ICS for 360

[FluffyTurtle]

Hi guys, i've been trying to enable my computer for internet connection sharing for a while now so I could connect my xbox 360 to to the internet without having to spend a 100$ on a wireless card.
only now i've realized i need a cross over cable. I think i've finally enabled ICS but I wanted to check with you guys before I went out and bought a cross over cable.
now when i go to the internet conection i'm using and go to properties---> advanced like the hundreds of web pages i've gone to say, it dosen't show a enable internet connection sharing checkbox. but on the connection itself, it says shared. help please.

[UsrName]

Okk... I have Xp and I can connect through my laptop.. I go to wireless settings or whatever thing.. properties, then enables everything in some window and hit the check button for connection sharing.. after that I turned off my firewall and there it was

[UsrName]

Actually, Ill put it into steps.

Step 1: Connect Ethernet Cable to the back of your computer and into your Xbox
Step 2: Open up the Wireless Network Connection Status Window
Step 3: Click Properties
Step 4: In Wireless Network Connection Properties window click on Advanced
Step 5: In the box for Internet Connection Sharing click on Settings
Step 6: Enable pretty much everything (especially DHCP and UPnP) and check the box for connection sharing
Step 7: Disable whatever firewall you have and test your connection on your Xbox

[FluffyTurtle]

i'll need a cross over cable for that though right??? not a ethernet??
so after i connect them ICS should show up in the advanced properties tab?

[UsrName]

I didnt need one
as long as you have a place where ethernet fits in the back of your computer

...wait you dont need a cable like that for ICS to show up on the tab do you (cause I dont)

[UsrName]

Actually... In the end, the $100 wireless xbox device is better because the filtering is better so you have much faster refresh time with more results

[DarkSideMilk]

Alright I have this figured out where you won't have any problems, none of this random disconnecting, none of this moderate nat, none of this ip conflict, and even none of this port forwarding business.
okay so here's how it's done, I decided to sign up for this forum simply to answer this after all the searching to figure this out and no one actually had the right answer so i had to figure it out myself.

first things first, go to your router settings, you do this by entering your gateway ip address, if you don't know it, go to your wireless connection that is connected to your router right click click status then the support tab and it will say it in there, so now type that in to your browser and put in your username and password, usually the default is something like admin admin and such. if you don't know it, refer to your router manual or google your router and the default can be found on the net. Now every router is different but you need to find two important settings in here, one is upnp, enable that guy for sure, that will be our key to the open nat, then find your port forwarding settings and make sure no ports are being forwarded, and definently don't activate dmz host, that would be a absolute last resort as it actually disables the routers firewall and opens all ports to that connection, opening you up hardcore for a hack, however if you had a direct connection to the 360 it'd actually be a good thing cause 360s don't really get hacked with viruses. But hey computers do so don't use that except as a last resort. Also know that upnp and portforwarding cannot be used at the same time by a router, it confuses it hardcore and causes all sorts of problems, so mixing and macthing is a very bad idea. if you do not have upnp, I don't know if you can get it to work, but it probably still will, you then will need to google what ports need to be open for xbox live, and open those to your host computer, and later there will be more to open that automatically pop up on the ics settings when you hook up to live. And seeing as you computer kind of becomes a router you also get to forward ports from the ics settings, but that's another story i'll get into that after I explain the upnp path.

