NAT Issues with XBox Live + DD-WRT

If you are having issues with Xbox Live, such as not being able to hear some friends talking in a chat, or not being able to join a party with certain friends, your NAT settings could be to blame.  NAT stands for Network Address Translation and it essentially comes into play here when you look at port forwarding and what XBox Live require for open ports.

I will give some general info on what needs to be done, but if you are using the DD-WRT firmware on your router, I’ll continue on with how to configure that specific software.

The first thing you will want to do is figure out how to login to your routers settings.  If you are not familiar with this, or do not know your username/password to login to the router – start with your routers documentation then come back here.  Once you are within your routers setup page, you will want to head to the port forwarding section.  The first step that I would try is to open up three ports.  Open up ports:

88 UDP

3047 UDP

3047 TCP

Depending on if that works or not – The next step if you were unsuccessful would be to try out UPnP in your routers setting. This is Universal Plug and Play, which essentially allows your XBox to determine the port settings however it wishes. Personally, I find this to be a bit too much control for Microsoft and the Xbox to have over my network, but if you want to give it a try here it is:

Simply setup UPnP in your router to be enabled. This is just an option on your routers setup page, and you can see an example of that from a DD-WRT router at the end of this article.

Now make sure that you restart and cycle everything within the network. That would be your Xbox, router, and possibly modem if you feel so inclinded. Make sure to shut them off completely and start them up in order from the incoming connection to the final destination. Once you do that, you should be in bussiness to join any XBox Live party you wish. The following links my help you out if you are still experiencing issues.

Links:
Xbox Support Forums: Link
Noddegamra Blog Post: Link
Microsoft Support: Link

Sharing NTFS with OSX

Recently I gave OSX a shot on my desktop hardware. If you aren’t sure how that is possible, check out osx86project.org. Anyways, this posed a few problems if I wanted to use OSX for any amount of time. My Adobe Lightroom files were all stored on an NTFS formatted hard drive. Out of the box, OSX has no way of recognizing this file system. OSX uses HFS+ and can also read/write FAT and FAT32 drives. It cannot write to NTFS drives without additional drivers. This is where a program named MacFUSE can come in handy. MacFUSE allows you to extend the filesystems that OSX can handle.

The other piece of the puzzle is NTFS-3G. This is a type of connection between MacFUSE and your NTFS stored files.  NTFS-3G is a driver that is freely available and can read/write NTFS to multiple operating systems.  It is fast, safe, and has been tested against Windows XP, 2003, 2000 and Vista.

Using these two mac extensions, I am now able to read/write/delete to my NTFS windows formatted partitons. This includes all of my music, images, and Adobe Lightroom files that I have stored there. Now I can boot up into either Vista or OSX, and still share files between the two. If you are looking for the exact opposite of what I have described here, and you want to access OSX files on Windows, you might want to give MacDrive a try.

-DPollitt

MeetInBetween.us

MeetInBetween.us is an online resource that utilizes Google Maps to find the midpoint between two addressees inputted by the user.  After entering the two locations, the user can select a location to meet, which range from restaurants, bars,  coffee shops, hotels, or malls.  If David; who lives outside of Minneapolis; and I; who live outside of Duluth; wanted to meet for lunch, it might look like this:

After agreeing on a place to meet, directions to the location are made available to each person.  I can see this being potentially useful for users of Craiglist.

-A. Greeman

DTV Converter Coupons Gone?

So I knew the DTV transition was coming up in about a month, so I thought I better sign on to the coupon website and order myself a set.  The coupons were supposed to be $40 and allowed each household up to two coupons towards the digital converter box.  When I tried to sign up for the coupons today, I got a message telling me that I was approved for the coupon, but funding is not currently available.  Not only that, but I will not receive a coupon unless more funding becomes available.  A bit dissappointing, considering I have two tvs that are standard def, and I plan on dropping my cable service for OTA within the next few months.  So unless some more funding gets dropped down from the gov, it looks like I’ll be shelling out about $50 per unit when I need them.

