Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Cracking my University's capped internet

Bubbasteve

Bubbasteve

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 23, 2004
1,163
0
Charleston, IL
Hi, before I start I would just like to apologize if I posted this in the wrong place. Moving on...

I have an Xbox 360 and I can't connect to Xbox Live via my school's internet. Before I bought the 360 I had a regular Xbox which would connect but only through a Router (I belive it was a Linksys, which was my old roomates).

When I attempt to connect to XBL the "Test Connection" screen informs me that my MTU(?) times out. I'm assuming that is basically telling me that I'm not getting enough bandwith to the 360. I've asked the IT people to help me out but they basically told me I wasn't a high priority since I am one the few to have an Xbox 360 on campus.

Sorry for dragging this post on so I will sum it all up: Do you think I will be able to get enough Bandwith for my Xbox 360 to run XBL if I connect it from a router.

*Sidenote: I bought a cheap $40 router (don't really remember the brand name)... needless to say when I tried to sync it with my Mac it failed to connect to the internet. I asked the IT people what that was all about and they said that they didn't support routers (but I know for a fact they do because my old roommate had a wireless router which I used for my internet).
 
A router doesn't increase bandwidth. With it you can control your MTU, but the network beyond the router (your uni network) still has the same basic principals you're dealing with now. I cannot imaing that it would be a priority at ALL to care about you playing an xPox360.
 
yellow said:
A router doesn't increase bandwidth. With it you can control your MTU, but the network beyond the router (your uni network) still has the same basic principals you're dealing with now. I cannot imaing that it would be a priority at ALL to care about you playing an xPox360.
Click to expand...

I love the cute fanboy "Xpox"...really I do :rolleyes:

If what you are saying is true then how could I have connected my original "Xpox" to XBL through the Linksys Router and I couldn't without it?
 
Maybe because you could control the MTU. I have no idea.

But what I'm say IS true. A router has nothing to do with bandwidth. You could have a router that passes a million-billion-trillion-Megabits per nanosecond, but if the network it's hooked up to is a 10Mbps network.. you're running at 10Mbps to the outside world.

(Though in realizey bandwidth is measured by Hertz, not Megabits.)

Bubbasteve said:
I asked the IT people what that was all about and they said that they didn't support routers (but I know for a fact they do because my old roommate had a wireless router which I used for my internet).
Click to expand...

Are you sure they SUPPORTED his router, as in help him set it up and helped him when it was down? Typically the don't support this kind of thing, but if you can set it up and keep it on the DL, then they won't filter it.
 
yellow said:
Maybe because you could control the MTU. I have no idea.

But what I'm say IS true. A router has nothing to do with bandwidth. You could have a router that passes a million-billion-trillion-Megabits per nanosecond, but if the network it's hooked up to is a 10Mbps network.. you're running at 10Mbps to the outside world.

(Though in realizey bandwidth is measured by Hertz, not Megabits.)



Are you sure they SUPPORTED his router, as in help him set it up and helped him when it was down? Typically the don't support this kind of thing, but if you can set it up and keep it on the DL, then they won't filter it.
Click to expand...

I never accused you of lying but I'm just wondering how I could have connected to XBL on my old Xbox and now not on my new one. I was hoping I would be able to buy a Linsys router and it would work it's magic like it did for my previous XB...apparently not is what I'm reading from you
 
Not saying that at all.. assuming the router is properly set up, it might work like a charm. I'm just trying to educate you on what a router won't do..

It's a fairly good indicator that since your Mac won't pick up an IP address, that the router is incorrectly set up.

No kids on your hall that can help you out setting it up properly?
 
Are you able to connect to the network (through a computer) using the router? Please accept my apologies in advance if you have already tried these methods, but I'm trying to think what I would do in this situation. I'm certainly not trying to talk 'down' to you.

1. Try connecting the Xbox 360 directly to the internet (bypass the router). If this works, then you can pretty much focus any of your troubleshooting efforts on the router.

2. You should be able to login to the router from a connected computer. The ip address (typically) is 192.168.1.1. Unless you have otherwise changed the password, there will be no username, and the pass is defaulted as admin. My router has an area to allocate ip traffic through certain ports. For instance, I run a Linksys WRT54GS, which has a tab for Applications and Gaming. I have to manually indicate which ports should be allowed access. This would be my first guess, as your previous Xbox had a connection through a different router (other router was configured to allow access). To summarize, make sure the routers firewall isn't blocking the connection.
 
blacknblu said:
Are you able to connect to the network (through a computer) using the router? Please accept my apologies in advance if you have already tried these methods, but I'm trying to think what I would do in this situation. I'm certainly not trying to talk 'down' to you.

1. Try connecting the Xbox 360 directly to the internet (bypass the router). If this works, then you can pretty much focus any of your troubleshooting efforts on the router.

2. You should be able to login to the router from a connected computer. The ip address (typically) is 192.168.1.1. Unless you have otherwise changed the password, there will be no username, and the pass is defaulted as admin. My router has an area to allocate ip traffic through certain ports. For instance, I run a Linksys WRT54GS, which has a tab for Applications and Gaming. I have to manually indicate which ports should be allowed access. This would be my first guess, as your previous Xbox had a connection through a different router (other router was configured to allow access). To summarize, make sure the routers firewall isn't blocking the connection.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help:

1.) I tried that initially but it told me that there was an MTU time out
2.) How would I login to the router via my computer
 
Bubbasteve said:
2.) How would I login to the router via my computer
Click to expand...

In your browser's address, type 192.168.1.1, then you should have a username/pass popup. Leave the username blank, and that password will more than likely be admin.
 
I had the same problem with my university network. After a good amount of time trying to search for a solution I ended up just calling the campus ITS. They had to put it the console MAC address on an exempt list. I didn't need a router or anything. I'm not sure if you school has the same system. Anyway, I hope that helps.
 
kingjr3 said:
Your router have a manual?
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, what *I* meant was, register the MAC address with the University. Your router manual will not tell you how. Your University IT people will have to do that. Just start by asking them if you have to register your computer with them before it'll work on the network. If they say yes, you can either give them the router MAC or give them the iMac's MAC and probably have the router spoof it....
 
Bubbasteve said:
When I attempt to connect to XBL the "Test Connection" screen informs me that my MTU(?) times out. I'm assuming that is basically telling me that I'm not getting enough bandwith to the 360. I've asked the IT people to help me out but they basically told me I wasn't a high priority since I am one the few to have an Xbox 360 on campus.

Sorry for dragging this post on so I will sum it all up: Do you think I will be able to get enough Bandwith for my Xbox 360 to run XBL if I connect it from a router.

*Sidenote: I bought a cheap $40 router (don't really remember the brand name)... needless to say when I tried to sync it with my Mac it failed to connect to the internet. I asked the IT people what that was all about and they said that they didn't support routers (but I know for a fact they do because my old roommate had a wireless router which I used for my internet).
Click to expand...

MTU mean Maximum Transmission Unit or something like that. Basically the number of bytes that get put into an ethernet frame. I don't know what it means for an MTU to "time out" -- I think its probably nonsense. Is that the exact error message you get?

If you want to see if you have enough bandwidth for live, then take your mac onto a speed test site (google "speed test") and measure your connection's bandwidth. Your 360 shouldn't need more than 100k upstream bandwidth to work. If your XBox worked, then the 360 should too.

We need a lot more information to help you with this one. Maybe a screenshot of the Xbox360 error, and more information about what your existing network setup looks like. Did you try asking your old roomate how he made it work?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back