[Gra]

Those of you who've been perusing the video gameing forum will know I'm having a problem with getting an on-line game to update, and because of this I'm unable to play it....and after 3 days of head scratching and googling the various things I've found I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that it's something to do with my router. I've been told by a couple of people that it shouldn't be the router, and that it's more likely to be a server problem, but my googling exploits are all pointing at my router....

Basically, after checking my routers log (and keeping an eye on it when the problem happens) I'm getting the following error message every time without fail:

"2006-05-08 19:46:56 32737/TCP from 202.xx.xx.xxx:51241 to 192.xxx.x.xxx:32737 3-Invalid TCP packet received, dropping packet"

My googling exploits appear to show that people with the same router as myself (Linksys WAG54G) have disabled the router firewall and mystically everything works again.

This may also explain why I'm unable to connect to servers from the pc that's plugged into the router. I've not checked but I bet I have the same errors. On the pc that's plugged into the router, when I try to download most things nothing happens, nothing at all. I have Flashget, and that is unable to download anything. I do have more luck if I right click on a link and click on 'save target as'....weird....

Any ideas folks....I'd love to get to the bottom of the problem so I can make the most of the 30 day free trial I have on the game I'm trying to update....I've only got 27 days left!

 

[AndBurG]

hi graham

you should have the option to set a single DMZ to an internal IP, set this up with the ip of the computer you are using and then try to play the game, if it still doesn't work its not a firewall issue as a dmz basically disables the firewall to that internal address.

see if theres a firmware upgrade for your router, could be a known issue, but the logs would appear to show that it is not a firewall issue.

 

[Gra]

hmmmm thanks Andy....I did that last night (enabled DMZ although whether I sent it to the correct internal IP address is a different matter, when the fault showed on my xbox360 I checked the settings on there and it gave me an IP address and it's mac address, I forwarded DMZ to the ip address it gave!) and it made no difference. I've tried port forwarding, port triggering, and Linksys no longer have firmware updates available for my router which is bloody annoying as it's only a few years old. It's on firmware 1.02.7 at the moment, please feel free to find newer 'cos I didn't!

Basically it probably is a server issue then....is it likely to be my ISP's server?

 

[AndBurG]

can you directly connect to the modem with the xbox?? if so give thata bash then see if it works, but 99% sure that i wont if it didn't with a dmz enabled

 

[Dr Dave]

Gra - you need a WAG354G mate :dddc:

 

[Gra]

can you directly connect to the modem with the xbox?? if so give thata bash then see if it works, but 99% sure that i wont if it didn't with a dmz enabled

I can get onto xbox live without any issues through the wireless network, not tried it wired into the router yet though.....

It's just this update that won't complete and it's getting on my nerves a bit now! I don't seem to have any problems with anything else when I'm online with my 360.

Spend more money blah blah blah....

Not if I can get this working! :lol:

 

[AndBurG]

i was thinking bypass the router, if you remove the router and it works then the problem is the router, if it doesn;t then its the server

 

[Gra]

Good thinking batman....not quite sure how I'll do it, but if I've got the right cables I'll give it a go.

 

[Gra]

Right....two more phone calls made....a few more things to try. My ISP confirms there's nothing wrong at their end and they've checked my line and everything is ok, and the Playonline tech-heads say there's nothing wrong at their end as far as they can see. I've been told two things: Wire the xbox360 into the router via ethernet and see if that works...which I was planning on doing anyway, disable DHCP and assign static IP's to my various bits and bobs that connect (which I think I've already done, but I'm not sure) and do a complete re-set of my router, which is a last resort, but I'm more than willing to do it as I have screen captures of all the relevant settings I need to re-set it. I'm sooooo not looking forward to tonight....i.e another night throwing things around in a rage if things don't go my way! :lol:

 

[AndBurG]

