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Xbox one best settings?
Bottom line up front: I am in search of the settings that provide the best online experience specifically for Advanced Warfare (single xbox setup). I.E. provide the lowest latency experience.
No I am not having any significant issues and yes I have the latest firmware. And I have the xbox setup with a reserved IP address (Static IP). I connect with a wired connection using CAT 6 Cables from modem to router and router to xbox. I have Home Telecom for ISP from Moncks Corner SC, I have cable internet 50 mbps down and 10 mbps up.
Things I wish to address/ ask questions about:
Question #1: UPnP, Port forwarding, or DMZ? I can get an open NAT with any of these but which one will provide the lowest latency?
Question #2: Firewall, what are the best settings for xbox live? And if DMZ is used do these settings even matter?
Question #3: MTU some claim this makes a difference I have played with it but can't tell for sure if it affected latency. Will it improve latency to change the MTU to something lower than the default 1500?
Question #4 (Big Question): QoS, First of all the 2 besides the upstream. Wireless WMM, enable or dis enable? Downstream, I notice a custom rule can be setup to the xbox's MAC address, would this help or make latency worse? And finally, the upstream QoS, enable obviously....
Click Qos priority rule list; setup QoS rule and it shows the current rules and allows more to be created. By default xbox applications is only set to high while Skype and other useless things to me are set as highest. I changed everything that was preset as highest to high except for Netgear EVA (Not even sure what that is, anyone know?). And I set the xbox rule to Highest. So in summary Xbox and Netgear EVA are the only two set to highest everything else is something lower.
So to sum up Question #4: did i do more damage than good or is there an even better setup for this? I noticed I can setup custom rules and even just setup rules for the LAN port or MAC address, would either of those be better options?
Question #5: I know when setting up most QoS you have to put in your bandwidth and it must be something lower than your actual or else it all falls apart. (I.E. i get 10 mbps upstream, when I enter my upstream bandwidth in the router I must put something lower than what I actually get. Speed test vary from about 8 to 9 mbps, therefore i must put a value into the router no more than 8) When I click the button for speed test it auto puts in about 9.66 mbps. but i know sometimes i get less than that from my isp especially during peak times. So I conservatively set the upstream in the router to 8, does anybody see a problem with this or know why this QoS system would be different from others?
Recap: Upstream bandwidth actual vs. value place in router.
Question #6: Will turning off the wireless radios improve the wired connection latency or stability? and if so, would using a second router as an access point to handle the wireless side be a good option?
Question #7 (Last one): DNS servers. I can change them on the xbox itself, would it make any difference for the xbox if;
I let the xbox get DNS automatically and changed the router's DNS to google's (8.8.8.8),
rather than leaving the default ISP DNS in the router and manually changing them on the xbox to google's DNS?
Okay, so a lot of questions, I am not here to argue about the placeable effect and yes I understand that lag cannot be completely gotten rid of and it depends on many factors. The defaults work just fine but I have been playing Call of Duty for many years now with multiple ISP's and many different routers and setups I have learned that tweaking a setup just right gives people with no skill (like me) a nice advantage in most games. And if you combine the right setup with actual skill, well....You have all seen that person that is impossible to kill and you swear is hacking so you report them, but guess what they were not hacking. I know because I had a good setup once with verizon Fios and i was accused of cheating all the time. Unfortunately I cannot get Fiber optic internet where I live now.
Also, with everything I have tried so far, the Nighthawk is by far the best router I have ever used and I have already improved my average K/D after owning it for only a few days now.
No I am not having any significant issues and yes I have the latest firmware. And I have the xbox setup with a reserved IP address (Static IP). I connect with a wired connection using CAT 6 Cables from modem to router and router to xbox. I have Home Telecom for ISP from Moncks Corner SC, I have cable internet 50 mbps down and 10 mbps up.
Things I wish to address/ ask questions about:
Question #1: UPnP, Port forwarding, or DMZ? I can get an open NAT with any of these but which one will provide the lowest latency?
Question #2: Firewall, what are the best settings for xbox live? And if DMZ is used do these settings even matter?
Question #3: MTU some claim this makes a difference I have played with it but can't tell for sure if it affected latency. Will it improve latency to change the MTU to something lower than the default 1500?
Question #4 (Big Question): QoS, First of all the 2 besides the upstream. Wireless WMM, enable or dis enable? Downstream, I notice a custom rule can be setup to the xbox's MAC address, would this help or make latency worse? And finally, the upstream QoS, enable obviously....
