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shatten22 · Dec 26, 2002, 05:51 AM

Here's the deal:

If you've got an Airport Base Station and an Xbox, you are out of luck with Xbox Live. Everyone who has tried (myself included) is finding it impossible to hold a stable connection with an Xbox physically wired to an ABS. Wirelessly is another story; that seems to work fine. One solution is to turn off DHCP and NAT (NAT seems to be the problem) and assign an IP Address yourself.

I love my Xbox. But I also love my Airport Network. I have five computers hooked up to it, one Cable Modem and little inclination to pay for more IP addresses. I want to Share, share, share. Someone else said that if I bought a router, that would share the IP addresses and Airport would act as a bridge.

I don't have much cash though. So here is the BIG QUESTION.

Is there a way that I can make an ethernet to ethernet connection from my Powerbook to my XBOX? Could my Powerbook receive its' own wireless connection (from the ABS) and pass it along to the XBOX? If so, how could I set this up; what would I have to do?

Thanks for any information you guys can give me. While I love my XBOX, I really, really hate Microsoft. This whole Apple ABS incompatibility thing hits a little too close to home to just be chance.

-g

pat++ · Dec 26, 2002, 07:32 AM

Not sure if I missed something or not... but if you want to share the airport connection of the Powerbook with the Xbox through ethernet, all you have to do is enable Internet Connection sharing in the Sharing prefs. The Xbox must be configured in DHCP...

superlarry · Dec 26, 2002, 08:51 AM

i'm with pat++
here's a rough pictogram of the setup:

xbox --> powerbook ))) airport base station

where --> is direct ethernet and ))) is wireless connection.
also i think you'll have to have "airport" above "built-in ethernet" in your "Network" system preference (internet connection sharing takes the first connection and shares it with the subsequent ones).

CyberGreg · 03:40 PM

Originally posted by shatten22:
Here's the deal:

If you've got an Airport Base Station and an Xbox, you are out of luck with Xbox Live. Everyone who has tried (myself included) is finding it impossible to hold a stable connection with an Xbox physically wired to an ABS. Wirelessly is another story; that seems to work fine. One solution is to turn off DHCP and NAT (NAT seems to be the problem) and assign an IP Address yourself.

I love my Xbox. But I also love my Airport Network. I have five computers hooked up to it, one Cable Modem and little inclination to pay for more IP addresses. I want to Share, share, share. Someone else said that if I bought a router, that would share the IP addresses and Airport would act as a bridge.

I don't have much cash though. So here is the BIG QUESTION.

Is there a way that I can make an ethernet to ethernet connection from my Powerbook to my XBOX? Could my Powerbook receive its' own wireless connection (from the ABS) and pass it along to the XBOX? If so, how could I set this up; what would I have to do?

Thanks for any information you guys can give me. While I love my XBOX, I really, really hate Microsoft. This whole Apple ABS incompatibility thing hits a little too close to home to just be chance.

-g

Please post your current network setup, You need to fill a missing piece...

ABS
|
==RJ45 ---> <what is here?>
==Wireless ---> 5 computers

Somehow you've got to make a connection to your cable modem, so I'm guessing that's what is connected to the RJ45 port, but then how would you plug in the XBox and get an internet connection? I'm obviously confused..

Anyhow... you can enable the Ethernet "bridge" function on your ABS, but as far as I can tell you've got nothing to bridge to.

I think it's just a matter of getting the correct configuration on the XBox (reading through the XBox site it looks quite configurable).

PS the ABS was made to go from wireless to either RJ45 or RJ11 (phone) so connecting up the XBox to it's out-going port does offer some confusion.

shatten22 · Dec 26, 2002, 03:44 PM

Thanks guys, I'm gonna try that. CyberGreg, I have a cable modem connected to an ABS and the ABS shares one IP Connection over five computers. I ran and Ethernet cable from the port on the ABS to the XBOX. It won't reliably hold a connection.

Since my Powerbook is my room, next to the Xbox, it would be no big deal to run a line between them. Thanks for the help, I am going to go try it now.

g

shatten22 · Dec 26, 2002, 04:04 PM

So-

I can't seem to find Internet Connection Sharing under the Sharing Tab in OSX.1.5. I see Web Sharing and File Sharing, neither of which seems to work. If anybody can point me in the right direction (i'm sure it's right in front of my face) I would be most grateful.

thanks.

g

superlarry · Dec 26, 2002, 05:49 PM

web sharing and file sharing are on the first of three tabs on that preference pane - internet connection sharing is in the third tab. look slightly above the list that contains "web sharing" and "file sharing" for the three tabs.

shatten22 · Dec 26, 2002, 06:09 PM

Maybe it's only in Jaguar, because it's definitely not in 10.1.5.

thanks,

g

CyberGreg · 08:03 PM

Originally posted by shatten22:
Thanks guys, I'm gonna try that. CyberGreg, I have a cable modem connected to an ABS and the ABS shares one IP Connection over five computers. I ran and Ethernet cable from the port on the ABS to the XBOX. It won't reliably hold a connection.

