Over the course of the past few months, I have grown to love a little thing called Xbox Live. It's a place where my friends and I can get on and battle it out in cyberspace through various games to determine the Champion of Champions. There was, however, one small problem that stood in our way. With a few of my friends, we kept recieving an error message that told us to check our NAT Settings. It took us a while to figure things out, and so this page is to help ensure that doesn't happen to anyone else.

What is a NAT setting?

First of all, Network Address Translation (NAT) is used to prevent problems with information being sent over a shared network. It allows a single device to act as an agent between the Internet and a local network (such as a router). This means one IP address can be used to represent an entire group of computers.

However, in the case of Microsoft, they have divided NAT into three categories: Strict, Moderate, and Open.

Before XBox changed their XBox live menus, you were able to see your NAT settings under Network > Test XBox LIVE Connection but that is no longer the case. So, I'll just tell you what the problem might be and you can take the time to check it out with your router or modem.

Step 1. Port Forwarding

The first thing to try is port forwarding for your XBOX 360, which can be done in the router’s administration pannel. By default this can be found at the ip address 192.168.2.1 and will require your username and password. Once logged in you will be able to setup port forwarding in the “Virtual Servers” section.

The ports that Microsoft recommends to be open are:

• 88 UDP
• 3074 UDP
• 3074 TCP

At this point you should test your XBOX Live connection again as you may not need to do anything else. Infact, I recommend you test it after each stage/technique. If your NAT is still set to Moderate or Strict then don’t worry, there are a few more things we can do.

Step 2. UPnP

Now, this tend to be the most common problem people face with their NAT settings. Applications that support UPnP can automatically tell the router to open the port they're listening on and close them when their done listening. Automatic port forwarding with UPnP means you don't have to worry about IP address, ports, or anything like that.

This is really easy to fix, too. All you need to do is find your UPnP settings, and make sure it's enabled. Nine times out of ten, it wont be, and that will cause your XBox LIVE to disconnect from your friends party, or not connect at all.

Finally..

Now, if you're still having problems after that, I would try to momentarily disable the firewall on your computer and try again. Your firewall could always be the problem, and if it is, all you need to do is add your XBox's static IP to the accepted programs in your firewall settings. If that still doesn't work, you may consider calling a Microsoft hotline for help. Thanks for reading and I hope this helps you solve any problems you might be having.