What is a NAT and what does it have to do with my xbox 360 connection?

Question

When I run the xbox live test everything checks out and I get a "moderate" under NAT. I don't understand what this means but I have a feeling it is the reason I can't play online games or hear my friends during private chat. I don't know what to do about it. My connection itself to the network is always pretty good. I tried a hardwire connection and I still got a moderate under NAT. Can anyone help me to get my 360 running a bit smoother. This is really frusterating and disapointing.

Answer 1

NAT is Network Address Translation. Your router most likely has a firewall set up and could be blocking some of the ports used by your Xbox 360 to communicate. Find out what ports your 360 needs opened and then go into your routers configuration and set up the NAT to open up those ports. You'll likely also need to set whether it's triggered by TCP or UDP. An easier way is just determine your 360's IP address and put it in a DMZ in your routers config which will leave your 360 wide open, but who's going to hack into an Xbox?

Answer 2

NAT stands for network address translation. It is most likely being done by your internet router.

It allows multiple computers (or other internet devices) to share the one address that your internet provider gives you. It does this by modifying the data flowing through it to replace the addresses and remembering which computer is connected to which web site.

For traffic that originates from your side, like browsing web sites, the NAT knows where to send the return data. For traffic that originates from the internet, it will reject the traffic unless you have already set up a rule to direct that traffic to a specific computer.

If your router includes a firewall, you may also have to add a rule to the firewall to allow the incoming traffic.

Answer 3

Most modern routers support a feature called Universal Plug & Play. For security reasons it's usually disabled by default. Try enabling UP&P on your router and see if that fixes the problem. Microsoft originally developed the technology so I can't imagine that an X-Box wouldn't support it. UP&P was designed to address exactly the problem you're having.

You'll have to read your router's docs to find out how to change the settings. I tried to answer your e-mail but you have not verified your e-mail address with Yahoo so it won't let me reply.

Answer 4

Look up Network Address Translation...

It is basically a generic filter which doesn't let certain IP addresses propagate past your firewall/router. This is to thwart outside attackers from accessing your system.

You need to look at your connection point to the external internet, and possibly allow certain ports through to your XBOX.