I can’t join a friend’s game or do a voice chat on Xbox Live
XboxLive, HowTo, Gaming, General, Internet April 26th, 2007
Update - Sunday July 20th 2008
On June 20th, exactly a month back, i wrote an e-mail to Microsoft Live Support team asking for help on this issue.
So many of you have gone through this and seeing my incoming stats to this entry is just very worrying.
After explaining the problem with as many details as possible, giving them the link to this entry and pointing out to your comments, i kind of expected them to send me a nice answer that would help us fix this issue.
Instead, i got this:
Dear Customer,
Thank you for your email. In order to respond effectively to your email we need to investigate further. Therefore please contact the Xbox Customer Support team .
Kind Regards,
<Lily
Xbox Support
www.xbox.com/support/contact/
Ummm…pardon me,miss Lily, but didn’t i just contacted the support team? Aren’t you supposed to assign this to someone in your team and have an answer sent to me about the issue’s status?
See, i do service desk and i wouldn’t dare sending this confusing e-mail to my customers.
Are you looking into my issue or why are you asking me to contact the Support team when i just did it?
Thanks anyway dear. I will contact you again if that’s how things work.
Recap: My e-mail to Microsoft Xbox support was unsuccessful even though i gave them the best possible reason to look into this: It’s paying customers.
Maybe if i try again it’ll work.
If any of you have contacted the Support for this matter, please let us know what their answer was? Is there any fix for the connection besides the fix i posted below last year?
Many people on the Xbox Live are having problems connecting to a friend’s game, such as GRAW 2 or Rainbow Six - Vegas, and they even can’t connect to each other via the voice chat.
So, how can that be fixed?
There is a solution and here’s how I fixed my problem:
1) If you are on a wireless router, and using a wireless card to connect to Xbox Live, then you might want to consider putting your 360 on wire, because connections on wires are more stable.
If your router is not compatible with the Xbox 360, then you might consider upgrading.
A list of compatible routers can be found on Xbox.com.
I have a US Robotics Access Point Router and I hooked up to it a D-Link switch with 5 extra ports, then connected my 360 to it. Since then, is all stable.
If your NAT (Network Address Translation) is set on Strict or Moderate, you need to open it.
To do that, go to your router’s control panel and look up your details.
You’ll probably need to open some ports for your 360, so you need to go to PortForward.com and look up your router, then look up the Xbox 360 ports that you need to open and how to do it.
It’s all there.
Quick note: In order to make this work, the ports you’re forwarding, must reach the Xbox’s IP address, and that is why you’ll have to put it on static IP….or it won’t work.
2) If your Xbox isn’t on a static IP address, then it’s time for you to change that.
First, go to your Dashboard and then System. Open the Network Settings,then Edit Settings.
Now, write down the IP that is already assigned, along with your Primary DNS Server, Subnet Mask and the Default Gateway details.
If you wish, you can add as a Secondary DNS Server, one of the following :
208.67.220.220
208.67.222.222
These DNS servers are from http://www.opendns.com and they are a bit faster.
Now, Click on Edit Settings again and set everything on Manual, then insert the details you just wrote down.
When everything is done, test your Live connection and see if is all working fine.
Since i changed to Static IP and hooked up the D-Link switch, i have no problems anymore.
Hope that helps some of you.
Technorati tags: xbox 360, xbox live, Xbox 360 tweaks
About
Yeah, the NAT settings…. I have to change them all the time, as our router keeps rechanging it. Very annoying.
Good explanation though.
Why is it changing? This is so weird. Don’t you save the settings?
I do, but my ISP keeps changing something to our internet connection which means I need to reconfigure my router. Very annnoying.
I have my 360 wired up it just messes up any suggestions cant talk or play with mates
I have my 360 wired up it just messes up any suggestions cant talk or play with mates
Did you do anything from what i have posted, Josh?
I am not the brightest on the computer u have given a good explanation but i just do not get it i do not have wireless so i dont have 2 worry about that can u explain it step by step 2 me like what i click and stuff because i dont no wa NAT is and stuff
Ok Josh. The fact that you have no wireless, is not a problem.
When did the problem started? Were you able to play and talk with no problem before?
yes it was fine before, 1st of all it happened on fifa 07 and it was okay on rainbow but now i just cant chat or play my m8 on either
Did you disconnected all wires from your xbox , your internet cable and put everything offline for fews hours?
Hi i tried everything excpet the NAT setting, with no luck. I’m using a Dlink 614+ and cannot find the NAT setting on it.
