Xbox Live! Loses Connection

[everton66]

I am on Blueyonder 10mb service. Apart from the desktop which is wired I have a lap top and Xbox connected wirelessly. I use a belkin Pre-N wireless router.

The laptop is fine. It never drops the wireless connection. However when my son switches on his Xbox and goes online with it to play against his mates after about an hour his Xbox loses connectivity - something to do with DNS. The only way to solve this is to reboot the router and the modem, after which normal service is resumed for a while. We can go through several reboots each night.

The problem doesnt seem to be the router or the modem, as I have no problems at all with the laptop. Only when the Xbox is on do I notice my own wireless signal strength has dropped but I still keep connectivity.

Question is why does the Xbox keep dropping it's connection? When he uses it not only is he playing a game over the connection but he is also using VOIP to talk to his mates he is playing against. Is it possible for him to be using so much bandwith that it just "runs out"? Having said that, wouldnt that also drop my lap top connection (which doesnt happen)? Or could it be the ISP is playing games with his connection? Or is it a setting on the Xbox (presumaby not given that it works until it crashes)?

Thanks,

[everton66]

It's also actually taking down the rest of the network now. Even the wired desktop loses connection until the reboot happens.

[Memfis]

i dont have this router or blueyonder but will atempt to answer your questions.

Is it possible for him to be using so much bandwith that it just "runs out"?

Playing a game and using voip will not fill all the bandwidth.

With reference to the rest :
Try using the lan Cable to see if the same occurs. This will help narrow the problem down. I realise this may not be ideal, but for an hour or so testing it may help us discover where the problem is.

At the moment, it could be isp, router, or xbox causing the problem.

Is the router hot when it stops responding?

from the wired pc can you ping the router once it's stopped responding?

[everton66]

HI. Difficult to connect the Xbox to the modem by wire as there is no TV near it. I will try to get a portable next to it.

Router is not hot and I can ping it from the wired PC.

I saw this yesterday which got me thining about running out of bandwith / overloading:-

http://jakeludington.com/xbox/200602...etworking.html

[Memfis]

I agree with the link url in the fact that wireless is not the most reliable connection and is prone to dropping the signal. However this shouldn't effect the rest of the network when/if the xbox drops the signal and looses connection.

[everton66]

I dont know what is going on. It has just crashed again. It has been fine until the Xbox was used over the wireless connection and the whole network has gone down. With the wired connection I could ping the router and the router showed the internet status as "connected" although no connection could be made. I had to reboot the modem and router to get the connection back again. Problem only happens when the Xbox is used.

[Oxyg3n]

Try not using blueyonders DNS service, I have had the same problems with it, if you go into the Advanced configuration settings on your router, there should be a point where you can put in your own DNS Servers.

This has worked for me, and should work for you too.

The DNS Servers I use are:

4.2.2.1
4.2.2.2
4.2.2.3
4.2.2.4

These are public DNS Servers, once done instead of rebooting your PCs go to:

Start > Run > cmd > ipconfig /flushdns > ipconfig /registerdns

this will restore your DNS list on your systems, and restore your internet connection

[everton66]

Thanks. Will this also give me any speed boost when downloading?

[everton66]

Do I need to do anything for the DNS setting in the TCP/IP properties for the network adaptor?

[Memfis]

dns servers are the phone book system for the internet. They change server names to ip addresses.

The server must be able to process requests quickly and to be as close to you network wise as possible to be able to respond as quickly as possible.

You will make several dns requests per web site you visit. The faster these requests are returned to you the quicker your pc know where to go to get the data. It wont speed up your download but will start it quicker with a decent dns server. Web browsing will have less pauses in it.

If using a usb modem, dns settings should be set to automatically obtain from ISP (DHCP).
If using a router, the router should be set to obtain automatically, and the pc's xbox etc should be set to DHCP or the ip address of your router.

Using these settings you will use your isp's dns servers which are closest dns server to you and should perform the best. Dns servers are fairly basic systems and should easily be maintained by your isp. If your ISP really cannot maintain a dns server I'd consider changing your isp or with a little effort running your own.

