.

Are you connecting via wifi? If so I'd make sure to check all your settings and that the xbox 360 wifi adapter supports everything you are using. I am connected wired but, I know that the AE should work out of the box without any special configurations for the xbox360. I can't speak for your provider though, the only way to check if its the AE is to connect the xbox360 to your modem and see if it is connected then. Outside of that here are the setting to check.

Example:

SSID (Network Name): Is enabled to announce (make sure under wireless option that the "CREATE HIDDEN NETWORK" is not checked)

Router Mode: DHCP and NAT

Network Speed: A,B,G or N

Radio Mode: 5GHz ONLY, 2.4GHz ONLY, or both

Wireless Security: WPA2 Personal (etc.)