Click Qos priority rule list; setup QoS rule and it shows the current rules and allows more to be created. By default xbox applications is only set to high while Skype and other useless things to me are set as highest. I changed everything that was preset as highest to high except for Netgear EVA (Not even sure what that is, anyone know?). And I set the xbox rule to Highest. So in summary Xbox and Netgear EVA are the only two set to highest everything else is something lower.
So to sum up Question #4: did i do more damage than good or is there an even better setup for this? I noticed I can setup custom rules and even just setup rules for the LAN port or MAC address, would either of those be better options?
Question #5: I know when setting up most QoS you have to put in your bandwidth and it must be something lower than your actual or else it all falls apart. (I.E. i get 10 mbps upstream, when I enter my upstream bandwidth in the router I must put something lower than what I actually get. Speed test vary from about 8 to 9 mbps, therefore i must put a value into the router no more than 8) When I click the button for speed test it auto puts in about 9.66 mbps. but i know sometimes i get less than that from my isp especially during peak times. So I conservatively set the upstream in the router to 8, does anybody see a problem with this or know why this QoS system would be different from others?
Recap: Upstream bandwidth actual vs. value place in router.
Question #6: Will turning off the wireless radios improve the wired connection latency or stability? and if so, would using a second router as an access point to handle the wireless side be a good option?
Question #7 (Last one): DNS servers. I can change them on the xbox itself, would it make any difference for the xbox if;
I let the xbox get DNS automatically and changed the router's DNS to google's (8.8.8.8),
rather than leaving the default ISP DNS in the router and manually changing them on the xbox to google's DNS?
Okay, so a lot of questions, I am not here to argue about the placeable effect and yes I understand that lag cannot be completely gotten rid of and it depends on many factors. The defaults work just fine but I have been playing Call of Duty for many years now with multiple ISP's and many different routers and setups I have learned that tweaking a setup just right gives people with no skill (like me) a nice advantage in most games. And if you combine the right setup with actual skill, well....You have all seen that person that is impossible to kill and you swear is hacking so you report them, but guess what they were not hacking. I know because I had a good setup once with verizon Fios and i was accused of cheating all the time. Unfortunately I cannot get Fiber optic internet where I live now.
Also, with everything I have tried so far, the Nighthawk is by far the best router I have ever used and I have already improved my average K/D after owning it for only a few days now.
- So with Black ops 3 coming out I wanted to make sure I was going to get the best experience that I could.
I did a lot of sole searching and research made the changes and did a proper reboot. So far my online experience is awesome and is like night and day compared to playing advanced warfare. I'm not sure if Black Ops 3 is the only reason or not but I will detail below what is currently working great for me.
On my modem (standard Xfinity modem/router with the 90/15 gb plan) I turned off the firewall completely and set to bridge mode. Then plugged my router into it. For the modem settings for me it was 10.0.0.1 and default username and password (admin and I can't remember PW but you can google it if you have Comcast.
On the nighthawk.
I updated the firmware.
Updated my time zone in the security menu.
Changed the DHCP reservation range to a max of .100
Setup Xbox with a reserved ip (static ip) of .150 (well outside the range of the reserved ips)
Setup port forwarding to the Xbox with
TCP: 80
UDP: 88, 500, 3544, 4500
Both: 53, 3074-3075, 3076, 1863, 16000
I left upnp on
Disabled SIP and set to open
Turned on upstream qos and used the built in speed test to set upload bandwidth.
Edited all default rules with a highest priority and changed to a high priority.
Changed the default Xbox priority from high to highest.
And set up a custom rule to my Xbox MAC address with highest priority.
On the Xbox:
I turned off Kinect and DVR
Left network ip settings to get automatically
But set dns manually (I use 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4)
On my TV:
Game mode on
All reductions and motion smoothing off.
If you have the option choose refresh rate as close to 60 hz as possible
Proper reboot after all settings changed:
Unplug router
Then unplug modem
Then fully turn off Xbox (hold power button until it turns off)
Wait 1 minute then turn on Xbox
After Xbox is on wait at least 5 minutes before plugging in modem.
Wait for modem to fully turn on
Then plug in router and wait for it to fully turn on
Once Xbox connects to XBL go to network settings and run multiplayer test. After test hold all triggers and bumpers until the next screen pops up.
Some of this may not matter but it's what I did and knock on wood I continue to have an amazing experience as I have had so far with black ops 3.
33 Replies
Replies have been turned off for this discussion
- Many questions, short answer! :D
I have only set NAT as open under WAN settings and deactivated UPnP. I do not have any issue in online gaming on Xbox or PS4!