Since my Powerbook is my room, next to the Xbox, it would be no big deal to run a line between them. Thanks for the help, I am going to go try it now.

g

Yeah... I got that, but how is the cable modem physically connected to your ABS? 'cause either you have a wireless cable modem or there's more connections than I'm seeing. Oh crap... wait, I've got a gen one ABS (w/one RJ45), do the new ones have more than one RJ45 port? If that's it, I'm sorry... DOH!

Does your cable account need to do PPPoE, if so did you know that you can configure the XBox to hook right up to the cable modem (you probably knew, that... never mind).

Good luck

PS What other gaming have you done with your cable internet connection?

superlarry · Dec 26, 2002, 10:31 PM

Originally posted by CyberGreg:
Yeah... I got that, but how is the cable modem physically connected to your ABS? 'cause either you have a wireless cable modem or there's more connections than I'm seeing. Oh crap... wait, I've got a gen one ABS (w/one RJ45), do the new ones have more than one RJ45 port? If that's it, I'm sorry... DOH!

yeah, the new ones have both a LAN port and a WAN port ;c)

as to the internet connection sharing, i'll try to post a screenshot from my mac soon

superlarry · Dec 26, 2002, 10:57 PM

arright, it slipped my mind that this was added in jaguar. but we can do this the UNIX way ;c)
you'll need to use Terminal.app in /Applications/Utilities.

first, as an administrator (which you are if you're the original "owner" account), do
"sudo pico /etc/hostconfig"
it'll ask for your password, which you should give it.
go down to the IPFORWARDING line and set it to IPFORWARDING=-YES-
press control-o to "WriteOut" (save) the file (and enter to confirm the filename), then control-x to exit.

then, reboot.

now, in System Preferences, give yourself a nice manual IP address on Built-In Ethernet of something like 192.168.2.1 or 10.1.1.1 (whichever one doesn't look like your Airport IP just to things won't conflict).

then, in Terminal.app again, do:
"sudo ifconfig -a"
this will list your network interfaces. they should match up with your settings in the Network system preference. find your IP address that you're using for Airport, it should be under a listing like "en1" and your built-in ethernet address should be under something like "en0" (I'm not sure what the Airport listing is; maybe someone can check and post).

"sudo pico ~/share"
it'll ask for your password again.
in the file "share" we've just created, enter this code, between, but not incluing, my brackets. i'm assuming the airport interface listing was "en1", but change it as necessary:

{

#!/bin/sh
/usr/sbin/natd -dynamic -interface en1
/sbin/ipfw -f flush
/sbin/ipfw add divert natd all from any to any via en1
/sbin/ipfw add pass all from any to any

}

then control-o (then enter) and control-x.
then,
"sudo chmod +x share"
(enter password again).

alright. this is the pre-jaguar way to share internet through ip firewall and Natural Address Translation.

To enable the sharing, type "sudo ./share" and it'll ask for your password. this will start the internet sharing. it turns off every time you reboot so you'll have to do it after every startup if you plan to use it very often.

you're going to need a nameserver address for when you set up the xbox, so do (in Terminal.app) "nslookup www.google.com" or any website in google's place; it doesn't matter. the first line or two should contain a number address which you'll use to be your nameserver or DNS on the xbox. so write that down or memorize it.

now for the xbox.
you'll have to manually configure the IP address and stuff.
give it an address like 192.168.2.2 or 10.1.1.2, whichever DOES look like the address you used for Built-In Ethernet on the mac. Make your mac's Built-In Ethernet connection IP address as your router, and that nameserver (DNS) as your nameserver/DNS.

if you ever want to turn off the sharing (to reset it if for some reason it fails, i guess), you'll need to do, in Termina.app:
"ps ax"
(lists all running processes - find the one that says "natd" at the end and find its number, n, in the first column)
"sudo kill n" (where n is that number).
and "sudo ipfw -f flush".
this kills the Natural Address Translation Daemon and resets the ip firewall rules (turns off internet connectoin sharing).

arright, i hope that gets you on your feet ;c)

shatten22 · Dec 27, 2002, 04:34 AM

superlarry, you are awesome. I am going to try this in the morning. I hope the Xbox plays with it. I'll let you know what happens.

geoff

shatten22 · Dec 28, 2002, 01:12 AM

SuperLarry, it worked just as you said. Unfortunately the Xbox keeps getting its' connection dropped. Same thing it does when plugged into the Base Station. I'm gonna have to see what else I can do...

thanks again (it was nice to get a little UNIX in)

geoff

superlarry · Dec 28, 2002, 09:05 AM

hmm okay.. good luck!

ghporter · Jan 1, 2003, 01:38 PM

Doesn't XBox Live have some settings to mess with too? That is, aren't there some configuration settings that you can alter to take into account the internet connection you're using?

