0

I have an issue with our house network that I can't figure out how to solve. I'll try to detail the symptoms as best I can, but please feel free to ask me for clarifications and I'll try to find any data you need.

My issue is one of connectivity. I seem to be having trouble connecting to peers and certain servers. One symptom is the fact that torrents can literally take several days to start, but once they're connected to a peer it will stay connected and keep downloading at a fast and steady pace.

The other large symptom is the fact that Xbox Live is incredibly hard to use on my Xbox 360. Connecting to Live takes multiple attempts (sometimes 5, sometimes I give up after trying to connect for 90 minutes straight), as does every other connection step along the way; trying to join a chat party, getting into a multiplayer match, etcetera. For some reason, I'm disconnected every time I go to the dashboard too, so my connection doesn't like whatever it is the Live server is doing whenever you switch games. Additionally, I'm kicked off of Xbox Live every 2 hours. (However, this time limit fluctuates; sometimes I can be on for 6 hours straight with no issues and sometimes I'm thrown out after just 10 minutes. 90% of the time it's 2 hours though.)

A major problem on top of this is the fact that my entire apartment building is on one gigabit connection, routed through a NetGear ProSafe router owned by my landlord. I can't just sign up for my apartment's own connection, as the house is a converted office building and isn't wired with anything but CAT5 cables running from the basement.

One more detail is that this seems to be load-based. In early mornings, when people are still asleep, the issues are almost completely gone. In prime time evenings, though, trying to use the connection is a nightmare.

Is the issue that the ProSafe can't handle about 50 apartments trying to connect, or is there a setting that's too strict and ends up bottlenecking the house, causing these issues? Any tips or clues would be appreciated, as I can neither get my own connection nor move to a different place very easily and this issue is absolutely maddening for a huge gamer like myself.

Jay
  • 1
  • What's your ISP? What kind of contract do you have? Is this just one subscription for the entire building? Or you have your own? – MariusMatutiae Oct 16 '13 at 13:17
  • What's the rated internet speed that your apartment is subscribed to (15/5 , 25/10 , 5/1)? Who is your ISP (Time Warner, Verizon, Comcast)? Do they run fiber or coax from the pole to the apartment complex? – MonkeyZeus Oct 16 '13 at 13:28
  • If you open up a `cmd` session in Windows and do `ping google.com` during peak and down times, what kind of difference are you seeing in terms of milliseconds (ms) – MonkeyZeus Oct 16 '13 at 13:31
  • @MariusMatutiae It's one connection that's owned by the landlord. The service is that we can just plug in a CAT5 into the wall and get online immediately, the minus, of course, is the above issue. And the fact that I can't sign up for a private connection as the cabling isn't there. – Jay Oct 16 '13 at 14:01
  • You might find that you can get an own connection, with the network service provider making the connection in the basement to your apartment's Cat5. If your landlord *actually* has a gigabit connection into the building, he or she should probably divide the bandwidth to keep you folks happier - 50 apartments fighting over a gigbit connection is a lot more contentious than 50 apartments each given 20Mbit of the gigabit, without any opportunity to hog the whole thing. Most any smart switch can do that, if asked. You may have gigabit to the basement and less than that out of the building. – Ecnerwal Oct 16 '13 at 14:03
  • @MonkeyZeus Wish I knew what kind of cabling there is, but my landlord very likely doesn't even know himself. He's not a very reliable, honest guy nor a very serious businessman. He just inherited the house from his daddy and is using it to fund his wannabe-playboy lifestyle, heh. The house appears to be on a shared 50/50 connection from running several speed tests, which sounds awful for a whole building but it's actually not bad speed-wise. When torrents do start and I actually get into online matches, they both run at more than acceptable speeds. The real issue is the limited connectivity. – Jay Oct 16 '13 at 14:05
  • But do you actually know the line speed? All you have said so far is the quality of the cable inside the building, not of the line. At some time when there is least congestion, go to the Web page www.speedtest.net, and perform a test. Then pls post the results. – MariusMatutiae Oct 16 '13 at 14:05
  • If the line coming into the complex is 50/50 then that should be plentiful for most situations unless other people are using a disproportionate amount of bandwidth. If the evening hours consist of people watching youtube, netflix, torrenting, and gaming then there is unfortunately nothing you can do. You also have to remember that a wifi router in someones' apartment can service multiple devices like phones, tablets, laptops, TVs, xBoxs, PS3s, etc so 50 apartments does not equate to 50 connections but most likely 200 or more. – MonkeyZeus Oct 16 '13 at 14:53
  • You should simply research if the ISP can provide a dedicated box for you and link it to your cat5 cable in the basement but you do run the risk of having someone else unplug you and plug themselves in if this setup is out in the open. – MonkeyZeus Oct 16 '13 at 14:56
  • I've been running pings to google at various times over the past two days, most notably yesterday when I could connect to Xbox Live instantly and the day before, when it took over 20 minutes to finally connect. Ping times for both times were below 10ms, on average below 5ms. No real change despite the issues connecting. At one point, it did drop to around 30ms for a little bit even that's an acceptable response time IMO. I very much appreciate the help but I don't think speed is the problem... – Jay Oct 18 '13 at 08:14

1 Answers1

0

I also had the same problems with my console. There are many ways you can actually fix this:

  • One way is you can go to your network settings then press go offline. Then a little bit later press go online.

  • Another way to solve the problem is by restarting your console. You should completely unplug all the wires and reboot it.

  • My last way to solve it is if you get your router and connect it directly to your Xbox. Also try unconnecting the router then reconnecting.

MJH
  • 1,115
  • 4
  • 13
  • 20
Gamer101
  • 1
  • Please read the question again carefully. Your answer does **not** answer the original question, which is asking how to diagnose the root cause of a problem that is not limited to his Xbox. – DavidPostill Feb 19 '17 at 21:00