The DHCP service of my router is administrating all my devices withput any problem.
I only modify router settings if I remark a connection problem, but as I do not have any problem, I did not make any modification in my router. Mainly you need only to activate UPnP, if you have connection errors during online gaming on your console.
QoS is disabled as my down- and upstream is so huge that the router will not have problems to manage my down- and upstream. But if you want to do activate QoS, then activate it... :D
If your upstream is lower than 2.5 Mbit/s than probably QoS should help. But if it is 5Mbit/s or even more then you should not need QoS. Only if you execute high-speed downloads with other devices during online gaming on your console, then QoS will help your router to avoid lags or game-server disconnects of your console. Check and then decide what is the best set up for your router. MetroStar1974 wrote:
I have only set NAT as open under WAN settings and deactivated UPnP. I do not have any issue in online gaming on Xbox or PS4!
Really? You didn't activate UPnP in your Router?
What is your PS4 connection test result, due to NAT-Type UPnP and "maybe ip fragments" problems?
kind regardswolfn wrote: Really? You didn't activate UPnP in your Router?
What is your PS4 connection test result, due to NAT-Type UPnP and "maybe ip fragments" problems?
kind regards
Yes, UPnP is disabled. No port forwarding rules set. My connection test result is absolutely normal. Downstream is approx. 45 Mbit/s and the upstream is like 5 to 6 Mbit/s. But his depends how busy are the PSN servers. NAT type is 2.
The "IP fragments" message is caused by PSN and not by the router or your ISP.
I change only settings, if I have connectivity problems or if a message appears during online gaming.- Thank you MetroStar1974 for the reply and you as well wolfn.
-wolfn; I do not have PS4 so I can't help you, I would suggest starting your own thread if you are having problems.
-MetroStar1974 you didn't really answer anything but thanks for trying, as I stated before I had no issues with default settings my quest is to improve latency that is all.
Although I had no problems with default settings I noticed a huge improvement in COD Advanced Warfare after changing some settings (Yes thats right open NAT does not mean your connection is the best it can be) This is what I have done with good results:
under advanced settings; WAN settings;
Disable port scan and dos protection checked
Default DMZ checked and my xbox's static ip address entered
Respond to ping on internet port and Disable IGMP parodying both unchecked
MTU default 1500
Disable SIP ALG checked then to the right open selected
Advanced settings; LAN setup:
at the bottom add reservation setup a static ip address
Advanced settings; QoS settings:
For upload check enable upstream QoS (optimized for gaming)
then click Setup QoS rule and delete all except for the xbox and Netgear EVA rules and change the xbox priority to highest and netgear eva to high.
The only other things I changed which should have no impact was the system time, wifi name and password router login password
Everything else is default UPnP enabled by default (shows xbox ip and port 3074 in the list) and I have no port forwarding rules setup.
Again I had open net and connected just fine without changing anything, however in games such as COD every millisecond counts and I noticed a big improvement with the above setup vs. defaults.
I hope this helps, again I do not claim to know much about routers, but please do not post unless you have something about improving latency beyond "Works Fine".
I'm also not here to argue if you search the internet deep enough you find posts from people who actually understand what is going on when you change different things but even people at that level don't agree about everything. At the end of the day you just have to try different things and see what works, keeping in mind that you can't completely get rid of lag and many things affect it such as time of day and even the TV that you use (if you don't know what I'm talking about look up TV input lag). - -MetroStar1974
Correction to my reply, you did answer a question about the WAN settings but you brought up another with it. I understand setting NAT to open, that is even on the xbox website for setting up this router. Was it necessary to disable UPnP? Did you try with it enabled first and then changed it because it caused lower latency or issues? - One other thing about upstream Qos is that I get 10 up from isp and by running speed check I get about 9. The value I set is 8 because it is required to input a lower value with most qos engines. It must have something to throttle therefore if you use 10 as the max but at the moment your isp is only giving you 8.5 then the engine doesn't work properly. If anybody knows if this qos engine is different please explain.
- Ok! You can also use your settings. Every connection is different and therefore the settings of your router could be also different for a better connection amd better latency.
I remarked that I improved speed and latency to the best using Google DNS. (my first DNS server is 8.8.4.4 and second server is 8.8.8.8, but you can also try to use it vice versa) MetroStar1974 wrote:
I remarked that I improved speed and latency to the best using Google DNS. (my first DNS server is 8.8.4.4 and second server is 8.8.8.8, but you can also try to use it vice versa)
I guess I'm having trouble reading where you said that, but anyways I'm not here to argue.
