Having connection problems with my router

[mijihon]

Hey guys, I've been having problems with my routers for some while now. I can get an internet connection no problem, but its when I come to gaming that I'm struggling.

 

Initially it started with my xbox 360, I found it impossible to find matches on a lot of online games (though not all of them) and found out it was due to my NAT setting being 'strict'. I spent a long time looking into this and port forwarding, etc but eventually gave up as nothing seemed to work and just resigned to the fact I wouldnt be able to play all 360 games online.

 

So its been something thats been annoying, yet bareable up until now. I've just forked out for a new gaming PC though, and decided to buy Team Fortress 2 along with it. I've installed the game, but upon running it and joining a match I am instanting greeted with a message saying "Warning: Connection problem, Auto disconnect in 30 seconds". Having read a little deaper into this it turns out it is a similar problem to the 360s.

 

The confussion for me is my set up. Unfortunatly we are with BT, and so are blessed with the joys of the homehub. Not only this, but for convenience sake (due to the amount of PCs in the household) we run a Linksys WRT54G gateway to allow them to all be connected to the internet from different points of the house. So as far as my PC connection goes it looks as follows:

 

BT Home Hub >>>>>>>>> Linksys WRT54G >>>>>>> My PC

 

Like I said, it seems I have tried everything and am at a complete loss as to what to do to get things working. Would be extremely greatful for any advice that more computer/network literate people may have :)

[snow]

Hi mijihon, welcome to FPCH

 

The problems you are having are due to double NAT. You have two devices that each perform NAT (network address translation) chained one after the other. This will work for general web browsing, but as you've seen, online games and other applications don't like this.

 

Firstly, use your web browser to log into the Linksys router by typing its IP address into the address bar. Once there, go to Basic Setup and disable the DHCP server by selecting the Disable option.

 

Now take the network cable out of the WAN port on the Linksys. Connect it to one of the four switch ports instead, alongside your other computers. This will make it act like a normal switch, and stop it from performing NAT.

[danzil]

do as said previously..

if your xbox stil doesnt want to play ball, then manually assign it and IP in your range...for example if your router is 192.168.1.1 then assign your xbox 192.168.1.10 (i use ten as to not interfere with any other devices in your dhcp table). then go into your router and allow all ports to be forwarded to 192.168.1.10 (being the xbox) that should allow your xbox to pass through and be fine......

may i ask why you are using the linksys for wireless and not your BT homehub....is it a range problem etc.

regards

danzil