OK, so my parents will not port forward for LIVE. I keep lagging out without it and my NAT is moderate. They told me that they need a site that explains totally how Port forwarding for LIVE is going to get me a better connection. They even asked their 2 computer guys and they said that it would make our network unsecured by allowing things to pass through.
If you know a site that could explain this, please post it.
dont really have a site off the top of my head for you, but if your plugging your 360 into a router that is plugged into the modem or what-not, just update the FW on the router as it should set the ports needed for LIVE automatically. i had to do this last year at college because i had the same situation as you did and this solved everything. i messed around with port forwarding programs, and forwarding them in the router settings to no avail, but the FW update solved it for me.
tell your parents they are dumb. M$ has an article about it on the web regarding port forwarding. at the very least hook right into the modem if you can. if they have a good software security setup, and dont going around downloading crap they dont know what it is you will be fine. besides you are the kid, you are supposed to know more than them. do what i did when i was a kid, if all else fails. lie. :) heres to hoping your folks lose their hard-ons. cheers!
I know I know more then them, they call me in to turn on the DVD player... But I can't really LIE to them, they NEED to show their tech guys, so they supposedly don't get attacked... And I am already connected directly to the router, and how do you update the firmware? Do you need the password for the router? Oh, and my parents are dumb, they wanted to pay someone $80 to port forward, even after I told them about portforward.com, and then they complain about not having money...
let your parents see this message. mom and dad, i know it is hard to come to grips with this. but your kid knows what he is talking about. dont waste your money on some computer guy when you could have your questions answered for you right here. the internet is a palace of knowledge and it is all free for the taking. so be smart, do your homework, get some advice from a few people (for free) and then make the decision that seems to best suit you. i cannot stress enough how many people throw away their money with a computer tech guy. most teenagers know more than the guys who own the local shops, and if they didnt know they know what the word search means. so how about you let your kid do the work and see what happens? i am sure i could get you some more highly rated opinions from smart ppl. my mom used to not let me touch her computer, so one day when i had my own place i used a program to write a code to tell her to listen to me. and sent it to her computer. she has never spet 80$ an hour on the computer guy in town again. the funny part was i dropped out of high school and never went to college. so like i said if you are willing to be open minded and willing to learn. its all free, so take it while its there. sorry this is off of the 360 topic guys. ps mom and dad, just port forward no one is going to "steal" your credit card because of it. so relax.
Millions of people all over use port forwarding. If it were that big of a risk then people would not do it. Now i will say that most modern routers do not even require port forwarding to work with Xbox Live. So that may not even be the problem at all.
Other things that can cause the problem your having are:
1. firewalls or anti-virus programs that may be monitoring or blocking traffic to/from the internet
2. A router that has security set up on it (especially wireless routers because they SHOULD have security set up on them). If you do not have the SSID name, type of security (WEP/WPA or other), and the security key input into the 360 it will cause you to have NAT problems and disconnections
3. the ISP itself has also been known to be the cause of NAT problems.
I will close in saying that your parents need to get better informed computer guys because they are not very good at what they do. Port forwarding is opening certain ports on your router so that other devices on your network can have direct access to the internet through those ports.
Port forwarding does in fact open ports, BUT they are only open when a device that uses those ports in active (your Xbox Live). So the only way to gain access to those ports would be for a hacker to have an exploit (find some weakness) with the application or program using those specific ports, in your case Xbox Live gaming. When your not gaming those ports will have no device "listening" on them, and therefor they will not be open.
Now if you open DMZ (demilitarized zone)then that is a risk, that will open all of your ports.