The 4.2.2.1-5 ip addresses are based in America, causing a delay of 100 milliseconds or more for us Brits per dns request made. If you really feel the need not to use your ISP's dns servers, rather than using servers that you may not have been authorised to use, have a look at the opendns.com website. They have UK servers, registration not required however it's highly recommended.

Also have a quick read of this which probably explains it all far better

[Oxyg3n]

Do I need to do anything for the DNS setting in the TCP/IP properties for the network adaptor?

Originally Posted by everton66

You will not need to change anything within Windows for this to work, if you have it running through a router, the router will tell your PC what to do, if you dont have one, then you should do it in your windows settings.

In regards to the speed of your downloads, there wont be any change, while browsing the internet you may notice about a second of a delay, but id rather wait an extra second then waiting for blueyonder DNS servers to fix themselves.

You could always see the opendns service as mentioned by the person above (good point btw) it will work in the exact same way as the DNS servers I use and will proboboly loose the second delay (not that blueyonders internet routing is anything to go by, everything seams to point to the US if its outside blueyonder)

[everton66]

OK - thanks.

[Austin_KW]

Why are you concentrating on dns, this sounds like a memory leak in the router for some memory pool (performance degrading & then failing), that the xbox is accentuating with packet size/QOS. Have you check for updated firmware from belkin.
Also, I agree that if you are not using your ISP dns servers then you should probably use opendns as they appear to use some clever routing to find the closest one from the distributed set.

[everton66]

Update - the connection problem has been linked back to a faulty modem. The modem has been replaced and everything is OK now in relation to the connection problems I had. There is still some lag in the Xbox when a game is being hosted, but from reading various sources not all routers are 100% compatible with the Xbox, even if you have port forwarding / DMZ set up.

One remaining question - now that my connection problem has been resolved should I still change the DNS settings?

[Memfis]

One remaining question - now that my connection problem has been resolved should I still change the DNS settings?

PC's / xbox should have ip & dns settings provided for them by the router by selecting DHCP.

Router WAN IP settings should be automatic from ISP.
Router WAN dns settings should be either set to DHCP from ISP or dns settings as per opendns.org website. depending on whether you've decided to use ISP's or opendns's servers.

[everton66]

Thats the question - should I change from Blueyonder to opendns?

[Memfis]

Well that's something you are going to have to decide.

You may need a basic understanding on how dns lookups work. I'll see if I can find you a quick guide because I'm not the best person to ask.

you ask a dns server for www.example.com
It either already knows the answer (cache) and returns it to you or
asks a root server for who manages .com's
asks .com's server for example.com
asks ns1.example.com's name server for www.example.com

Sometimes theres an extra step or two whilst asking dns servers where the lookup is refered to another server.

ISP : Closer with fairly large cache.
opendns : Further away but with bigger cache so less lookups are made.

opendns does also have some 'extras' that might help sway your decision but ultimately you are either going to try opendns and see how you get along or revert back to using your isp.

Some tools which might assist making a decision :

ping
tracert (trace route)
nslookup

www.dnsstuff.com

[everton66]

Thanks Memfis. I will post back how it goes.

[everton66]

I have just made the change and have to say that I am seeing web pages load faster than before

[Jacey5]

Update - the connection problem has been linked back to a faulty modem. The modem has been replaced and everything is OK now in relation to the connection problems I had. There is still some lag in the Xbox when a game is being hosted, but from reading various sources not all routers are 100% compatible with the Xbox, even if you have port forwarding / DMZ set up.

One remaining question - now that my connection problem has been resolved should I still change the DNS settings?

Originally Posted by everton66

I have the same problem with my xbox 360 please can you let me know how you identified the modem as the problem.

I have the same problem with my xbox 360 please can you let me know how you identified the modem as the problem.

Originally Posted by Jacey5

With a new modem the connection problem stopped. Since then I also bought a new router and I have no lag issues at all.

[everton66]

I have the same problem with my xbox 360 please can you let me know how you identified the modem as the problem.

Originally Posted by Jacey5

The disconnectin problem stopped when I had blueyonder install a new modem. With regards to issues of game lag, this disappeared when I changed the router.