NAT Type: Strict (Pulling Hair Out)

[Haunter]

Hey guy's.

So about a month ago I'd wrote a thread about having troubles with WI-Fi for a Bungalow regarding an Xbox One, Gaming PC and a few other items.

I took some advise and purchase a Powerline Adapter, which was okay but I made a boo and didn't get WI-FI ones which left me with a lack of connections for the all devices I needed to setup.

I then tried something a bit randomly, I bought another router (TP-Link WR940N) an plugged my Powerline Adapter into that which then generated a new SSID for WI-FI and gave me 4 wired connections.

Everything was working fine.. until i noticed the NAT Type: Strict on my Xbox One which only allows me to join Multiplayer Games, It doesn't allow you to host them or join Party Chat which is mainly the reason for owning an Xbox One.

So! I went to Google, I've attempted Port Forwarding with rough guides, I've reset and rebooted both routers. I've tried using DMZ I've tried switching from wired to Wi-Fi. I've hard reset the console, I've edited Network Settings on the console and I still can't get it to change to Open.

My current setup is as follows.. An I'm sure there's probably a little too much going on there and some of it maybe conflicts with something but I really am at a loss now, I know very little about Networking besides what I've picked up from Google.

Virgin Media Super Hub v2.0 (Front room)
Plugged into Powerline Adapter (Front Room)
Powerline Adapter (Bedroom)
TP-Link "TL-WR940N" (Bedroom)
Xbox One, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC, FireTV Stick.

Does anyone have any advice on how to fix this because all I've got left is Black Magic and maybe some Voodoo sacrificial lamb stuff to try?

 

[L0stpr0phet]

Pretty sure you should be able to get an open NAT on the XB1 with that setup.

Is the bedroom router setup as just an access point with DHCP disabled so that the VM router is doing the addressing??

Do you use the other consoles too? any issues with those?
I've had problems in the past getting multiple xbox's to run with Open NAT at the same time but i assume your just using one at a time?

 

[Steveocee]

How have you set up the additional wireless access point? Is it just as an access point or could you have set it up as a router giving it's own IP's and NAT?

In the OP you didn't mention if it was actually working before, just that you had a problem and you bought powerlines which alone wouldn't have fixed your NAT problem.

Either, the NAT didn't get opened in the first place and you've set the new wireless AP up correctly
-or-
You solved the NAT problem originally and by adding the wireless AP you may have double NAT'd your XBOX which is why it is closed again.

 

[xGBHxPegasus]

You solved the NAT problem originally and by adding the wireless AP you may have double NAT'd your XBOX which is why it is closed again.

Sounds like this.

Your need to turn most of the features off on the bedroom router (so it acts as a switch + Wireless AP). At the moment is sounds like the virgin is acting as the main router and then passing the internet to the bedroom router who is thinking its the main router.

 

[Haunter]

The network adapters was just to get wired Internet into the bedroom and I haven't done anything setting wise on the router in the bedroom I just plugged it in, installed the cd and connected everything. I had very little wifi signal before and it kept dropping when I used the front room router wifi connection for the Xbox one but it had an open nat, how would I go about making the second router in the bedroom work like you say with (switch + wireless ap)?

 

[~Divine~Wind~]

instaleld the CD? what Archaic setup is this?

Back to basics as I think you making it more complicated than it needs to be.
Xbox one ethernet to superhub, does it work? Yes
Xbox one PLA to superhub, does it work? Yes
Xbox thru second router, does it work? No

Knock all the settings off on the 2nd router, firewall, DHCP, and make it as dumb as you can.

 

[joeyjojo]

how would I go about making the second router in the bedroom work like you say with (switch + wireless ap)?

As Haunter says, but it depends on what the AP is capable of and it may not be possible with that unit. I'm not an expert but will have a go..

AFAICT you'll want to turn off DHCP, any firewall/filtering, and port forwarding so that's all left to your Super Hub. You say you have 4 wired connections on it which makes it sound like you connected it to the powerline by the WAN socket? To use it as a switch you need to have it connected through one of the 4 regular sockets (so you'll only have 3 left for other devices). Start with that, save, reboot and give it a try.

 

[bledd]

This is because you have 2x routers. don't use the WAN port on the second router, disable DHCP and manually give it an IP that is outside the DHCP range of the first router.


IE, on the first router, if the IP range is 192.168.1.2-253, change the range on first router to 192.168.1.10-253.