Hi Vic,
Go to your Dlink panel and look for the Tools tab, then look on the menu on the left and choose Misc. There you can enable the Xbox 360 Support (second last setting).
Now go to PortForward.com and enable the ports listed. This is a direct link to your router model.
Let me know if that works for you.
Hi I just started having this problem i was wondering wat u were going to say to josh as my xbox was left unwired 4 a while not long ago
I have to disconnect my xbox wire from the internet a lot so i can plug my internet in, i got it all on one modem , is that a bad thing ?
James, putting your Xbox off and taking off all the wires, including the power cables from your router and everything else, resets your connection.
When i say all wires, i really mean all. From the power to the cables connecting into the back of your 360.
Josh, that’s not a bad thing. Many gamers are doing that.
You should get a little switch though and connect both your computer and 360 at the same time….if you want.
I have the Topcom TSH-205.
Thanx ill do that but how do i solve the problem i need an in depth explanation because im awful on computers
Josh, tell me for what exactly you need the explanation and i will try my best to help you.
how i can get to be able to private chat and join my friends game, is disconnecting everything a bad thing to do
This is a temporary thing to do, Josh. Is not bad. I’ve done it many times and is good to do so once in a while.
You disconnect everything before you go to sleep, for example, and reconnect all the wires and power up when you wake up.
Of course is not possible playing without the wires or getting on.
Try joining your friend’s games or chats after doing that and let me know if it works.
If not, we’ll be looking for another solution.
Please check your bandwidth as well. If you have limited bandwidth in a month from your ISP that can give you troubles too.
hey yeah this problem started for me 3 days ago and happend to em bout a year ago. last time i got my NAT to open and it worked now my NAT is open and i got the problem again. i’ll try that restarting and unplugging method for a few hours but the 1-800-4MY XBOX number didnt help me at all.
Hi Andrew, please let us know if the unplug method helped you in any way.
The problem can occur even with the NAT open in my case as well, and reseting the connection and taking off the wires actually fixed that.
I actually have the same problem and am shocked to see so many others are suffering as well. My friend an I will unplug everything before bed like you suggested.
You would be surprised how many more are facing the same problem, Joey.
I have a couple of friends on Live, that despite everything they’ve tried, they still can’t communicate or play, especially with the people that they were playing with most of the time.
Good luck to you and maybe when you’ll wake up it’ll work.
so me and my friend haven’t been able to connect for the past 2weeks. Is it one of us or both of us because we can still play with our other friends but not each other. (we mostly have the same friends) i fixed my NAT to open and forwarded my ports and i still cant play with him. im guesing its him. =\
Hi Matt,
You should ask your friend to check his connection as well.
Do you hear each other when you’re playing?
hey, i went to my friends house today and his connection is open.
and we can’t even play with each other. it wont let us join the game if the other is in it.
nvm…my xbox broke down
Sorry about your xbox breaking down.
I was about to advice you changing the IP address of your 360, if you use a wireless router for example.
What’s wrong with your machine?
I have been going through this problem for a while and have gone through numerous router settings (and routers). Even bypassing the router with direct wire to the 360 eventually failed. The only thing that has worked so far is to upgrade my modem. I had an old one that was apparently losing packets according to the guy at Cox Communications. I was having trouble private chatting with a couple of people on my friends list. They couldn’t join games that I hosted and I couldn’t join games that they hosted. I think the reason that it mostly happened with those specific people was that they were on a T1 connection and my modem couldn’t keep up. Since I bought the new modem, I have had no problems. So if you have an old modem, you may want to consider getting a new one and maybe upgrading the speed of your connection if that doesn’t work.
Mark, thank you very much for sharing this with us here.
The modem can indeed be the one who’s causing all these troubles.
I have a friend who’s modem and everything else is new, plus a very fast connection and yet, he still has problems.
i read the thing but i dont know how to change my NAT settings…Cat how do you do it?
Hi Andrew,
The NAT settings are referring to the port forwarding: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/908874
Basically, you go to Portforward.com and look up your router.
When you find it, then look for the ports that you should forward for your router.
Then log on into your router’s panel and open the ports there.
If you still need help, let me know the exact name of your router and i will help you more.
I happened on this site through a google search,and it seems to me that this is as good a place as any to put my question . I am having the same general problem as described above with a few caveats. 1. I am in the US, trying to connect to friends who live in the EU. 2. This problem only occurs randomly, some days it works fine, other times, not at all. 3. This occurs with myself and multiple friends in the EU, so I have no reason to believe there is a configuration issue. I’ve called support, and they weren’t any real help.
