Xbox360 can't get IP address from my WRT54GL?

St0rmer66 · 10 Aug 2008 at 22:47

Having a bit of trouble with it and I don't know what else to try. It's worth noting to anyone with no knowledge of an Xbox360 that it should behave exactly like any other PC on a network, I put in the exact same details as I do on this computer (which gets an IP address from the same router with no issues).

Currently goes:

Sky Router -> (DMZ) -> WRT54GL (DD-WRT firmware) -> This computer AND Xbox360

It's all wired, but through homeplugs. The Sky router to the WRT54GL is through homeplugs, as is the Xbox to the WRT54GL.

Sky Router/Modem (Sagem): It's LAN IP address is 192.168.0.1, Subnet is 255.255.255.255.

WRT54GL: Gets its IP from the Sky router on a reserved address of 192.168.0.2 but it's LAN IP to all of its "clients" is the default 192.168.1.1. Subnet is 255.255.255.0.

This computer:

IP: 192.168.1.66 (reserved on the WRT54GL)
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.1
DNS: 192.168.1.1

Has been like this for well over a year and have had no problems with it. My dads laptop is also set up exactly the same but with 192.168.1.67 on wireless and it connects every time.

Xbox360:

IP: 192.168.1.52 (reserved on the WRT54GL)
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.1
DNS: 192.168.1.1

This is how it was set up while I was on cable and it worked perfectly, allowing me to access the internet and use it as a media extender. Since adding in the Sky router (Sagem) it's stopped working completely despite me making no changes to the way it should get it's IP on the router. When testing the connection it fails when trying to get the IP address, which is what makes no sense to me. Why can the PC get the IP address but the Xbox360 can't? I've tried just putting it on DHCP and setting it to automatically get it's IP address but it then gets an IP address from the Sky router which it can't use (no ports forwarded for it, etc).

Anyone any ideas of what to try? I'm no expert on networks but as far as I can see I'm not doing anything wrong, which makes fault finding quite hard.

Thanks in advance for any help/ideas and sorry for the long read.

Berserker · 11 Aug 2008 at 03:57

My first suspicion would be with your homeplug devices. I've had them fail without warning so it's worth making absolutely sure they're all working. If they are, then I'd check the configuration of all the homeplugs carefully. By your description the most likely answer is that the homeplug near the Xbox is connecting directly to the one near the Sky router and bypassing the WRT completely. Running two homeplug networks over the same house wiring is far from an ideal solution.

St0rmer66 · 11 Aug 2008 at 17:49

Thanks for the reply.

The homeplug is working fine because if I unplug the WRT from the connection to the sky router, it allows me to use the Xbox as a media extender again. On the other point though you may have a point

. Unfortunately there is no other way for me to wire it up so I might be in trouble! I don't like wireless and for streaming video it's not up to the job. Despite the distance from the Xbox to the WRT being short distance wise, I expect in terms of wire length it is longer than to the Sky router. Is there a way to make the Sky router invisible to the Xbox? Or is it an impossible situation?

Berserker · 11 Aug 2008 at 22:25

Look in the documentation/software that came with the homeplugs. There should be suitable options. When programming, you'd be well advised to unplug all but the one you're actually programming at the time.

This won't stop the signals interfereing with each other though, but I agree on what you said about wireless. I had the same problem and went homeplug for the same reason. When one of the units died I strung a Cat5 as a backup while waiting for the replacement unit. That Cat5 is still there.

St0rmer66 · 11 Aug 2008 at 23:23

The homeplugs just came "OEM" style with no documentation that I can remember. I've never actually set them up, just plugged them in. Should I be able to just connect to them like a router?

Berserker · 11 Aug 2008 at 23:40

That'll be why you're having trouble then - they're usually all configured the same way, so chances are all four have formed a single network. That'll make for some interesting routing issues.

Look on the manufacturer website if you didn't get a CD-ROM with the homeplugs.

St0rmer66 · 11 Aug 2008 at 23:58

I will investigate further tomorrow, it's a bit late now

. Thanks for the help so far, I will update this thread with my progress.

Quick edit: after a google it seems that they would have come with a CD, just need to dig it out now!

x Darkchild · 12 Aug 2008 at 03:50

As the others said just make sure that your homeplugs are actually two different connections and not one. Also try turning the firewall completely off on the lynksis router. The other solution could be to try to set up a static network - i dont know if your router is using DHCP or not?.

St0rmer66 · 12 Aug 2008 at 22:40

Okay, I got the software installed for the homeplugs. It's not really all that helpful though, I can't create networks like I want to

. It only allows me to make it either "public" or "private" (where only the ones I've entered the password for go into a network). I wonder if I could use this to create a public network and private network but allow the private ones to access the public ones?

However, after disconnecting the sky router homeplug completely (leaving just the other two) I have discovered that it STILL won't get an IP address from the router... which it used to do before. After some more thought I realised this problem actually started before I even got the Sky router installed so I was still on Cable and using the WRT as my primary router. This makes me think it's not a homeplug issue perhaps? I've tried swapping them around a bit to see if that worked but to no avail.

I've turned off the SPI firewall on the WRT, put the Xbox in a DMZ and tried with just the ports open but none have had any effect. I can do static routing, but I'm not quite sure how it works so an explanation would be welcome! I take it the destination IP would be the Xbox360's IP and the subnet 255.255.255.0, but what about the gateway? Would that just be 192.168.1.1 of the WRT? Not quite sure what it's supposed to do..