I know how to set up port forwarding on the router and all that, but I seem to be at an impasse. How the hell do you set up the same service for 2 devices? Particularly XBOX Live. XBOX with port forwarding configured connects to games instantly. The other XBOX takes forever to connect and can only connect to about 10% of games because it can't accept incoming connections. Both XBOXes are used to access Live at the same time.

How do you set it up so multiple devices can accept connections on the same port? Westell 327W router. It has an option to turn the firewall off, but I'd like to avoid that if possible.

2/27/2008 5:23:15 PM

you'll need probably a module which understands enough of the XBL protocol to differentiate between the two sessions -- may be available for something like iptables (DDWRT?)

failing that, you could use a rule to detect the outgoing connection and update the port forwarding rules, this will probably not allow both to play at the same time. iptables can do it, and I've seen some home routers that looked like they would open ports based on outgoing connections.

if you want to pony up for a second external IP address, it gets a lot easier

2/27/2008 7:54:42 PM

^^Are you saying that XBL needs a dedicated IP address? I honestly never attempted to use 2 XBOXes on the same IP before, but shouldn't the NAT handle things transparently? Why are you being forced to setup port forwarding?

2/27/2008 8:11:59 PM

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^ The consoles host the games. So they need to be able to accept incoming connections. NAT can not provide the same service to 2 private devices simultaneously.

[Edited on February 27, 2008 at 8:34 PM. Reason : ]

2/27/2008 8:30:09 PM

So if only one console were hosting the game and the other was just joining a game it wouldn't be an issue, right?

And yes, I do understand how NAT works, just trying to figure out why XBL isn't playing nicely since I have no experience with XBL.

[Edited on February 27, 2008 at 8:36 PM. Reason : .]

2/27/2008 8:35:31 PM

I know very little about xbox live, but will it work with UPnP? That's what I use for multiple services behind one router (like bittorrent and such).

2/27/2008 8:35:41 PM

UPnP is a protocol for applications and devices to request a port be forwarded -- it does not circumvent the limitations of NAT in that using the same local port on different network nodes behind the NAT will require in the NAT implementation enough awareness of the application protocol to differentiate between sessions.

2/27/2008 9:29:35 PM