XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

Having some problems connecting our xbox 360 to the network so the 360 can see music files/movies, etc. Here are the steps we have taken to try to "fix" it.

1. Turn media sharing on in windows media player
2. Opened the firewall port settings

When we do the test it stops at the finding PC step. Any other tips? Our router is on the approved list.

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

Can your PC see your 360? It's under Library->Media Sharing in WMP 11.

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

No it doesn't. There's nothing listed there (i.e. the other two computers on the network).

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

can it actually successfully sign into xbox live?

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

Did you add Media Center Extender onto the PC? If you aren't running MCE or Vista you need to add it.

This http://forums.xbox.com/1076872/ShowPost.aspx might help

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

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can it actually successfully sign into xbox live?

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Yes. I'm gonna try the media extender thing though.

edit: do I need to be running the media extender thing? that seems like i'd change my operating system from XP to XP media center edition

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

In Windows Media Player 11, there is a Windows Service installed like Media Discovery or something..

Go into your Windows -> Control Panel -> Admin Tools -> Services. And verify that this service is 'Started'. If it's not, then your server isn't serving thus the 360 wont find any computers. Try and start it, if it fails, look at the event log.

I drove my head into the wall for 8 hours on this problem. It lands up being 'Corrupted Cerficiates' in Windows Media Player. There's a link somewhere in the Xbox.com forums to a fix you can run to regenerate them. Once you get that service as 'started' you 360 will see the PC.

I've also assumed that in WMP11 Media Sharing, you see the XBOX360 as a potential client and gave it access..

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

Hope this helps, took me like 4 seconds of searching so you may have already seen it since you've been working on it for awhile it would seem. I am assuming you have XP with service pack 2 installed.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/pcsetup/xpsp2.htm

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

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No it doesn't. There's nothing listed there (i.e. the other two computers on the network).

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If your PC cannot see your 360 and your 360 cannot see your PC, it may be a networking instead of software issue. When my PC could not see my 360 it was because they had the same effective MAC address - I had previously set them that way for use with my cable modem and simply forgot to change them back. A small thing that it took me several months to [eventually/accidentally] figure out, since it's not something you generally bother to check! There's definitely no IP/MAC/etc conflicts in your network? Are you using DHCP through your router for your network/xbox?

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

Yes you have to run the media extender if you are using XP. Since it sounds like you didn't add this onto your comp, this should get it working.

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

@Thanir - but I'm running XP, not Media Center. I'd have to go out and buy Media Center to connect to the network like that right?

edit: err is media center just an add-on program for XP? Would it be bad for me to obtain a copy through torrent even though I'm running a legit copy of XP?

@Dire - There's no IP conflicts for sure, I have the IP set manually but I'll check the MAC address. What do I need to check for DHCP settings? Should they be the same on my xbox as on my computer.

edit: where can I find the MAC address of my computer?

@BBC Z I checked for media discovery in my services and didn't see it. I followed the steps from Thanir's previous links to fix my services though.

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

Media Extender is a free program, I use it for my XP comp to XBOX connection. Its a very small program, was free, and is very easy to use. Go get it.

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

Ok I think I figured out the confusion. I got my 360 at launch day, and it seems like the way things work is a bit different. The instructions on how to set things up seem different as it seems like the Extender stuff is built into the Zune software? I didn't quite understand rjoefish's post until I saw the page before it http://www.xbox.com/en-US/pcsetup/alldownloads.htm . I would say following the instructions on the page he linked should fix all your issues.

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

FWIW, I never installed anything except WMP 11 (particularly - no media extender) and have had no problems with sharing between my XP SP2 PC and the 360.

RE: TheSalche, if you're using DHCP then your settings should be the same for your PC and your 360. I was mostly curious about how you were assigning network IPs: manually/static, DHCP, or 'static' DHCP. Helps narrow down where any networking issues might be.

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

Dire - I've been assigning network ips manually, the important things on my network (i.e. my computer & the 360) are set statically. My roommate's computers are not, but I don't see how that could be an issue.

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

Another update: Installed the Zune software, followed the steps exactly, etc and the part where I am getting stuck at (same place in WMP11 basically) is that my PC cannot see the 360. Gonna go and check the MAC addresses now.

edit: Dire, I just checked ipconfig and it said my DHCP was NOT enabled. Could that be it?

double edit: mac address is not the problem

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

bumpidy

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

Don't bother checking your mac address - on your PC, click start, goto run and type 'cmd' then hit enter.

then, in the window that appears, type "ping 192.168.2.1" or whatever your xbox's IP address is (generally starts with 192.168...) let me know if you get a Reply or a Request Timed out.

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

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Dire - I've been assigning network ips manually, the important things on my network (i.e. my computer & the 360) are set statically. My roommate's computers are not, but I don't see how that could be an issue.

[/ QUOTE ]

This could be the problem. If you're mixing DHCP with static assignments without specifying a mutually exclusive range for the DHCP, you could get an IP conflict (DHCP assigns your roommates PC an address you've assigned to the 360) which would interfer with communication between your PC and the 360.

Even if this isn't the problem, you should go ahead and specify that DHCP start at a range beyond what you assigned. This should be simple to change in your router. If you're assigning 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.20 or whatever, then just have the DHCP start at 192.168.1.100.

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

@BrookTrout I got Request timed out error message

@Dire I set the DHCP to be 200 which is over our IP addresses (those are in the 100 range).

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

No IP conflict, no MAC conflict, no potential for DHCP problems. You definitely have the right ports open on your router? This is likely a networking problem since neither machine can even see the other, but it's really hard to diagnose anything besides basic conflicts without alot more information.

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

Have you tried enabling DMZ on your 360/PC to ensure that it's absolutely not some sort of a firewall issue?

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

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Have you tried enabling DMZ on your 360/PC to ensure that it's absolutely not some sort of a firewall issue?

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Sort of sounds like his PC firewall is preventing the 360 from seeing it. I could be way offbase here of course.

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

Just a shot in the dark, but if your subnet mask is setup correctly on both your xbox and pc (should be 255.255.255.0) then you should be able to ping - do you use a wireless card in your PC? It's happened before with one client, where they were connecting to their neighbours' wireless network (which had the same network name as their own).

Edit: DMZ won't affect 2 NIC's inside the same subnet. If you want to test your Firewall (Assuming Win XP), try turning it off completely (Windows Firewall within the Control Panel). If you have Norton Firewall installed, try turning that off also - it's pretty paranoid when it comes to granting access... It would have to be pretty strict to not allow ping requests to bounce-back however.

More edit: just to give us a better idea, can you find out the IP's for your Xbox and PC and post them (internal IP's, starting with 192.168...) also, can you ping the Xbox's IP from another computer on the network?

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

My 360 cannot be pinged within my network, and everything works fine, and this is on a wired connection. Regarding DMZ, I am not certain whether it impacts intra-subnet communications. Given that they're not completely transparent, it should - but networking is not my field. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

It cannot hurt to try.

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

Dire,

Do you have a software firewall running on the PC in question? I've had similar sounding problems in the past on my home network with a computer not being able to see another computer on the network because I forget to make them part of the trusted group (or whatever that is called on your particular flavor of firewall).

Re: XBox 360 won\'t connect to our network
 

I can share between my 360/PC just fine. Was responding to Brook regarding my ping timing out, since not being able to ping doesn't necessarily mean a problem.