Should I just give up and live with it? Is it even worth trying to troubleshoot my setup as well as my friends?I would tend to go with this answer, but maybe someone out there has some genius idea…
Now I will go re-read the article to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
Hi Jeremy,
Look a bit up at Mark’s comment and maybe that will explain a bit about your problem.
Read the others too.
Maybe one will help.
You should also consider asking your friends to check out their routers and setting.
The problem may be on their side.
Did you pay attention to the days when you have this problem?
Is it on the beginning of the month, the end?
Some people have a limited bandwidth in a month, and if their upload bandwidth is low, then problems can occur.
Thanks. I’ll try this stuff and also run it by my friends. I do think this has something to do with packet loss. I’m sure one of my friends will get his bandwidth throttled after som much downloading, but I also think he could figure this out by himself and remedy it. I will try the unplug everything approach and see what happens, too. Thanks again for the ideas.
Jeremy,
If your 360 isn’t on static IP, then change that too.
BTW, i think we used to be on each other’s friends list on Live, but i might be wrong.
IF my memory serves me well, i had a RonJeremy on my list.
My gamertag is SweetCarol.
Does this ring any bell?
Sorry if I took you off the friends list, it was getting too long, and there were a lot of people on it I didn’t even know. I’ll add your tag. I figured out the problem. If by some chance I’m wrong on this I’ll definitely check out the other stuff here cuz this is all good advice. The instance of this problem that caused me to post was because a friend in the UK (I’m paraphrasing here) “loaned his modem out and started using another one.” I didn’t know he changed his setup from before, and he didn’t tell me until I started asking. His current setup had the NAT set to moderate. (He didn’t know about that stuff so I tried to tell him as best you can sending messages on the 360) Since thats the most common cause of the problem, I’m assuming the problem is on his side of the pond and will disappear once he gets his stuff setup to Open NAT. I also took the time to double check I could invite friends in the US to games and that works just fine. Thanks again for the advice and I’ll bookmark this page for further trouble shooting.
Hi Jeremy,
Is possible that i might be also the one who took you off the list, because i had to do few good cleanups and removed lots of people with whom i wasn’t playing that much anymore.
Either way, if you have people with whom you’re playing a lot, is no need to add me. Keep on playing with them.
Now, if you say that your friend “loaned” his modem and he’s got this one’s settings on Moderate, then there’s your answer.
He’s the one who has to open up the ports, so please send him to portforward.com and see the settings there.
Good luck and do let us know if he fixes it.
my NAT says open but i cant talk with a friend who has moderate NAT. Is it my NAT or his and even though mine says open should I do this?
Is your friend’s NAT that has to be opened, Barlow.
You don’t need to do anything, until he opens his. If the problem is not solved, you can try a router reset.
hi i was just wondering if you can help me with my problem, my nat says open but when i try to join a game it says the game is no longer available then about 5 seconds later i get disconnected,ive got a cg814wg v2 gateway and my internet provider is comcast so i was curoius if it was just comcast or the gateway so can you help me please.
@Josh - I had the same problem and fixed it with the steps i wrote above in the entry.
In many cases, is the host who is having this issue and you can’t connect to him.
Have you tried fixing it the way i did?
i havent tried the steps yet becuase im not that good with computers and i dont want to mess around with the computer but does it really do anything to the computer?
You don’t have to do anything to your computer, Josh.
Is all on the 360 dashboard, on the Network Settings, and if you don’t know how to do it, ask a friend to do that for you, otherwise i will make a step by step tutorial for you, with pictures as well.
Just let me know.
Now…are you using a wireless router?
im using a wirless gateway
Same issue here, however me and the friend in question have tried every router setting, and then skipped routers altogether and gone for direct modem connection, still no go. Works fine if I go to his place and set up on his router etc (even had a 8 man game hosted on GRAW2 and we were both supposed to be on strict NATs!?).
I suppose it’s possible one of us has a modem thats on its way to the graveyard, but I’m stumped otherwise.
Oh and both Xbox Live Customer Service and my ISP Customer Service were brough a new meanin to the word ‘useless’.
ok i did the port fowarding, got a static ip,and i was wondering if my computer has an ip address so should i just use that one.
but the only problem is when theres 9 people playing and when im talking i still get that annoying message that says the game session is no longer available then disconnects from live.
@ Josh - Your computer has an IP of course, and it shouldn’t interfere with the IP you use for your 360. Therefore, pay attention to that or you’ll have an IP conflict.
If you get disconnected because there are too many players on a game, then your connection can’t handle it.
