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