To clarify, Yes I agree Google DNS provides lower latency than my isp defaults. So this is what I'm trying to ask:
You can change the router DNS servers to google say 8.8.4.4 as primary
You can also change the DNS servers in the xbox through manual assignment, now when you do this the xbox will use whatever dns servers you input to the xbox regardless of what the router dns servers are.
Setting google dns servers in the router settings for both of the following scenarios;
Scenario 1: Xbox dns set to automatically grab from router, when you look in the network settings usually it will just show the 192.168.1.1 as the dns server when using this.
Scenario 2: Xbox dns set to manual assignment and then use google dns, now the xbox will use google dns no matter what the router dns settings are.
and when checking network settings will actually show the google dns servers.
So if by doing scenario 2, the xbox is somehow bypassing the router for dns resolution, then that would theoretically lower latency. or perhaps it still goes through the router and actually causes more latency by confusing things with the router settings. (similar to UPnP and port forwarding confusing each other).
Personally through my testing it seems a little better by setting it manually in the xbox vice the router, but testing takes many days to get a good idea of the actual difference, and is therefore far from complete.
I know its confusing because I am asking some off the wall questions and I am not sure what the best way to ask them is, so I hope this clarifies my question about DNS. And PLEASE don't respond to argue, only if you wish to add constructively to the purpose of this thread, otherwise start your own.
Opinions are welcome but I was more hoping that people who understand this stuff (I.E. have gone to school for this type of stuff) would give some reasoning for why one setting might provide lower latency than other settings, etc.- New Update important! Although everything worked like a dream at first i kept running into more and more issues. I checked the router log and saw many many unusual ports being opened to the xbox one (192.168.1.8) ports that are not used by xbox live.LAN access from remote] from 61.160.224.130:38426 to 192.168.1.8:32764, Friday, Dec 19,2014 09:34:47 [LAN access from remote] from 151.236.42.10:12861 to 192.168.1.8:5631, Friday, Dec 19,2014 09:32:38 [LAN access from remote] from 61.160.224.129:60069 to 192.168.1.8:8080, Friday, Dec 19,2014 09:31:26 [LAN access from remote] from 122.225.97.91:6000 to 192.168.1.8:22, Friday, Dec 19,2014 09:26:25 [LAN access from remote] from 162.253.128.163:13614 to 192.168.1.8:23011, Friday, Dec 19,2014 09:24:10 [LAN access from remote] from 192.210.233.162:33171 to 192.168.1.8:1900, Friday, Dec 19,2014 09:22:12 [LAN access from remote] from 60.173.11.195:6000 to 192.168.1.8:9064, Friday, Dec 19,2014 09:16:52 [LAN access from remote] from 195.64.208.167:29873 to 192.168.1.8:23011, Friday, Dec 19,2014 09:14:46 [LAN access from remote] from 218.77.79.43:54421 to 192.168.1.8:3389, Friday, Dec 19,2014 09:14:37 [LAN access from remote] from 89.46.100.25:54955 to 192.168.1.8:9064, Friday, Dec 19,2014 09:13:23 [LAN access from remote] from 222.244.215.213:55247 to 192.168.1.8:23, Friday, Dec 19,2014 09:12:26 [LAN access from remote] from 112.85.42.106:52982 to 192.168.1.8:9064, Friday, Dec 19,2014 09:10:40 [LAN access from remote] from 162.253.129.202:13614 to 192.168.1.8:23011, Friday, Dec 19,2014 09:09:30 [LAN access from remote] from 60.173.11.195:6000 to 192.168.1.8:9064, Friday, Dec 19,2014 09:07:09 [LAN access from remote] from 93.174.93.106:53672 to 192.168.1.8:143, Friday, Dec 19,2014 09:05:46 [LAN access from remote] from 107.160.10.74:46557 to 192.168.1.8:3128, Friday, Dec 19,2014 09:05:34 [LAN access from remote] from 89.99.0.16:57430 to 192.168.1.8:23011, Friday, Dec 19,2014 09:03:40 [LAN access from remote] from 121.125.71.200:9090 to 192.168.1.8:22, Friday, Dec 19,2014 09:02:52 [LAN access from remote] from 63.141.246.107:12200 to 192.168.1.8:9064, Friday, Dec 19,2014 09:00:45 [LAN access from remote] from 66.240.236.119:22552 to 192.168.1.8:1234, Friday, Dec 19,2014 09:00:16 [LAN access from remote] from 93.174.93.106:53672 to 192.168.1.8:22, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:59:18 [LAN access from remote] from 184.75.211.244:13614 to 192.168.1.8:23011, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:58:34 [LAN access from remote] from 189.68.182.204:6881 to 192.168.1.8:23011, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:52:39 [LAN access from remote] from 218.77.79.38:34876 to 192.168.1.8:3306, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:52:03 [LAN access from remote] from 60.173.10.166:6000 to 192.168.1.8:9064, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:50:55 [LAN access from remote] from 218.150.191.216:1548 to 