As for dropping of because of the voice, i don’t know how we can fix that.
Before the game starts, ask everyone to mute their mics and see what happens.
My boyfriend had a similar problem with his friends, and i had no problem anymore, while playing on the same 360.
After replacing my router, there was no problem anymore.
@Jason - Falling of a game is a known issue with GRAW2 and Rainbow Six Vegas.
The ideal number of players is 6 on both of them.
I could ask around and see if some of my friends fixed their problems and how, but i am sure that the Customer Service can’t help us much on this one.
if theres a lab top on the router to can that mess up my connection?
Hi, My NAT says open but when I try to find games on Gears of War and Halo 3 it takes along time to find them, also I just changed my NAT to open by setting the IP address to Automatic in the Network Settings. I know it isn’t my internet connenection because I always test that. Does my problem have anything to do with NAT settings because i have read somewhere that his xbox misread his NAT settings??
i used to have the same problem as you guys… but ever since i started using a hub it has all went away… it has to do with having a direct connection to your router, because some routers aren’t compatible with other routers. maybe this only worked for me but thought i would try and help
I turned my router off and on today because the internet has been slow and now I cannot connect to my friend in games or chat. This has never happened before when I have done this and I’ve done it a fair few times. Tips?
In October we had this problem, too–could connect to Xbox Live & chat but couldn’t join in or host any games. Had been working fine for months prior to that. The Xbox 360 console said the NAT was open, we’re using a wireless router & we hadn’t changed any of our settings. It took a couple of phone calls and an e-mail, but it turns out that it was something with our ISP’s settings. ISP tech support made some change to our internet service & now everything works again. We don’t know if there was port blocking going on (our ISP says there was not) or what caused the problem with our service, but some ISP’s do engage in port blocking, & if ports 88 or 3074 are blocked by an ISP, Xbox Live Gold services would be blocked.
Me and my friend can’t connect to each other and we both have open NAT’s he lives close to me and it’s the only person it happends with, can you help please?
Branden, you might want to have a look through the comments.
Some of them are really useful.
See if you find something, if not, let me know.
Bryant, that’s the trick that did it for me. I bet if others will try it, they’ll have their issue fixed.
Joe, try a total reset of your router and try again. You might want to test the speed of your network as well to make sure you are not losing packs.
Michael, at this very moment, there are only couple of things i know that might fix this issue.
1- put your 360 on static IP ot port forwarding.
2- Change your router or get an extra hub and hook up your 360’s cable to it. That should do it.
Please help.. me and my m8 live close to each other in the uk both have open nats and the same internet provider bt we can individually connect and play games and talk to our other mates but we cant connect play or talk to each other any ideas regards im using a bt home hub
Is this tread still active? I am having similar issues. To make things easy, we have Matt, Tom, Jim, and Ben (me). Tom and Matt cannot connect but any 3 combination otherwise is just fine! To make it more odd, Jim and Tom are on the same router with 2 xboxes(roomates). I am going to immediately forward this linke to everyone to make sure settings are correct! Thanks.
Hi Ben,
This thread is still active and it will stay active.
I have a question for you….Did they have this problem before or it just occurred recently?
Good luck to you!
Well just occured because one member is new. So Jim and Tom have their NAT to strict (same router). Mine is open. We can all sucessfully play free mode in GTA, but if we join the general lobby Tom gets booted. He hears the audio of the lobby, then gets a disconnect. Never gets signed out of xbox live though. Probably because other routers are involved. We are changing router options to try to get it to be open. Any other thoughts while we go through this? Its just odd!
Ben, the reason Tom gets booted off is because his NAT is set on strict.
For gaming purposes, this has to be set up to open or else lots of packs will be lost on the network causing his falls.
There is one method, but i don’t recommend it for security purposes, as it will make his computer an easy target to web “nasties”.
What kind of router is he having?
Jim and Tom are using a Netgear FVS318v3. Apparently turning the uPnP on changed the NAT to open, but we have not tried it officially to see if that worked. What would you recommend?
Turning the UpNp on should turn the NAT on.
If you’ve got access to the control panel, then he should do that and then try joining a game.
Great, I will give it a try and comment back. But will leaving the uPnP ON give security problems? You mentioned opening his computer up to nasties!
The nasties i was referring to will happen only if you play around with the DMZ.
The UpNp must be open for gaming and it’s not being considered a risk.
This is a hint from my router’s hints section:
This means that in order to be able to reach other’s networks, this has to be enabled.