I can visualize the kinds of thing you'd need to look at, but I don't know how the XBox messes with its settings.

shatten22 · Jan 1, 2003, 02:01 PM

The xbox is basically a pc when it comes to its' settings. The problem is, the Xbox doesn't like NAT, whether it's a Mac doling it out or a Base Station. It can't hold the connection. I don't know if there is a work around for this. Superlarry showed me how to share an IP address through my powerbook and it wasn't any different from hooking it up to the ethernet port of my ABS.

I don't know what to do other than what I tried. Microsoft sucks.

-g

ghporter · Jan 1, 2003, 03:59 PM

I guess the fix is to use some sort of gateway router that allows you to put your XBox in a "DMZ," that is to expose that specific LAN address to the outside world and not do NAT at all for that address. I don't think an ABS will do this, but some brands and models of routers, such as Linksys' BEFSR41, allow this.

What you'd do is connect your cable modem to the WAN port of the gateway router, then connect your ABS to one of the LAN ports. You'd then configure your ABS to act as a wireless access point (on the Network tab of the Admin Utility you unselect "Share a single IP address"). Now, the router handles all the DHCP address assignments, but the ABS bridges the wired and wireless parts of the network. Your PowerBook still connects as usual, but its address comes from the router through the ABS instead of from the ABS. You'd manually set the IP of whatever you wanted to be in a DMZ.

How to make the XBox wireless is another matter-an expensive one, as wireless bridges such as Linksys' WET11 cost about $100 alone. These act as sort of AirPort cards for anything with an ethernet port. Other companies make similar products, but they're usually about the same price.

shatten22 · Jan 1, 2003, 04:12 PM

How much are gateway routers usually?

thx
-g

ghporter · Jan 1, 2003, 06:47 PM

If you shop you can find them for $50 or less. CompUSA's house brand (which they don't advertise for some reason) is usually around $30, though I don't know if it has all the features you'll need. Practically Networked may have something on these boxes. They're a good place to look for feature sets in any case. I like my Linksys box, (a BEFSR41), which does far more than I need it to, including running a DMZ, MAC address cloning, port forwarding, static routing, and a bunch more. There are lots of other brands available that also do all of these things.

tooki · Jan 1, 2003, 07:41 PM

Umm, when the Xbox's connection gets dropped, what is the problem? Is it losing the ethernet link? Is it losing the DHCP lease?

If it's just the lease, then just don't use DHCP, and set it up manually, using an internal IP address outside of the range served by the ABS's DHCP server.

For example:

Let's say that your base station is 10.0.0.1.
It's serving 10.0.0.2 through 10.0.0.50 using DHCP.

Then set the Xbox to
IP: 10.0.0.100 (anything up to .252 is safe, as long as it's not in the ABS's DHCP range)
Router/Gateway: 10.0.0.1
Net mask: 255.255.255.0
DNS 10.0.0.1

That should work, if the problem is DHCP incompatibility.

tooki

shatten22 · Jan 2, 2003, 12:36 AM

When I tried that, setting the IP to a higher number (10.0.1.200 and 10.0.1.100) the Xbox couldn't connect.

I don't know how to tell the difference between it losing its ethernet link or its DHCP lease. It just says its lost the connection after a bit. Do I have to set something up in the ABS configuration to allow the higher number IP addresses to be available?

thanks,

g

Originally posted by tooki:
Umm, when the Xbox's connection gets dropped, what is the problem? Is it losing the ethernet link? Is it losing the DHCP lease?

If it's just the lease, then just don't use DHCP, and set it up manually, using an internal IP address outside of the range served by the ABS's DHCP server.

For example:

Let's say that your base station is 10.0.0.1.
It's serving 10.0.0.2 through 10.0.0.50 using DHCP.

Then set the Xbox to
IP: 10.0.0.100 (anything up to .252 is safe, as long as it's not in the ABS's DHCP range)
Router/Gateway: 10.0.0.1
Net mask: 255.255.255.0
DNS 10.0.0.1

That should work, if the problem is DHCP incompatibility.

tooki

shatten22 · Jan 2, 2003, 12:57 AM

My fault. The Xbox has to be set to MANUAL across the board. DNS, everything. Now it works. Whether or not it drops me, we shall see tomorrow....

thx
g

shatten22 · Jan 2, 2003, 01:12 AM

So I just tried it (couldn't wait until tomorrow) and it lost connections in the middle of the game using a last number of .252 and .100.

