Why can't NAT be as simple as this Nat?
(I'm sorry but my intelligence doesn't grant me many words outside the F word to emphasize my rage when things like this happen.)
This post is going to be a fail blog in many of your eyes. This post is going to paint me an idiot in a few of your eyes. The majority I imagine will just scratch their heads in confusion because, it would seem, that I am the only person having this fucking issue.
NAT.
What the fuck is this goddamn shit? I have been playing online games for years without any trouble until this shit popped up out of nowhere. Hell, I even gamed online on my 360 without any trouble until this popped up in my life. It all started with fucking Halo 3. When this game hit it greeted you right to your face about your NAT and whether it is "Open" or whether it is "Strict". I had never seen this kind of babble on my video games during the Dreamcast, PS2, PC, earlier 360 and other systems days. Not until Halo 3 came along.
Now I am fucking plagued by it. My PS3s NAT is always type 3 now. I
guess my 360 is always closed. Ever since that wonderful ad fest of an update called the NXE launched I haven't been able to check whether my NAT is open or not. The closest I have come is, go fucking figure, Halo 3: ODST. It wastes no time telling me that my NAT is Strict.
I did what the manuals say. I connected my router like the next guy. Yet, I have these goddamn issues. It seems like every fucking forum online goes out of it's way to be vague as hell in what to do in order to fix it. Hell, my problem is vague: "My NAT won't stay open." How the fuck do you answer that in anything less than a million ways?
So far, all I can do is reset my router back to it's Factory Defaults and then click UPNP (even though it was clicked to begin with) and that fixes it. BUT GET THIS! Here recently, that has stopped working! WHAT THE FUCK!?
I don't know how to open or close any fucking correct "ports"
I don't know why online gaming has been smooth sailing until Halo 3.
I don't know what the purpose of the fucking NAT is anyways.
You know why? Because I am your goddamn motherfucking stupid average consumer who doesn't know anything about this shit. No one has told me to learn about this shit. Not Microsoft. Not Sony. Not my router manufacturer. Not my ISP. They are like the rest of you. They live in that perfect world where you just plug up your new router and console and modem and with a big Wal-Mart or Target advertisement grin play your wonderful online games. Isn't something that is marketed to the mass market supposed to be as user friendly as possible? I suppose it already is. I am just in that 0.01% group that has this issue.
This is a plea for help. If you can direct me to a "step by step" tutorial that doesn't throw out techno babble within the first 3 sentences that instantly throws me off and confuses me, or you yourself help me, I would love you to death.
FUCK.
/rant
(As I was writing this, my internet connection to the whole network resets itself. I go and check my PS3s NAT and it is open now. WHAT THE FUCK!?)
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What kind of router do you have? How are you connected? Maybe it's time for a new router. I've heard about this before, some routers love to fuck things up for you.
I've never had any problems connecting and I've never had that stupid NAT 3 bullshit. But I did write something to help people getting rid of it. Check it here. Beware it must be terribly outdated, but it might be useful.
I agree with one thing, Sol - it should just work, no questions asked, no minutiae of bullshit and settings included. Smart equipment should follow its namesake.
I have a linksys BEFSR41 and a wired connection. I think I need a new router. Those aren't cheap though.
Routers suck so hard.
GOD HATES YOU
NAT is not a setting per se, but its process by how your router knows how to direct incoming traffic to a specific machine connected to it.
The NAT type 3 on the PS3 menu means something is not quite set up right.
You'll need to forward the correct ports on your router to the IP of the PS3 to get everything 100% Most likely the same issue with the xbox.
To forward your ports:
Bring up a web browser on a machine connected to the router.
Type in the address of the router in the address bar(http://192.168.1.1 for your router). Hit enter. It'll most likely ask for a username / password. Leave the username blank. admin is the default password for that model router.
Go to the applications/gaming tab; Then to the port range/forwarding tab.
Then on one line enter 3478 in the from, and 3658 in the to. Select UDP as the protocol. Fill in the IP section with the IP assigned to your PS3.
On another line enter 443 in the from and 443 in the to. Select TCP as the protocol. Again fill in the IP assigned to the PS3.
Finally enter 5523 in the from and 5523 in the to. Select TCP as the protocol. Fill in the PS3 IP again.
Click the three check boxes for enabled and then Save and you should be ready to go. That should forward all those ports for incoming traffic to your PS3.
I'll have to go figure out the ports for the XBOX.
If you're going to get a new router, I recommend this. The WRT54GL is easy to upgrade to fancier firmware like DD-WRT or Tomato and it will only cost you around $50. Hell, you get one of those, I can probably even help you set it up.
Bullettrain, we are on the right track there. I did something like that a long time ago on the 360. I filled in three different port setting and everything. Even checked all three to enable. A while passed and the setting got erased and I couldn't find that link anymore for those settings. I did have one problem though with that. I still had to almost everytime go back in and manually change my IP adress as it always changed by one number.
Like, my ip address right now is, 192.168.1.100
The last part would always change from between 100 and 103. I am guessing that is something to do with what they call setting up a static IP? If so, that is yet another thing I can't find any dumbed down instructions. Thank you so much btw.
Look on the bright side, you have the option with that stuff. My university connection repeatedly disconnects and reconnects to prevent me from using online games, and there is pretty much no workaround to it.
