I’ve worked for an ISP for a number of years and from what I’m reading in here, it sounds like there are potentially a couple of problems that you’re highlighting here but they aren’t apart of the problem you’re experiencing on your Xbox One so I’ll break down a few things here that are going to help you get the best results possible for your Xbox experience;
NAT issues
NAT issues can be quite common, especially if you’re using multiple Xbox One units in the same household. If you’re like most people and you just have the one Xbox One console, your best bet to ensure your NAT is always open is to set up a DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) on your router. I’ll spare you all of the details but this essentially tells your router “Hey I want THIS particular IP address on the network to have FULL access to the internet with no exceptions or blocked ports to the outside world” <-- because of this, you should NEVER DMZ a PC, tablet, etc on your network. You’re opening yourself up to a world of hurt but we can make the exception with an Xbox One console as it’s a pretty closed and secure environment.
So how do we get our Xbox One console ready to become associated with our routers DMZ? Well, as @GalacticGeek mentioned, we need to set a Static IP on our Xbox One console. We can do this via the Xbox One’s Settings > Network options.
Now it’s important to make sure the IP address you’re giving your console is an IP address that sits in your actual network. This is dictated by your router’s IP address and your Subnet Mask. Sound complicated? It’s not. Let’s use the example below;
Let’s say I have a Netgear router. To log into this router and play around with my routers settings, I can log in via it’s IP address which is traditionally going to look like 192.168.0.1. Other routers might have 192.168.1.1, 10.1.1.1, etc. Let’s stick with the Netgear’s IP address for this example though.
The details I’d then set up on my Xbox One (via Settings > Network > Set Manually) would appear as follows;
IP Address: 192.168.0.21 (read below)*
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.0.1 (this is your gateway to the internet aka, your router)
* Now the IP Address I’ve given my Xbox One is 192.168.0.21. Why didn’t I write 192.168.0.2? Or 192.168.0.3, etc instead? Well I absolutely can do this if I really want to and it’s generally best practice to neatly order your network like this however I use the address ending in .21 as this sits out of a general routers DHCP Table and will ensure that if my router is being silly, I’m not going to be negatively impacted. This is a personal preference for me and I’ll spare you all of the details but I will always have my devices that I’m manually setting, sit outside of that default DHCP Table set in my router. (We don’t need to learn about DHCP tables this evening though).
Okay so once I’ve done this, I need to power down my Xbox One after it has saved these settings and I need to let my router know that it’s okay to set up a DMZ for my Xbox One’s IP Address now.
Most modem routers will let you DMZ an IP Address. Depending on the vendor, it may be tucked away on your modem routers interface but once you log into your modem router (http://192.168.0.1 for the Netgear example I have above), I’d find it on the index on the left.
Once I type in my 192.168.0.21 into the DMZ entry, I would save this change to my modem router and then power cycle it.
Once the modem router is turned back on and has reconnected to the internet, power up the Xbox One again and you should always have Open NAT now.
Fluctuating Speeds
Fluctuating speeds is a real pain but to get to the crux of the issue, we need to firstly acknowledge a few things that can be causing this fluctuating speed so to leave no stone unturned, lets list a few reasons we might be experiencing this (in no particular order);
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We’re using wireless! Wireless isn’t always a constant and can be prone to experiencing a lot of interference. Always use Ethernet while troubleshooting. If you find that Ethernet is working fine, we can conclude that the issue is a wireless problem (I’ll maybe write up how we can fix this another time if the feedback to this post is requesting it)
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We’re getting packetloss! This is something that you do need to be aware of. If your internet connection can experience this and this can be caused by your router (which will generally be the cause) or it’s an issue at the internet provider level. Don’t ever assume it’s not an issue with your home set up because 9 times out of 10 it always is (don’t be that guy/girl that arrogantly assumes your provider is at fault. Check everything!)
To determine if packetloss is a factor in your particular circumstances, you can test this on your computer however please make sure that you; Unplug every other device from your router first (including your Xbox One), make sure there are no downloads running in the background and make sure you’re testing over Ethernet, not over Wireless (refer to the above dot point).
If you’re using a Windows machine (most of you should be as you should be playing KI on your PC as well!) you want to open up Command Prompt and you want to type in the following command;
ping QQQ.QQQ.QQQ.QQQ -n 100
The QQQ.QQQ.QQQ.QQQ should be your internet providers DNS. You can usually get this from your internet providers website or by phoning them. Using your providers DNS ensures you’re getting an optimum network path from you to your internet provider and will help narrow down if packetloss is caused by your internet provider or by your router.
The command we’ve written above says “Hey, I’m going to send you (you’re ISP’s DNS) 100 messages and I want to you respond to those 100 messages and then tell me if any didn’t reach you”. When we hit enter after writing this command we’ll see each message getting sent out and once it has finished we’ll get something that looks like this;
Ping statistics for QQQ.QQQ.QQQ.QQQ:
Packets: Sent = 100, Received = 100, Lost = 0 (0% loss)
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 21ms, Maximum = 22ms, Average = 21ms
If we get more than 3% loss with the above, test an alternate router/contact your ISP. You have an issue.
The final two things that could be causing you grief with your service is Congestion (which is your connection being overloaded at a provider level, causing your speed to get artificially slowed down by your provider and is uncommon in Australia at least {again I’ll refrain from explaining this unless I get specific requests asking for more info and what you can and can’t do about it}) or an Xbox update has done something weird to your console (which is extremely unlikely, aside from that recent update to get better throughput when downloading games/updates on the Xbox One).
I think that covers everything (I’m writing this as I sit here working so apologies if there are typo’s or what not). If any of you want to learn more about networking or internet related ANYTHING for your Xbox needs, send me a private message and I will try to help out where I can.