Right....two more phone calls made....a few more things to try. My ISP confirms there's nothing wrong at their end and they've checked my line and everything is ok, and the Playonline tech-heads say there's nothing wrong at their end as far as they can see. I've been told two things: Wire the xbox360 into the router via ethernet and see if that works...which I was planning on doing anyway, disable DHCP and assign static IP's to my various bits and bobs that connect (which I think I've already done, but I'm not sure) and do a complete re-set of my router, which is a last resort, but I'm more than willing to do it as I have screen captures of all the relevant settings I need to re-set it. I'm sooooo not looking forward to tonight....i.e another night throwing things around in a rage if things don't go my way! :lol:

god you get more like the mini me every day, throwing things about in rage lol

 

[Gra]

Been thinking.....bugger it, I'm doing a full reset....can't be bothered trying the other things! :lol:

 

[AndBurG]

rofl, and then when that doesn't work.....

 

[Gra]

........it's going out the window......as will be anything else I get my hands on..... :lol:

 

[AndBurG]

........it's going out the window......as will be anything else I get my hands on..... :lol:

better remember to put mini-me to bed and lock the door then or terrible things could happen!!

 

[Gra]

Right....I'm having a 'live chat' through the wonders of the t'internet with someone from Linksys! How cool is that....they've not really said anything much yet, but I'm sure they'll nail any problem I have, or at least they'd BETTER!!!

 

[Stu]

Sounds like the firewall believes that the site is sending a malformed IP packet to your address.

Other than switching off the firewall or them updating the packet inspection software you are pretty much screwed from the info posted.

 

[Gra]

Cheers Stu.....just got off the phone after 2 hours and 56 minutes with Baz....and we finally decided to have a go at turning off the routers firewall....and guess what....it works now....,I'm updateing the files as we speak! GET IN!!!

So basically I need a router with a better firewall.....I believe Microsoft have a list of 'xbox 360 friendly' routers somewhere, I'll have to find it....although Dave's previous suggestion on router choice seems to be a popular one and if it's on the list it'll be part of my network sooner rather than later!

Can't believe I've spent 4 days confusing various technical helplines, who've been stumped, including Linksys, who after asking me a few questions decided to ignore me!!

Right then....another 10 minutes and Final Fantasy XI will be fully updated! :hyper:

This is without doubt the most long-winded install of my entire life.... :lol:

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

 

[mad]

get a netgear router mate, maybe a rangemax far superiour bit of kit and not too expensive.

 

[Caz]

I too have been having issues (for months now but I haven't had to worry up until now). Basically when I was online gaming about a year ago, the connection seemed to frig quite often i.e. my FPS would go mad, I'd stall inside the game then it would go ok and I'd find I'd been killed. My bro has been complaining of the same thing but as I wasn't using it, it didn't bother me.

Now that I have gone legit and bought my own wireless router (Linksys WRT54G iirc) I too can see the connection dropping. My wireless is at 100% which is amazing considering I'm upstairs at the back of the house and the router is about 20 feet along and 8 feet down from me. When I'm downloading (obviously legal content) via Azureus on my broadband, it will happily plod along for a few minutes at warp speed then drop to nothing. After 10 or so seconds the connection seems to pick up again. While this happens MSN still runs but my SO has started to think I'm ignoring him as he sends messages then doesn't get a reply as I'm not receiving them yet I'm still signed in.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can check to see if it is an NTL line fault? I hadn't thought of logging the router until I read this thread but basically at the minute I can't relay this story to NTL given what I'm doing. I need some way of testing to show up a problem. The PC that is hard-wired to the router quite often shows the Network is now connected balloon but being wireless I don't see that message as the connection to the router via wireless is fine.

Hope that all made sense!

P.S. when I wasn't legit, the other connection I had was also a NTL & Linksys router combo but although it was slower it never dropped the connection.

 

[mad]

is there known problems with that particular router dropping te wireless someimes, upgrading the firmware can sometimes help put most of the time doesnt. If its still under warranty id send it back to linksys, there very understanding when returning stuff they sometimes dont even want the old one back.