192.168.1.8:53413, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:49:23 [LAN access from remote] from 50.56.25.41:2900 to 192.168.1.8:445, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:47:46 [LAN access from remote] from 122.225.109.202:6000 to 192.168.1.8:22, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:44:02 [LAN access from remote] from 60.173.11.227:6000 to 192.168.1.8:9064, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:41:44 [Time synchronized with NTP server] Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:41:31 [Internet connected] IP address: 98.124.111.89, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:41:26 [LAN access from remote] from 95.31.167.239:11660 to 192.168.1.8:23011, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:38:35 [LAN access from remote] from 108.61.126.52:2536 to 192.168.1.8:3389, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:36:31 [LAN access from remote] from 203.50.20.254:53 to 192.168.1.8:12883, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:36:14 [LAN access from remote] from 186.89.118.198:2780 to 192.168.1.8:445, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:35:25 [LAN access from remote] from 122.225.109.115:6000 to 192.168.1.8:22, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:34:56 [LAN access from remote] from 115.186.104.244:4973 to 192.168.1.8:445, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:34:46 [LAN access from remote] from 23.94.149.242:42700 to 192.168.1.8:80, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:34:22 [LAN access from remote] from 137.63.74.210:13614 to 192.168.1.8:23011, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:33:21 [LAN access from remote] from 212.57.16.98:38793 to 192.168.1.8:8080, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:24:55 [LAN access from remote] from 162.219.179.100:13614 to 192.168.1.8:23011, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:23:16 [LAN access from remote] from 89.46.100.25:32864 to 192.168.1.8:9064, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:21:42 [LAN access from remote] from 61.174.50.188:6000 to 192.168.1.8:22, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:18:56 [LAN access from remote] from 61.160.224.129:34626 to 192.168.1.8:3389, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:18:41 [LAN access from remote] from 203.191.150.102:5498 to 192.168.1.8:3389, Friday, Dec 19,2014 08:17:00 This went on for quite some time, And I believe it may have been what was causing me problems. there is another thread for the r7000 about unauthorized access, and it appears that this problem may extend beyond using DMZ. I am not sure but until more is known, I do not suggest using the settings that I suggested for WAN settings, UPnP, etc.
- Ok this is what I'm trying now and has been working very well (not as well as in DMZ, but oh well)
I setup a static ip address (DHCP reservation) in LAN setup
QoS setup: WMM both disabled/not checked, downstream disabled/not checked,
Upstream enabled/checked (I get 10 up from my isp but i enter 8 into the router) many people with actual knowledge of qos engines will tell you to only input a value of 80% - 95% of what you actually get. If you prefer to throttle to the point that you won't be used as a host then put this value to something below that which will automatically disqualify you from host. (I don't know what value that is)
And the most important WAN settings/ Firewall settings:
Everything is not checked except for the bottom one
The only thing that should be checked is Disable SIP ALG then check open instead of secured.
To clarify what is not checked is:
Disable port scan and dos protection
Default DMZ server
Respond to ping on internet port
Disable IGMP proxying
Under advanced setup disable UPnP and delete all port forwarding rules.
Now if you were paying attention i have no UPnP, no port forwarding and no DMZ and I still get open NAT with this router. If you have a different router then you may need to use ONE of those (but only one).
DMZ gave me the lowest latency but it also allowed attacks that seemed to destroy my games, when I was not being attacked however it gave me some of the best games I have every had in any COD game.
It seems I get better latency by setting google dns servers in the xbox network settings, so i would suggest doing that even if they are the same ones you use in the router. Meaning don't let the xbox get them automatically from the router as this seems to increase latency a little bit.
Other things to consider if you are having problems:
Input lag of your TV, I personally spent a lot of extra money to ensure I got a TV with low input lag (only works when i use the "game mode" however)
I also had a lot of issues once and found my xbox was connecting wired and wireless at the same time, clear the wireless settings if this is happening to you as well.