-DPollitt

LogMeIn Free – Access any computer from anywhere

Have you ever forgot that one Word document back home when you were at work?  Or maybe you just have that one song remix on your desktop and you want to send it to your friend from his house.  Remote desktop access is what you need.  Windows does have a built in option if you are running Windows XP Professional or Vista Ultimate, but it typically requires a bit of networking and firewall knowledge and setup.  Theres a free option out there, that requires essentially no setup or technical knowledge and works fantasticly.  LogMeIn Free allows you to acces any Mac or PC that you install the software on from any browser.  You aren’t even required to install any software for basic access.

So if you want to give this a try for yourself, simply create a free account at LogMeIn.com and download and install the free software.  Then when you are away from your machine, log into the website, and it will fire up a live view of your machine from within a browser.

-DPollitt

How to reformat a computer using Windows XP

1. First understand that doing this will erase everything on the computer. You will not have any files of any kind that you created previously after this process. If you are confused about this part, research before continuing on with this guide.

2. Make sure that your computer is set to Boot to CD.  This is a different procedure depending on your computer.  When your computer first boots look for an option to enter the BIOS settings.  It typically is a key like F1, F2, Esc, Del etc. But watch closely when the computer starts up and it will tell you which key to enter. Under the BIOS settings find the “Boot Order” and make sure the CD-ROM is set to boot first. Be sure to save the changes you made in the bios, usually it will ask you to save before exiting.

- This website has common keys used to enter the bios if you are having trouble:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

3. With the Windows XP CD in the CD-ROM drive, save your BIOS settings and exit.

4. If you’ve done everything correctly you should be asked to “Press Any Key to Boot from CD”.

5. Windows will install the necessary setup files

6. When asked if you want to setup or repair hit enter to setup Windows XP now. F8 to agree with the license terms.

7. If the setup program detects an exisiting installation of Windows and asks if you want to repair it, hit Esc to skip the repair.

8.Windows XP will display your partitions.  Delete any existing partitions by selecting the desired partition with the arrow keys, press D to delete and then L to confirm the deletion.

9. You should now have only one option, “Unpartitioned Space”.  Press Enter to install Windows XP to the unpartitioned space.

10. When asked how you would like to format the partition, select “Format using the NTFS file system(Quick)”.

11. After the partition is formatted, Windows XP will begin installation.  The computer will reboot.  While the computer is rebooting, please do not touch any keys.  From now on the screens will look like the following:

12. Enter your product key.  If you are reformatting using a Windows XP CD that came with your computer, the product key may be located on a sticker somewhere on your computer case.

13. When asked for Network Settings, choose “Typical Settings”.

14. When asked what to name the computer, give it a unique name like NewLab1.

15. When asked for an Administrator password, provide one.

16. Windows XP will now complete installation.  Upon completion you will need to re-install the drivers for your hardware (Modem, Sound, Video, etc).  Many PC companies such as Dell, Gateway, and HP will include a “Driver Installation CD” with the computer.  Simply insert the CD and follow the instructions.  Otherwise, you can download current drivers from many manufacturer’s driver download/support sites.

17. Typically if you can get the Network card working first, that makes it easier so you can then use the computers own internet connection to download the rest of the drivers.

18. Test the internet, sound(using headphones or speakers, I like to boot up Windows Media Center-have it search for local music, then play a song), and make sure that the screen resolution is a decent value. If any of these have issues, you need different drivers.

19. If you are having trouble finding the correct drivers, right click on My Computer and select Manage. Then select Device Manager from the list on the left. This will give you a list of all your hardware, and a yellow question mark will appear next to any devices that are not working correctly. You can use this list of devices to help determine the type of hardware(model number,version,etc) that you need to get the driver for.

20. Make sure to run Windows Update to get all the most recent windows updates and bug fixes.

Quick Guide:

1.Set bios to boot from cd, boot into Windows Disc.

2.Install new copy of windows after removing and deleting all partitions.

3.Click through the windows install process by answering all questions.

4.Once inside windows, download and install all necessary drivers.

More help:

Microsoft instructions on Formatting: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313348

Cyberwalker has great resources: http://www.cyberwalker.com

Guide created by David Pollitt 10/10/2008 dpollitt.net

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