BT Home Hub - XBox 360 Live - Strict NAT Issues: UPDATE
2nd Update 9 March 2007
Thanks for all the comments on this. Since the original post, the Home Hub software has been upgraded, (Your Home Hub will update itself in the early hours of the morning.) and this strict NAT thing really isn’t an issue anymore. It’s very easy to fix now, and the DMZ is easy to find in the advanced section, so this information is mostly out of date. I’ll leave it up on the site in case anyone out there has older firmware and still needs help.
OK, I managed to get my home hub to work with my XBox. Basically the NAT works properly only if you let the home hub assign your local network IP addresses by DHCP. The home hub remembers MAC addresses, so you can still set it to divert certain traffic to certain devices. There is also a DMZ, but again, the home hub has to assign the IP. This can be a bit of a pain in the arse to say the least, but it’s a work around that will suffice for most people. I’ll update again with a walk through when I get time.
Previous article follows…
I have previously on this site recommended BT’s new Total Broadband and the free equipment that is provided with it, namely the BT Home Hub. On BT’s website it does indicate that this device supports XBox Live, however I’ve had very limited success with it. Whilst I can connect to some online games the vast majority simply fail.
I’ve spent hours trying to get it working, playing with firewall settings, application sharing, port re-direction - you name it, I tried it.
The XBox 360 Live test highlights that the problem is with the Network Address Translation (NAT), and that it is “strict”, whereas it needs to be “open” for XBox Live. There are no options on the BT Home Hub to change the NAT settings and there is no DMZ either.
Don’t waste your time trying to fix it - you can’t.
One of the cool features of the BT Home Hub is that it automatically downloads firmware updates, and after spending 30 minutes on the phone to BT (read: some guys in Bangalore), I’ve been told that they are releasing a new firmware update mid to late November which will correct this issue. Once your BT Home Hub has updated you will be able to alter the NAT settings and your XBox 360 will work properly with XBox Live.
I’ll update this page once I’ve downloaded the update and tested it, and I hope it saves some of you guys unneccessary headaches. If anyone has any further info, please leave a comment.
Thank you so much. A quick google with “Strict Home Hub” and you have answered the question to my problem. The Home Hub is a nasty peice of kit.
So I guess we have to wait… so In the mean time I am going to not be able to join most XBL or HL2 games.
Thanks for the information. I was wondering how to fix it and this helped. Hopefully they get it sorted very soon as it is quite annoying.
Thanks again.
Thanks for this information. Like you I have spent far too long trying to correct this same issue. I’m glad you have set up this page to save me wasting any more time.
If you hear anything aout this update I would really appreciate an e-mail as this is the only site i can find regarding this issue, and certainly the only site to offer any sort of answer
Thanks again
I had no issues with strict NAT on my 360 while using DHCP, but as soon as I started using a static IP address I am now in the same situation, the NAT is reported as strict and I can hardly join any online games.
I’ve read somewhere that setting up a DMZ is possible, but it’s really well hidden and called “assign the public IP address to a device” or something like that. I did find it earlier but couldn’t figure out how to work it.
I just tried it again there and it now works. It says that it is ‘open’ now!
Thanks David your a life saver i cant beleive that it doesnt support xbox live yet
I have a problem also with this bloody home hub and NAT
i want to have my pc as a server bt tell me the ip is static will
thats bull **** as it all ways changers but thats not too much
of a probleming using other means i can get that to work
but my problem is then i ams stuck with only able to get to the
router i can’t get to any ip’s behind the router e.g
say the router is 80.254.658.21 & my pc ip is 192.168.0.0
there is no way of me getting the link from one to another i am
kinda stuck with this problem as bt tells me there not going to
support NAT or anthing like that for the home user (WFT)
i pay full wack for this and they till me this any one know of
away around this but going out and buying a adsl router what
was this setting in and i don’t have that kinda money if i did
i would not be trying to set up my own server.
Thanks dude, really cant wait for the tutorial on how to fix this damn problem. Its been driving me nuts ever since i switched to bt.
Really would appreciate that walk-through, have’nt been able to use XBox Live for about two months. Both XBox and BT have been useless.
Hi David. I would really appreciate a walk through on how to do this as x-box like have been very tempremental with online gaming.
I have been playing around with the BT Hub now for the past week and have updated to the latest firmware release 6.2.2.6.
You now have the option to use Dynamic DNS which is great.
My Xbox360 works fine wirelessly and via cable with you assign the right port to that machine. Plus, you can ensure that the 360 is assigned the same IP address all the time.
My problem is, I don’t want to connect my 360 to the hub. Instead, I have a Draytek Vigor router that I want to use behind the hub. Reason being, I have a server and 3 other machines. I also have VPN setup on it so that family connect in to collect emails, plus I can give them remote support.. Worked really well before the HUB was used.
