Well, if you have Windstream.net ISP, you may have had a few Xbox Live connection issues. I am not speaking negatively of the company, rather the hardware that they send you for your DSL connection, which is a Modem & Wi-Fi router combined. Below I will list some of the problems that I encountered with this ISP's hardware in relation to Xbox Live services. If you encounter any of these problems shoot me a message and I will be glad to try and help you. Or, if you are really lonely and want to talk to strangers for a few hours, by all means call the support hotlines... If you like this article and/or if it helps you please rate it below, Thanks in advance!
**Note** Any mentions of Xbox in this discussion are of the Xbox 360 model, not the Xbox One.
I spent just under 2 hours with Xbox customer support and then 1.5 hours with Windstream support. Let me state that the Xbox support reps that I spoke with were excellent and really worked hard to try to solve the issue (I ended up speaking with the person that trained the employees for the last hour). It was apparent fairly quickly that it was not an Xbox server or hardware issue, but one with the modem/router configuration. Even after knowing it was not their problem to deal with, they continued to help me until we reached an impasse.
1st issue: Could not connect 2 seperate Xbox's to the same Wi-Fi network.
Basically my cousin came over and brought his Xbox with him to play on another TV. Once his was connected to Xbox Live, My Xbox would no longer connect to Live. It could see the network & internet, but Live would fail. One workaround was to plug on Xbox directly to the network (wired) but this is not convenient for my house's setup. Even with wired connection, NAT (see next issue) was the same.
2nd issue: Nat type always showing Moderate or Strict, usually Strict (aka slow)
So before my cousins Xbox was ever connected, the Nat would be Moderate or Strict on my Xbox. Once he connected he was Moderate or Strict (& I couldn't connect). Wired both could connect, NAT remained unchanged and still slow as can be.
The Fixes:
Windstream almost requires you to use their supported modem/router. They state that you can use a third-party manufacturer's hardware, but if you do that they will not support you in anyway. That means they won't give you settings, answer questions, nothing. So unless you are very versed in DSL settings, this is an issue. I am very familiar with standard wireless network routers and the setup of said routers, but DSL is very different to me (and apparently to the techs I spoke with at Xbox). It seems it's an odd brand of hardware, and the modem's setup page is not user friendly, and things don't make sense as to where they are compared to normal cable or satellite routers.
Basically you need to manually add a set of ports for your system and remove any odd ports that are listed.
Here are some settings and the values that they should be:
- Multicast Rate: Set to Auto (default was 2mb)
- 54g™ Rate: Set to Auto (default was 2mb
- DO NOT enable Quick Bridge as this makes the router unmanageable and you will have to factory reset it and start over
- Enable AutoDetection
- Enable IGMP Snooping
- Enable UPnP
- Fast Leave Enable LAN to LAN
- Multicast Enable
OK, you should be cooking with gas and killing aliens now. There are a number of ports that need to be accessible to your Xbox in order to communicate with Xbox live. You can message me and I can give you the list or you may find them somewhere on the boards if you prefer. I think I've typed out enough for tonight, now I'm going to bang my head against the wall, or maybe just watch TV. Good Luck!