Now manually set the IP of second router to 192.168.1.2 and disable the DHCP server on it. You'll need to connect up directly to one of the switch ports on the second router to do this and set your IP manually on the machine/laptop connecting up to set it.

Second router is now acting as a switch/access point after.


-


If this sounds complicated, just buy a 5 or8 port switch and use that instead of the second router and an access point.


If I were you, I'd ditch the powerline and run a network cable directly to the bedroom.

 

[Haunter]

Okay so i tried disabling all sorts of stuff and still got no change in the Strict movement.

Normally I would ditch the power line but this is not an option currently.

 

[bledd]

What have you disabled? on which device?

Which port on router 2 does the feed from router 1 go into?

 

[Haunter]

I disabled all the filtering, forwarding, dhcp on the router in the bedroom. (The second one) I plugged the power line adapter into port 1 instead of the wan port which carried the connection from the superhub to it but didn't generate any wifi signal it also didn't help change nat type on the Xbox one

So I then tried to change it all back but now I can't access my settings and am now in a worse position than I was before lol

 

[bremen1874]

Out of the box the TP-Link's IP address will probably clash with the Super Hub's IP address. I believe they both use 192.168.0.n subnets and 192.168.0.1 for management.

Try the following:

1. Reset the TP-Link to default settings and reconfigure it before you connect it to the Super Hub.
2. Change its management IP to something other than 192.168.0.1 (e.g. 192.168.0.2) and disable DHCP.
3. Check that the Super Hub isn't going to issue the IP address chosen above via DHCP.
4. Connect the two routers together LAN-to-LAN.

If it all works you should be able to access the TP-Link via the chosen IP address and configure the wireless as you want. You can ignore all of the filtering and forwarding rules as they won't do anything.

 

[Haunter]

So! I reset the second router settings to factory, re-installed it and instead had it clone the MAC address of the original router (I think that's what I did) An it's some how fixed my NAT Type.. Fingers crossed because when I go back knowing my luck it'll be broken again ahah!

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[bremen1874]

Are you just picking options at random? Depending on what exactly you've done you may now have two devices on the network with the same MAC; and that's never going to be a good thing.

 

[Haunter]

Well the NAT fixed it self. I then couldn't connect to EA Servers on FIFA 16. I was advised to hard reset my console which then turned my NAT back to Strict.

An yes I'm genuinely guessing with settings on the second router as I have zero knowledge about this stuff.

The MAC setting was offered when I installed the 'Easy Setup' disc that came with my router. Instead of installing it yhe DHCP way.

 

[bremen1874]

You're trying to use the router in a slightly non-standard way. It's perfectly valid, but isn't going to be covered by setup disc options.

If the advice already offered doesn't get you working then search Google for 'router as access point' and you'll find loads of guides. It has also been covered numerous times on this forum.

The only features of the router you'll be using are the switch (which will require zero configuration) and the wireless. The rest of the configuration is just to avoid you having two DHCP servers on the network and to allow you to access it for configuration.

 

[Steveocee]

So! I reset the second router settings to factory, re-installed it and instead had it clone the MAC address of the original router (I think that's what I did) An it's some how fixed my NAT Type.. Fingers crossed because when I go back knowing my luck it'll be broken again ahah!

Thanks for the help guys.

So in short you reset the thing and ignored all the advice given?

Why would you clone the original Mac? Is not needed, you just need a flat network.

 

[Haunter]

Because I went through the advice first and I'm not entirely sure I did everything properly. An in turn I lost more of a connection than what I had in the first place, So i reverted it back to how it was before the advice so I could at least get back on here again.

 

[Haunter]

Okay so I found a WikiHow page that explained things differently.. Which I think is similar to the advice above..

I've now got the same WIFI SSID on Router 2 and Router 1. the DHCP is disabled on Router 2. I'd set a static IP for Router 2 into Router 1 settings an everything cabled is working fine.. and my NAT type is back to open..

So i think I've done properly now what was advised above? lol.

 

[Steveocee]

Okay so I found a WikiHow page that explained things differently.. Which I think is similar to the advice above..

I've now got the same WIFI SSID on Router 2 and Router 1. the DHCP is disabled on Router 2. I'd set a static IP for Router 2 into Router 1 settings an everything cabled is working fine.. and my NAT type is back to open..

So i think I've done properly now what was advised above? lol.

Sounds about right.