You can find this option somewhere under advanced networking.
my friend has just brought a new modem box top of the range his nat type is set to open, and likewise mine is as well set to open. but however unfortunately we cannot connect to each others hosted games of invite each other can anyone help me?
Hi Noodles,
Can you and your friend reset your IP addresses and try again?
Try that in your router’s configuration panel.
What’s his modem’s brand name?
I can’t join my friend, but I could until about 2 weeks ago, my NAT is open and I have the ports for LIVE forwarded, Any help?
Chase, if your settings are like you say, then maybe something happened to the settings on your friend’s side.
Ask him about this.
Are you having this issue with one person only, or with more?
No, it is only him. I will ask him, and I will tell him to forward his ports, Thanks
Me and my friend on xbox live can’t connect either. We can’t go into private chat or join a game unless someone else is hosting it.
Billy, have you tried any of the above solutions?
me and a few of my friends cant chat adn join each others games since i got a wireless router the guy at the game store said thats not a problem i mean whats the deal
Please bare with me since as I attempt to explain this. We recently switched our internet service provider and it comes wireless bridging or something similar in that area. Right when we switched, my younger brother started coming across a problem connecting with his friend. Looking into the problem, we came across that his NAT was reading, strict. After a day of touble, we opened the ports, our router is compatible, we set the static IP/DNS/Subnet, so we finally read open. However, he still cannot play with his friend. Their Xbox reads Moderate so my younger brother cannot play with his friend as long as his friend is hosting. He cannot hear or be heard while using voice communication and we already know that if anything, it is most likely them. But their parents do not want to deal with fixing his friend’s Xbox.Is there a way to make ourselves compatible with his friend so that they are able to play properly together? Would we have to make ourself moderate?
microsoft.com@ Zack - I don’t know what the deal is exactly, but is worth having a look if your NAT is open on the router’s config. settings.
If it is set to Strict, open it.
@Trey - You might want to take a look at the speed of your connection provided by your new ISP.
You’re either losing packets of data through the network
or your friend is encountering this problem.
Is your friend having this issue only with your brother or is this happening with his other friends?
This might be silly, the voice thing, but can your brother see if by mistake has blocked the voice chat with that friend?
I once put one of my friend’s voice off by mistake and for a week i had no idea why i couldn’t hear him.
For both of you, it is worth checking the wireless frequency as well.
Most routers have channels 1 to 11, maybe more.
Make sure your chosen channel is not interfering with one of your neighbors.
Here’s a nice walkthru: Wireless tips.
The default chosen channel is 11. Try any of the other and see how your connection behaves.
Just try not being on the same channel as someone living next to you.
This are simple things to check, so if yo have time, do this.
Hey, I was wondering if you can help me figure out why every time I play COD 4( and most of my games, but I only say that cuz that’s basically the only game I play now) my internet connection is always the slowest one and many times I get the “Connection Interrupted” message in the middle of a game and the whole game(session) ends, but sometimes its just me that gets kicked out and my friends are still in playing. Also, I don’t remember the last game that I didn’t have a “Lag” (but once every blue moon I’m the only one with perfect connection and the whole room (at least 5-8 more people) has a horrible “Lag”. Also, sometimes it takes a long time to join party’s to start a game, but usually it gets through after a while.
-I have a basically new Netgear router and I’m connected with a wire so I know it’s not the wireless problem.
-My NAT is set to open so i know thats not the problem.
-My internet connection on my computer I’d say is better than average, so I know that’s not the problem.
The only thing I can think of that could be an issue is the fact that I live in Argentina now, (had to move wit my dad cuz of his job) but I’m still not convinced cuz I’ve played with people in Europe and their connection is still good.
But the thing is, I never played COD 4 in Miami(where I used to live) so I dont know how it played there but I did play COD 3 and many times I couldn’t enter games cuz I “Could not connect to host” but i don’t remember too much “Lagging” in that game. So once again, I don’t know if it’s just the fact that I live in Argentina or what.????
thanks
whenever i send a invite to join a game or a private chat invite to my friend it says cannot connect to host and for the private chat it says joining chat for him and mines says invite sent wenever he clicks accept chat and we still arent able to talk and vice versa, i have wireless internet and he has connected our NAT is open and i dont know what to do please help
Hi, I have been having this trouble and I have been able too point it down to being mine (or perhaps his) NAT but i search through my computer and yet can still not find the place to change it. Could you please help me (I am usually good on computers but now…).
Btw: I have a wireless router and i know it is adaptable to XBL
Ty,
[…] I can’t join a friend’s game or do a voice chat on Xbox Live entry has just been updated. Blogged with the Flock Browser […]