Networking X-Box - Firewall Issues

teamjans · **27th March 2006, 07:44 AM**

Hi All,

like a few people I got my 360 on the w/e

I've stumbled at the first hurdle by not being able view mymusic, myvideos etc on the TV from the PC via the xbox.

(my MCE has currently rejected my tv tuner so i'm not expecting to see live Tv at this point)

I've connected the xbox successfully with component cables to the TV, then I have a very long cat 6 network cable back to a dlink router. The MCE pc is also connected to this router.

I have visited xbox.com/pcsetup and saved down and run the setup software. However this has stopped at various stages ( i have run the set-up many times) within the setup, it has never said "setup is complete".

Over on the xbox end I have run through media centre setup. its given me the 8 digit code, which I have used back at the PC during the pc-setup process.

Initially the xbox would just stop on the screen saying "go to MCE machine and run software on xbox.com.pcsetup". And the PC setup would ask for the 8 dig code then report that it could not find an xbox, check your firewall or network.

I reset the router, and now the xbox goes through to the black screen with media centre and the search light going backwards and forwards. it then comes to a screen that says either "can't find a MCE PC", or " the details/criteria for the connection have changed, please try again recoonect". I try again and it very quickly moves through the screen displaying a NEW 8 dig code and starts searhing again.

Back at the PC, in Media Connect i can see the xbox listed, and "Allowed"

I have turned off the windows firewall and my Norton Personal Firewall. But whenever I try and run setup again with the new 8 dig code it gives me the same cannot find xbox.

I have been through the firewall tips on:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/m...p/default.mspx

Once it said could not connect to the xbox, I must have been close at this point.

Everyone else seems to have connected starigh away, what am I doing wrong

do i need RU2 and xbox.com/PCsetup?

cheers

TJ

aswigon · **27th March 2006, 03:51 PM**

I believe RU2 is a prerequisite for MCE and a 360 talking. I sort of remember talk of that being one of the "features" of RU2 (added Xbox 360 support).

teamjans · **27th March 2006, 03:56 PM**

Ok, so you think RU2 is required in addition to the software on xbox.com/pcsetup? I read that this setup contained what you needed from RU2 to run an xbox but i wasn't sure.

only one way to find out, thanks

TJ

aswigon · **27th March 2006, 04:05 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by teamjans

Ok, so you think RU2 is required in addition to the software on xbox.com/pcsetup? I read that this setup contained what you needed from RU2 to run an xbox but i wasn't sure.

only one way to find out, thanks

TJ

You sure do need RU2. Just found this FAQ for you. Look at Question 3.

Hope this helps.

Matt · **27th March 2006, 04:05 PM**

Xbox360 support was one of the included features with RU2.. so you'll need to install it as well as the xbox.com/pcsetup update

Cheers,

Matt.

lantus · **28th March 2006, 04:09 PM**

actually, i found out the hard way that RU2 is installed for you automatically if you download/install the software from xbox.com/pc setup - it comes part of the setup - so be careful.

thus you already are trying to establish a connection to your 360, you already have Rollup 2 installed. Nice of MS to let us know

anyway to your problem, here is a checklist of things check out for MCE, so it can talk to your 360:

firstly make sure you install the update to rollup 2 (cant rememeber the KB number off hand..anyone?)

- Firewall (you already mentioned this)
- Anti virus software ...disable it! This is the step that caught me up. I am running Norton Antivirus 2005 and when i disabled it from the system tray i was able to connect. If not.....
- make sure UPnP, SSDP and Fast User Switching services are all running
- check this article : http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;916179

good luck

teamjans · **28th March 2006, 04:41 PM**

thanks lantus

I'm running the same AV software, so this may be it

what is UPnP, SSDP and Fast User Switching services? I couldn't see these termes mentioned in the link so I'm thinking its something else. Sorry, could you spell it out for me.

thanks

TJ

BTW, I installed RU2 and the patch last night and got all 29 sydney digital channels!!! so I now have live TV, but it didn't solve my xbox connection problem

teamjans · **29th March 2006, 07:33 AM**

Hi,

xbox with live TV is now up and running, thanks all for you help.

I followed Lantus's instructions, probably the most important for me was the disabling of the Norton AV.

