I’m not an IT guy, I’m a hack. Not a hacker either, just a hack. I hack at stuff until I get it to work. I can jailbreak iphones, mod systems, fix TVs, Tivos and computers. I liken myself to a monkey, I don’t invent any of this stuff but with a good guide I can piece stuff together. And if you give me 2 or 3 bad guides I can work it out too.

Recently I got a new router. When I got it, I had to make it work for Modern Warfare 2. I’m really not sure why this is such a hard thing these days, everything should plug and chug but it doesn’t. If you enter parties in Modern Warfare and keep getting booted (GHR_Superman) or if the Xbox Live Party keeps disbanding when you enter then you need to do the following. It’s not that hard and I’m going to explain it as simply as possible.

How can I tell if I need to do this?
In Modern Warfare 2 you can see your NAT Type:

• If it says Open, stop reading this and go play some MW2.  You will see this if you are direct connected to the internet (no router) or if your router is configured properly.
• If it says Moderate, you are behind a router and not all the ports that Xbox requires are open.  Keep reading.
• If it says Strict, you are behind a router and all the ports that Xbox requires are not open.  Keep reading.

Basically if you’re Moderate or Strict you’re going to have compatibility problems with other people who are moderate or strict.  The below chart explains when you’re going to have a problem.  Thanks to this site

-	To Open	To Moderate	To Strict
From Open	YES	YES	YES
From Moderate	YES	YES	NO
From Strict	YES	NO	NO

How to I get to Open NAT?

Step 1: Give your Xbox a Static IP Address

This isn’t that hard but it takes some work and some persistence.  First thing I did was give my Xbox a static IP address.  You can choose either a dynamic IP address or a static IP address.  Dynamic is typically easy, basically it is telling the router to choose an IP address for your device.  So when the PS3 comes on it gives it an address (192.168.0.X).  Where X is usually 1, 2, 3, 4, etc…For this instant I chose something high 192.168.0.78

Rather than steal all the information or make my own screenshots I’m going to ask you to go here.  That site tells you how to set your IP.  The one change I’m going to suggest is the DNS server.  I just installed the free Google DNS server here.  Primary address is  8.8.8.8 and Secondary Address is 8.8.4.4

Step 2: Set up a DMZ

For a lot of routers they have an option for a Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).  If your router has that option, welcome to easy fix.  Now that your Xbox has a static IP, just put that static IP into the DMZ.

The above shows a screenshot from the router software I’m using.  Your software will be different but you’re looking for DMZ.  Then you will plug in your static IP address (192.168.0.78 using the above example).  If that’s done, check your NAT and you should be fine.  Go play Modern Warfare.

Step 3 :

So your router doesn’t have a DMZ.  Sucks.  But all is not lost.  You need to manually open ports.  It isn’t that hard but I admit I had difficulties when I was doing this step.

Xbox LIVE requires the following ports to be open:

• TCP 80
• UDP 88
• UDP 3074
• TCP 3074
• UDP 53
• TCP 53

How to open them is dependant upon your router.  This website might help you out.  They even offer a program that can do this all for you ($20).  Step 3 was obtained from this guide from Microsoft.