Live setup nightmare!!!!

[mrapbp]

I am having real hassles setting up my Xbox!! I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew, not being the most technical person in the worl an all!!

I have the following:

BT - 5861 Router
Xbox
2 x Netgear ME102 Wireless Access points

I spent 2 hours talking to Netgear to get my WAP's configured and think they are working now?? (I think they are but am not 100% sure how to test).

I have one WAP plugged into one of the ports in my router and one WAP plugged into my Xbox. I cannot get Xbox live to connect but have been told I need to open the ports on my router and I dont know how to do this??

The router was provided by work and has no configuration software so I have no idea how to open ports or anything else!!

Netgear have refused to help further and Xbox Live say they cant help either so not really sure what to do now??

Can anyone give me some advice please as I am starting to go mad and its all gonna get its ass wupped if its not careful!


Thanks!

 

[Mr_Belowski]

Blimey... even a networking guru would tremble...

First, do you have a PC? If not, you're knackered. If so you might be OK, but you'll need the patience of a saint cos there's a sh!t load of stuff that needs to be configured correctly. If you're new to networking this is a baptism of fire - there's a hell of a lot to learn.

WAPs are designed to give wireless access to a wired network. You're trying to get wired access to a wireless network - devices designed to do this are called Bridges, but I'll assume your second access point is in 'bridge' mode - some access points can operate like this, but I don't know how reliable it is. Hopefully your tech support from Netgear has taken care of this.

www.dslreports.com is a good resource. www.dslreports.com/faq/eff gives some good info on your router (look in the 5861 section), including how to access the configuration pages. There might be some good stuff in the forums too. This should help you open the ports.

I've got cable, not DSL, so I can't give much specific advice here. There are a few general points tho:

First, test each bit on its own. Can you connect to Live with the Xbox plugged directly into the router? Can your PC ping the router when it's plugged into the access point that's acting as a bridge?

If you can't connect the Xbox to Live when it's plugged into the router, you need to play with the Xbox's network settings. Give it a static IP in the same range as the router's LAN IP (usually 192.168.xxx.yyy - the xbox should match the router except for the yyy bit, which should be less than 254). If that doesn't work, manually set the Xbox's DNS server IP addresses to be the same as your ISP's DNS servers (they might have provided this info, or it will be on your router's setup pages, if you're connecting your PC to the Internet via the router).

It's a good idea to set the Xbox to a static IP anyway, cos you might need to map ports to it (this is usually called "opening ports"). On my router, I specify which port numbers to open, whether it's TCP or UDP, and which IP address to send data to when it arrives at the router on those ports. The correct numbers for Xbox Live are available on xbox.com in the communications faqs. The IP address to send data to is your Xbox's IP address, which is why a static IP address is a good idea.

When you try to connect you Xbox, how far does it get on the network setup Connect screen?

 

[mrapbp]

Thanks for the help with this!!

I bought a cable to plug the xbox straight into the router and it worked straight away so I guess it must be the wireless stuff!!

Will have to spend another 2 hrs on the phone to Netear tech support I guess!!

 

[Mr_Belowski]

Have you tried plugging a computer into the WAP that's acting as a bridge?