Running the xbox software again didn't work the first time, however after going through the rest of Lantus' suggestions above and in the M$ help link and determining that my setup matched the suggested setup, and because the media connect was displaying the xbox, and because the xbox was telling me that it had a connection to a media centre PC I realised that I was very close to success but not quite smoking the cigar.

the trick was to remove the xbox's connection to the media centre pc, restore factory settings and get a fresh 8 dig code. While the xbox sat on the screen displaying the code, I re-ran the pc software, keyed in the code and hey presto, connection was found and the xbox went through to my MCE.

the above is long winded but may be useful to someone.

cheers

TJ

ps when can i switch my firewall and AV software back on? haven't tested this yet so I'll let you know how I go

pps WAF worm chart has started an upward trend

lantus · **29th March 2006, 09:07 AM**

i set the option to re-enable it at next reboot, so i kinda forgot about it..but it now seems to run fine with Norton AV running as per normal, so i dont think you need to do anything special from here on in to make MCE and AV co-exist.

Steve_HD · **1st April 2006, 11:02 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by teamjans

Hi,

xbox with live TV is now up and running, thanks all for you help.

I followed Lantus's instructions, probably the most important for me was the disabling of the Norton AV.

Running the xbox software again didn't work the first time, however after going through the rest of Lantus' suggestions above and in the M$ help link and determining that my setup matched the suggested setup, and because the media connect was displaying the xbox, and because the xbox was telling me that it had a connection to a media centre PC I realised that I was very close to success but not quite smoking the cigar.

the trick was to remove the xbox's connection to the media centre pc, restore factory settings and get a fresh 8 dig code. While the xbox sat on the screen displaying the code, I re-ran the pc software, keyed in the code and hey presto, connection was found and the xbox went through to my MCE.

the above is long winded but may be useful to someone.

cheers

TJ

ps when can i switch my firewall and AV software back on? haven't tested this yet so I'll let you know how I go

pps WAF worm chart has started an upward trend

Your scenario sounds very similar to my own Xbox 360, MCE 2005 connection horrors...

I've done everything as per what you mention on previous occassions - except for the "restore the Xbox 360 to factory defaults" step. I wasn't too keen on doing so, if my Live details got lost in the process, but I'm coming to the conclusion that streaming my videos is far more important than Live!

It certainly is frustrating that Windows Media Connect 2 is able to share folders and show still images on the Xbox 360 while in an MCE 2005 session - but Media Center just refuses to connect - even with every bit of info about the 360 showing in the Media Center manager. You hit the nail on the head about "so close, but no cigar!!"

I'll try your fix - with fingers and toes crossed. I've tried to get this happening so many times already that if it does work... I may run into the street and kiss the first person I see!! I hope they're young, attractive and female!

thegurio · **3rd April 2006, 08:25 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by teamjans

pps WAF worm chart has started an upward trend

Mine is declining rapidly - in fact some would say freefall!

what ports do i need opened and how do i do it?

i have an issue being that i used to be able to connect to my xbox but now i cant and i beleive it has something to do with the fact that my windows firewall cant be accessed for some reason, everytime i go to click on it it thinks about it and says that it cant be accessed? So i thought - i can fix you! ill put on Zonealarm (Didnt really matter which one i was just hoping it would override it) but alas it still says that due to an unidentified problem windows cannot display firewall settings. Any ideas why?

teamjans · **4th April 2006, 05:23 PM**

I don't really have an answer for you unfortunately as I have switched all firewalls and AV completely off and I'm currently feeling rather exposed to the outside elements of the internet.

there is support for using firewalls and xbox 360 on the M$ website, i think i attached the link earlier if you haven't seen that. it goes into opening and closing ports. I'm not an expert

I have one plan and that is to connect the xbox directly to my MCE via a cross over cable rather than through a router, i'm thinking perhaps with this setup i can turn my firewall and AV software back on. However all the HD channels are working perfectly at the moment, I don't want to push my luck.

sorry i couldn't help more

TJ

thegurio · **4th April 2006, 08:17 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by thegurio

Mine is declining rapidly - in fact some would say freefall!

PHEWW!!!

All fixed - all i did was repair my windows installation and low and behold its all fixed. I did, however, have to rerun the mce full software but its all setup now and that is all that matters! The biggest issue i now have is getting my Twinhan to be seen by mce but thats being discussed in the tuners section.