Basically, If I put the router on the DMZ - it is still secure as the router has its own firewall, plus I can RDP into my server from an external machine, grab emails etc etc. However, It knocks out the HUB VOIP phone for some strange reason - Anyone know why?
Because of this, I removed the router from the DMZ and setup it up behind the HUB with rules set on the hub to allow all traffic from port 1 to 9000 through to the router.
I can access the router via VPN externally and can establish Lan to Lan connections either way, However I can not access the routers web interface page remotely. I use HTTPS with port 8484. I get the Security Alert Certificate pop up but when I click yes, the page cannot be displayed.
Is this something to do with routing on the HUB side or am I doing something wrong. I have also connected to the HUB locally and tried to access the router this way, but it just doesnt see it for some reason although the HUB shows it as being connected.
The HUB is on an address of 192.168.0.1 and the router on 192.168.6.1. If I am connected to the router locally, I can access the HUB fine.
Any ideas…. Would like to use the router on the DMZ but also want to use HUB phone…
Thanks david for the information you have saved me much time….do you know if this problem also effects the use of pc online games also as ive had issue with connection to world of warcraft ever since the home hub was up and running even though i have a 5.5 meg connection???
I can’t give a definitive answer on World of Warcraft, but I would imagine any online game could get screwed up. All I can suggest is adding the WoW ports to the applications list and make sure your PC is set to obtain an IP automatically.
No idea on the hub phone because after 4 months BT still haven’t sent me mine. However, Draytek’s routers are much better than the Home Hub - why not just ditch the Home Hub and use the Draytek instead?
David. Have just bought an Xbox 360 for my son. I have a BT Home Hub. So he cannot join in games with his friends as NAT is set to “Strict.” I am a total notice with computers and this kind of technology and your tutorial above has helped - at least I know I am not the only one with this problem. Has the download you mention been released yet. How do you download it? How do you install it? Dave Cowie
Hi again,
Yeh after a long while I found that if I used DHCP the 360 works fine. However I have noticed that this doesn’t seem to work all the time. While it appears its open PDZ wont connect to and games and a screen comes up about NAT blah blah.
Im thinking its because I haven’t got port forwarding setup but I confused as to what I should point the Start and finish IPs to as my 360 goes through a netgear router first then that to the home hub. Any ideas?
It would be great if we could build a guide to chuck on a port forwarding website for others.
Would love to know how to setup DMZ on the BT Home Hub, have looked everywhere for info on how to do it but just cannot find any.
Chris
To fix this, set your NAT to Open by opening the following ports on your router: 88 (UDP), 3074 (UDP), and 3074 (TCP).
I had this same problem when trying to host a game on Crackdown which i have just bought and i did some research on the net and i fixed the NAT problem by adding my 360 to the DMZ list which is under the Application Sharing settings.
There are other ways but i used DMZ click the link below for more info
sorry he is the link
http://www.xboxlivetheguide.co.uk/XBoxLiveTheGuide3.php?title=My%20NAT%20Setting%20is%20Strict/Moderate%20what%20can%20I%20do
I just had the NAT problem… was set to strict. If you go onto the home hub page you can reset the hub to factory settings… I just have, now the NAT is set to OPEN… xbox live - no problems!!!
thanks for this, finally fixed my nat issues
had real problems with the xbox 360 live and bt total broadband home hub for a month, just had it sorted out by BT. they were saying that the hub is compatible with xbox live and all that needed doign was a static ip address and the nat settings sorted. i think its a matter of speaking to the right person when you get through lol xbox were useless and told me the router wasnt compatible ??? but xbox endorse bt and bt endorse xbox ???
http://www.xboxlivetheguide.co.uk/XBoxLiveTheGuide3.php?title=BT%20HomeHub%20Strict%20NAT
this rli helped me. NAT is open
Hi David - how did you connect your DrayTek Vigor modem to the BT Home Hub? Ethernet or wirelessly? How did you configure the Vigor to use the Home Hub’s internet connection?
Hope you can help - because my home hub is arriving soon and I do not want to stop using my 2800VG.
I have my 360 set up with a DMZ and it works great, my problem is my PS3. You only seem to be able to have one machine in the DMZ so my ps3 has nat type3 = strict.
hi guys if anyboda could help…iv got an xbox 360 and mum just connected to bt and were now using bt total broadband wih the home hub…i bought a year on xboxlive but cant use it wirelesly with home hub, i have connected it using the ethernet cable and it works..but whats the point when im capable of connecting wirelesly but cant…called btindia and they just kept going on how the ‘opened the ports’ but its made no difference and the xbox is still not finding the i.p adress ofmy pc… any way to solve it?!
thanks in advance guys!