alright so now we have a router with upnp enabled, and it's a happy dhcp and dns server as well hopefully. So you should have a happy little ip address and connection and everything on your computer with wireless whether it be laptop desktop or whatever, i have a desktop and one of them nice hd vga cables, which on a side note are very awesome, because they turn your 360 into an up converting DVD player, yeah that's cool, yay 1080p TV i didn't know i had lol. Anyway so you need to hook your 360 via an Ethernet cable from your nic (Ethernet port) on your computer to your 360's Ethernet port. That's the easy part. note with a 360 a , crossover cable is unnecessary however with xbox 1 it is neccesary. so now turn on that 360 or xbox or whatever it may be this probably works with ps3 and what not as well, heck probably even another computer. so now that's turned on and now go to your network connections, you can get there through the control panel, you can right click your connection on the bottom right or whatever. Now you should see that your Lan ethernet is connected as well as your wireless connection. a side note here, is that some try to bridge and too my understanding that is actually impossible in this case because the wireless connection is something like technically already a bridge with the router and it can't do two bridges so it always will cause an ip conflict, could be wrong but that's my understanding as well as experience and ip conflicts are no fun.anywho now we right click that wireless connection click properties and go to the advanced tab. there should be two little boxes under internet connection sharing, click BOTH boxes, well if you want an open nat anyway, if you like moderate nats you can just click the top one, or you could do it just to see if you can prove me wrong which would be fine too. anyway now your connection should be shared, yay! but this is not the end. This next step is very very important if you have a different firewall other than windows firewall, which i so hope you do, if you don't download zonealarm it's free. Well you also need to make sure your software firewall will allow ics, there's usually ways to configure it, like za has trusted zone, which you simply must put each adapter in the trusted zone and set trusted zone to medium settings on the firewall and you should be good. But the part that's important if you don't use windows firewall is making sure windows firewall is off. in two ways i might add. so right click the wireless connection again, and go to properties and advanced tab again and next to windows firewall click settings, make sure it's off on the first tab, then click over to the advanced tab on the windows firewall properties and make sure the check box next too each of your connections both the wireless and wired is unchecked, cause as you read it you will notice that that is enabling windows firewall which can cause conflicts. now the next step is to click on in that same window your wireless connection first then click settings. the following boxes in this menus should be checked, I'm actually pretty sure not all the ones i have checked have to be checked, but I'll list all the ones i have and hey it's working so yeah. side note if you are port forwarding at this point you make sure the upnp boxes are unchecked and you must add each port that you forwarded on your router into this check box, and then again on the xbox's connection box. but anyway the upnp route make sure dhcp 67 and 68, Dns, ftp server, remote desktop(might not be necessary) Secure web server(https), telnet server(another maybe), definitely both upnp's, and web server(http) , if you don't have one of those boxes that isn't dhcp or dns or upnp or a web server i wouldn't worry too much.so now click ok, then back in the windows firewall advanced tab click on your xbox's connection and make sure all the same boxes are checked, rememer how to get to this window as you will probablly need to return here from time to time, since the xbox will try to open ports on this, you'll know this happens when your in halo 3 macthmaking and it's all like your nat is not open so then you can hit b, go to your computer get to the settings on both connections and uncheck any random xbox port boxes and delete them too is not a bad idea then go back to the 360 and enter back into matchmaking and it won't yell at you anymore just that easy, no restarting or anything silly, though you can if you want too but that's your call, however if your port forwarding, you need to get those boxes to show up and add them to your router so there forwarded correctly, at least i think the port forwarding idea is in theory i haven't had to try it. so now you can go test your xbox live connection, all the connections should not be being touched with the whole tcp/ip, the wireless connection should be auto, the xbox connection should be manually set automatically, son't mess with it. and hopefully your 360 will automatically figure out the settings like mine did. if it doesn't you shouldn't have to do any manual ip address settings only dns, set the dns server to 192.168.0.1, so that it can get the dns from the xbox connection that gets it from you wireless connection that gets it from your router. if at this point you put in there your routers gateway you will lose your ip address randomly even though the router will think your still connected, which is not fun. so at this point you should have an open nat and a good connection with no more problems, and you may have a little extra connection pop up in your network connections that says internet gateway internet connection at 10 mbps this is a good thing so don't worry if it's not there your probably still fine. so yeah there's how to do it, if your port forwarding good luck too you. so yeah set router to upnp, hook it all up, turn it all on, turn on ics, configure your firewall, turn off windows firewall, set the ics settings to upnp dhcp and dns and web server, test your connection and you should be good to go. so yeah i think the two biggest and most common problems were the 360's dns server setting and the windows firewall conflict, so yeah i think those are the two big things i couldn't find anywhere else so i figured i'm best to share it. and I only figured this out yesterday, after thinking i had found it out just about every day of the week, and then it failing after a few hours of playing, this has worked without a problem for two days of gaming, not nonstop though but a fair amount, heck it's running right now in the background just fine and happy. so yeah i hope that helped and post on any questions if that doesn't work, and sorry i don't have any screen shots or what not, this is my first postymajig. now off to find where people can't figure out how to hook up a 360 through x-fi an Dolby digital without getting a static pop that could blow out there speakers, also i need you to come to the dark side, we have cookies, and now milk! happy networking.