Now I find this strange considering their video game dev course REQUIRES you to test your project online. How the fuck that works I don't know.
You'll need to set up the static IP on each device that needs ports forwarded. On your PS3, that means using the manual options instead of automatic when setting up your network connection settings. The PS3 is easy because it prompts you for one thing at a time as you hit next. Put in the IP 192.168.1.99, because that won't ever be automatically assigned. For DNS: 192.168.1.1, and for the Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1. You should be able to pick automatic for all the other settings. Now, when you follow Bullettrain's instructions, use 192.168.1.99 for your PS3's IP.
When you set up your 360, you'll have to use 192.168.1.98 or anything else between .2 and .99, just not .100 because that's where your router starts automatically giving them out.
EXCELLENT RANT!!! Love it! We've all been there I'm sure.
Personally I hate having to play with my router, configurations and all that bullshit just to get a game to work. As you so rightly said... it should just work.
In regards to routers... I bought a bare bones Trendnet b/g router for $19.00 (they go on sale at that price regularly) and it works great with my PS3. I don't get an extensive range though, so I bought a more expensive router... and that's when I got the headaches and the problems. I ended up returning the router and using my old Trendnet one ... and just using a wired connection for my husband's PS3 in the other room... and wireless for my PS3 (10 feet from the router and 100% connection).
I saw a recent sale and picked up an updated model... again at that $19.00 price tag because the antenna was falling off my old router (damn cat!) - it was plug and play and works fine.
moral of story... sometimes cheap and simple works better than complex and stupid.
Addendum: I don't remember if it asks for gateway or not. You know what? When I get home in about an hour, I'll write down exactly what you need to do if someone hasn't done it before me.
...oh, and with that cheap router... I don't have any ports forwarded, nor have I assigned static IP's... and I run two PS3's and a computer off that router - rarely have a problem.
Solgrim: Yeah routers have a system that dynamically assigns anything that connects to them an IP. Everytime you turn a machine on, it'll run through its start up and when it connects to the router it gets assigned an IP. If you turn on machines in different order each time then its possible they'll have different IPs.
However you CAN force the router to set up a static IP for that machine. Its just a little more setup work.
You need to go to your internet settings for your PS3, and instead of automatic, choose manual. Then for the IP, choose one like 192.168.1.205; Then in the router configuration, make sure the IP that you enter is that same one (192.168.1.205 or whatever you pick).
The subnet mask is 255.255.255.0; The router is 192.168.1.1; The DNS servers are more tricky. You'll have to do some leg work to figure those out.
In windows go to the start button, and bring up the Run program. Type in CMD. When it brings up the terminal window, type in ipconfig /all
This will bring up some info, and listed should be your primary and secondary DNS servers. Enter that info in, and then everything else should be fine without needed additional input.
Here's the articles I pulled the info from:
http://www.pregamelobby.com/forum/sony-reviews-tips/5618-how-get-type-2-open-nat-your-ps3.html#post63831
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/how-to-find-out-what-my-dns-servers-address-is/
Here's the manual for your model router:
http://downloads.linksysbycisco.com/downloads/BEFSR41_V43_UG_A-WEB,0.pdf
And if after ALL that it still doesn't work right, then your router may in fact be toast.
North American Trash?
Never Ask Trannies?
No Answers Today?
Norwegian Albino Tusks?
Nice Ass Tony?
......I'll stop
Errors like these ones are beyond frustrating! I had one like this for BF2 on my PC and it took me over week of doing random shit to fix it. I felt like a god afterwards mind you :)
I'm a networking student. This is a non issue for me. Good luck, non savvy people!
I believe the Xbox 360's ports that need forwarding are 88 and 3074. Good luck homie!
Nope, I have no idea what NAT is.
I hate shitty NAT settings, I still can't fix mine. Only option is probably to replace the damn router :/
If you don't want to fuck with any software bullshit, you can hook your ISP modem directly to the device that you want to play on, eliminating a router from the mix. You will also get the highest ping possible because nobody in your house is on the internets! This is not a solution, just a thought.
1) Go here:
http://portforward.com/english/applications/port_forwarding/XboxLive360/XboxLive360index.htm
2) Find your router
3)follow instructions
If that doesn't work out and you have a wired connection, use the DMZ option that most routers offer. It strips away all the filters and stuff that protect the IP address you can assign to it. Just set your xbox/ps3 to the same static IP (do you ever use both at the same time?) and set the DMZ to that same IP. Be careful that you aren't running Linux or something on your PS3 though.
This has always been a big thing even when I game on PC. Especially when someone wants to host a game and they can't even do that because they have no idea what to do and I can't really help them because they use some router I've never heard of. Things like this need to be more streamlined so the average consumer can have just as much fun hosting a game. I know we've had some problems connecting, most recently, when I was trying to play SSFHD and that was truly frustrating. Good rant, my friend.
What Bullet Train said.
Senisan is gay.
Senisan82 touched on a lot of it - the problem is that there are standards out there for automatic configuration through uPNP but vendors do not implement it reliably. in THEORY, you plug your device in and upnp tells your router to open up. The problem is that everyone's got their own way of securing things, and a lot of the automatic settings are disabled by default.
I am so happy I made this blog. Thanks a whole lot guys. I fixed my NAT on the 360 using these steps and I connect to SFIV matches left and right when before it took 30 tries.