Thanks for the info.
At least I now know I have to have the home hub set to DHCP to a device that needs to be in the DMZ. My XBOX was on static IP and could not figure out how to DMZ it!
Thanks again
Read through these and its all helpful apart from the fact that my 360 isn’t listed as a device on my local network when I’m looking at the dmz in the advanced options. Now Is that though i have a wireless connection to my computer, my 360 is connected to the net through an ethernet cable that goes to my computer?
Without being able to see the 360 in my devices, I can’t do what everyone is suggesting
please someone help!
hi, i have no idea about the home hub and what it can do… but i have one.
my problem is on xbox 360 live, on halo 3 perticulary, the NAT is set to strict… it needs to be open… it wont allow me to play with mates, now i have gone into advance/devices/DMZ and i dont know what to do from here
i’m using the XBOX wireless adapter… do i select it on the drop down menu??? it appears as unkown.
i reeeealy need some help on how to get it to open… please help
cheers for your time
stu
sorry for the double post… but i thought this might be important
i meant advanced/application sharing/DMZ
all i want to do is change the NAT to open… is it the firewall settings on the hub?
I have put the 360 in the DMZ, the problem I have is that when I have it in the DMZ my BT broadband talk connection drops and the hub remains unregistered until I remove the 360 from the DMZ and of course in doing this restricts the NAT, the funny thing is the XBOX says nat is open but Halo 3 says the NAT is restricted. Basically how can I have the Hub phone working and the 360 in the DMZ as this is really annoying. Can you help please!?!?!?
Ok, my problem is, I have 2 xbpx 360’s.
What am I supposed to do now? I can get one to work, the other I can’t.
One is mine, other is my brothers.
email at rabbitez2000@hotmail.co.uk
Okay, I finally got my nat off of strict. All I did was:
1.)Go to hub manager
2.)Go to advance settings
3.)application settings
4.)DMZ
5.) It has a box that has it like this
Internet service Device
Internet *put device here* *check box* assaign.
6.) Then it will say *reset IP address, assign IP*, just click ok or yes. Then, it will have it a green check mark and you are ready to go.
then, just to a connection test on your 360 and your NAT should be open.
thanks alot i jsut tried it i hope its worked even if it hasdnt thanks anyway
none of any of these things are working for me
Hi - Please can someone tell me the fix???
hi,
not sure if this helps, but it worked for me, restore the bt homehub to factory setting by holding down the wireless button for at least 15 secs, after the hub is back online go to xbox live and check network settings the nat should say its open after the check and you should be able to play all online games.
Stacey x
p.s game we wanted to get online was call of dty
It’s impossible to do it. You need to phone BT, get them to acess your computer, log on as an amdministartor, and then they will automaticly make it work. However, you need an ethernet cable plugged from your homehub to your xbox for this to work.
Hope David doesn’t mind me posting this, but for future reference the instructions on here aren’t really required anymore on the latest firmware updates, neither is a reset of the router to “temp fix” the problem.
I go into what is needed on my site here:-
http://www.xboxlivetheguide.co.uk/XBoxLiveTheGuide3.php?title=BT%20HomeHub%20Strict%20NAT
Hope that Helps
XboxLiveTheGuide Admin
dude help when i go in test connection to xbox live NAT say STRICK how i fix it what i do?? help me plz!
how come my mates home hub has open and mine is stricked
how do i fix the stricked Nat in simple terms explaining each step plz help my gamer tag is xUBxLee33 plz help it is really startin to anoy me
all i did was reset factory settings on the home hub from the internet page (IP address) and its sorted it
thanks for the info…its quite helpful but… I’m probably getting the same problem as other people (I’m a noob when it comes down to networking) but i connect my xbox to my home hub and play through it and it still dosen’t let me change the NAT settings please can someone give any tips I’m relay starting to get pissed off with it >=(
I have found this problem everywhere for BT home hub users, but after a little tinkering with my hub for a day I found the solution. Can someone else test it for me to see if it truly works.
1) open up your home hub web front end i.e http://api.home or the ip address.
once rebooted restest your xbox 360 network adapter settings and you should now see it as open.
2) once in go into the “advanced” option on the left hand menu.
3) type in your username and password.
4) then goto “devices” in here you should see your xbox 360, either by its ip address or by name.
5) click the “edit” option next to the device.
6) now on this screen you can add “rules” to your devices, in the drop down list scroll down until you find “xbox live” then click “add”
7) once added wait about 30 seconds then reboot your router
done this on mine and it worked first time. it now shows as open and it works like a charm
and no need for using the DMZ and no need for setting up all those nasty port forwarding rules.
If someone could test that would be great.
hope this helps
worked for me! stopped my fella from moaning too, bonus!