[Mcninjaguy]

no router ever needs UPnP enabled its a security risk

I think to make a bridge connection just highlight both the ethernet connection (your Xbox 360 and the wireless signal and right click on one one of the mand enable bridged connection

[DarkSideMilk]

hmm on that note, i hadn't looked up upnp's security, adn had been noticing more pop-ups trying to come through and certain sites, so yeah don't use upnp, but actually you shouldn't have to do any port forwarding anyway, well i didn't, go disable the upnp on your router, and uncheck the boxes on the connection settings that say upnp, and check and xbox ports that pop up after you connect to live, and you should have an open nat, i did, so if it doesn't then try some port forwarding, start with upd and tcp 3074 and udp 88, i understand those are the most important ones. others are Tcp 80, and udp/tcp 53 but the first two should do you if any at all, it's always interesting how simple things can be. so yeah no upnp needed, disable it and get an open nat yay! and unless you have different information mcninjaguy, bridging causes ip conflicts and has random disconnections, but then again last time i tried it i probably had some port forwarding and upnp conflicts and what not. but i'm still pretty sure you can't bridge a wireless connection since it in itself is a bridge, i think anyway.

[DarkSideMilk]

OK I discovered Some New Things here so you can have a more open Nat cause I had Trouble Connecting to certain people, OR like They could join me But I can't join them Kinds of things, With one person I actually know in real life I helped him open the ports on his router for xbox live and viola we could connect, So I had been trying to figure Out How to get The ports open Through ICs, And After some logical thinking and reading more into descriptions of windows firewall settings I realized How obvious and easy this would be, Alright so this is how it's done, step one go to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/908874 this is where you find all the ports that need to be opened, and then go to your router port forwarding setting, and open each port to your computers IP address, which can be found by right clicking your wireless connection in the task bar click status go to support tab and ip address is right there, you will probably also need to hit details there to get your mac address for port forward settings on the router, so the click save submit or whatever and let the router reset and hook those up, now right click the wireless connection again and click windows firewall settings, go to the advanced tab, and if you have another firewall just restating that make sure windows firewall is off and that the boxes next to each connection are unchecked, if you don't have another firewall go get comodo firewall it's free it works, anyway click the wireless connection and go to settings, now in this screen the only box that needs to be checked is The DNS box uncheck everything else. Now edit the DNS port, and put your IP address into the host Ip address box. Ok the next step is to click add then name the service if you want like i have each of them named live ports, but you don't have to do that obviously, and do each xbox live port, and put your ip address in each host box. now click ok on that screen now click to the settings of your connection to the xbox, now go to each of the ports you just opened including the DNs and switch the Host Ip address to 192.168.0.1 and then save that, also on my xbox and computer connection I use Open DNS I don't know if that makes a difference Or not so if the automatic DNS server settings don't work switch them to primary 208.67.222 and secondary 208.67.220.220, do this on both the xbox dns settings and your connections settings, which you get to by clicking properties from the status menu and click the tcp/ip settings, so there you have it you should test your connection and have an open nat, and as far as the random ports that pop up so far they haven't closed my nat anymore, I may consider changing those ports settings to the correct way and then they'll never be a problem anymore since they probably serve some purpose for live since microsoft tries to open them for you when you use xbox live, but they aren't screwing me over anymore, so there you have it the proper way to Use ICS and not buy the 100 dollar adapter hooray!

[DarkSideMilk]

you can and should switch the host ips on the random xbox self opened ports but you shouldn't add them yo your port forwarding router settings, I tried it and it closed my nat back up, though I think it May have not saved right cause when i went to delete them the mac address had disapeared so I may try it again, or someone else can and report I might make a video of how it's done and put it on you tube and post a link here, but not sure yet, It would be learning a new thing

[DarkSideMilk]

well it kept making the mac address disappear on some port setting this is probably cause I have this old school router from ages ago that somehow still works, so you may try that idea on your own and post what happens for you