I guess I will have to buy router. I hate spending money for crap that should just work.

g

ghporter · Jan 2, 2003, 07:53 AM

Unfortunately, Microsoft (dont' you just LOVE those guys!) didn't take home networks into account when they set up the XBox's networking capabilities. Kind of like AOL not playing nice with their protocols, etc.

macrob1n · Jan 5, 2003, 04:15 AM

Originally posted by shatten22:
When I tried that, setting the IP to a higher number (10.0.1.200 and 10.0.1.100) the Xbox couldn't connect.

I don't know how to tell the difference between it losing its ethernet link or its DHCP lease. It just says its lost the connection after a bit. Do I have to set something up in the ABS configuration to allow the higher number IP addresses to be available?

thanks,

g

when you say loose connection, is this actually ingame? Something like "Lost connection to games server" or " the server has closed the connection"?
It could be that your connection is working fine as these messages are more to do with the xbox live service and hosts just switching off games.
If you couldn't get onto xbox live you would get an error about not being able to connect to the live servers and the xbox would boot into its own connection troubleshooter.
As to the networking ( I know nothing) I just connected xbox to iMac ethernets and started sharing the connection. It has never given me any difficulties at all. Though I am running OSX.2.3
Does OS 9 have internet sharing, perhaps booting to 9 would work if it does and save you the terminal hastle.
Superlarry also mentions that you will need to switch on this connection every time you reboot, that is also the case with internet sharing in system pref's. It resets every time you start up.

PS - Moto GP rules

shatten22 · Jan 5, 2003, 10:18 AM

Well, nobody else has the problems I do with my cable service (Roadrunner). But plenty of people have been having problems with the ABS setup. It could just be 10.1.5 also, but I am not upgrading to Jag yet (doing a vid project now and don't fancy upgrading my OS in the middle of it - never a good idea.) so I won't know if that is the culprit.

I am going to get a Cable Router and see if that helps. I connect fine, it's just getting dropped out of games that is the problem. If you run the Xbox connection setup where it auto's your IP and DNS and such, and then press "y" when it is all over, it will bring up a list of information such as DL and UL and packet speeds. Your DL and UL will always be a bit different, but your packet should never change from being a like number, i.e.,8/8 or 9/9. When it is 8/9 or 7/10 you are going to run into latency and server issues. That's me.

BTW, Never got into MotoGP, but Mechassault is ridiculously fun. I just can't stand the 15 year old hillbillies who are discovering when they talk, people can hear them. Their trash-talking isn't even good, it's offensively bad. Number one insult on Live: You are gay. They like saying that a lot when you are consistently whooping their ass.

-g

shatten22 · Jan 6, 2003, 03:28 AM

BACK ON TOPIC:

I bought a Compusa router at (you guessed it) Compusa for $40. For some reason I couldn't configure via IE 5.2, but no matter, its' default configuration worked fine. I then told the Airport Base Station to act as a bridge (i.e., no distribution of IP addresses).

So here it is:

Cable modem--->Compusa router--->|--->XBOX
.................................................. ..............|--->ABS--->All wireless computers

The router does the DHCP distribution and so far, I have not been dropped once. My internet and Xbox do not feel as 'snappy' as they did plugged directly into the Cable modem, but that could just be my imagination. Damn Microsoft for making me by a router, though $40 isn't too terrible.

For all of you guys struggling with playing games on your mac (or just sick of Quake3) the Xbox is a pretty nice setup. Many of you opted to buy cheaper Wireless Access Points, which in this case would work better than Apple's own stuff. Thanks to everyone for all of their help with this junk.

see you on live.

g

Gamertag: shattenjaeger

CyberGreg · Jan 6, 2003, 05:32 AM

Thanks for letting us know how you got it fixed.

Good luck "Xbox'in"

Chimpmaster · Feb 4, 2003, 05:23 PM

Shatten interesting thread here.

I am trying to do the same thing with my g4 imac, xbox and adsl connection.

FYI, some cable isps use a "heartbeat" protocol for identifying if clients are still connected to the server.

This could be the cause of the drop outs to your xbox. A router will (and obviously did) almost always fix this, but the only way to test if that is thr problem would be to directly connect the xbox to the cable modem, just temporarily.

I know for certain that the cable service i used to use caused me problems with my mac, especially over airport becuase of the heartbeat issue. I ended up having to change to adsl.

With regards to my own solution for the xbox, i am currently going to use a direct plug (10m rj45 cable from the xbox to my adsl modem, and hotplug them as required. It sux, but it will do).

When i get the spare cash, i will buy a dlink or linksys wireless bridge, and connect as per this link.

http://www.linksys.com/splash/wetxbox.asp