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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
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- If you run the Multiplayer test on xbox one anf ater Testing you press all four Buttons (RT/RB LT/LB) you get a Statistc for you are not behind a cone nat or you are behind a cone nat.
What I saw: My games get better if I port forward 3074 TCP/UDP for my xbox.
My NAT is open and I port Forwarded this port. It runs good at the moment.
I don't know if you also have IPv6 available. If yes you should enable
"Respond to ping on internet port" because it's needed.
What I read about is also that path MTU needs ICMP Packets for working correctly. So I enabled the ping request on WAN.
see also:
http://packetlife.net/blog/2008/aug/18/path-mtu-discovery/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_MTU_Discovery
It seems that there is no Security benefit if you disable "Respond to ping on internet port". But experts argue about it and I'm not an expert.
I enabled it because I think I need path MTU because of all the different connections you get on p2p games like call of Duty or FIFA or PES and so on :) - MatM,
When I run the test it says I'm behind a cone NAT.
With the nighthawk router and current firmware, if i port forward then I get attacked by unauthorized access attempts, even if i use UPnP this happens. Luckily I still get open nat without using either of them. And then I no longer see the attacks in the logs.
No unfortunately I can't get IPv6 yet. Hopefully soon.
As far as the respond to ping request Netgear has this to say: Respond to Ping on Internet Port. This feature allows your router to be discovered. Use this feature only as a diagnostic tool or if you have a specific reason.
I will try to enable it and see if it makes an improvement for latency without allowing attacks.
I have tried lowering my mtu to 1452 as that is the largest one without fragmenting for me. I also tried going to the minimum for xbox live but didn't notice a difference in COD, but did notice webpages and such taking longer. I can't say for sure if it has made a difference in latency, I also hear that the packets in games like call of duty are all much less than the minimum required for the xbox one anyway.
Thanks for the response, I will post again if I notice a difference with the respond to ping setting. - If I run the test I get. I'm not behind a cone Nat. Even if I port orward.
If I use UPnP I also get attacked and my logs show me that differen IPs gets access on times I'm not online :(
If I use port Forward I get attacked only on port 53, 80, 3544.
The Port 3074 never gets attacked.
If 1500 is not the best setting for you i means you are not on cable Internet? So you have DSL? With pathmtu it should find the best mtu settings for you automatically. I have enabled ping request on Internetport on all my routers an never had a Problem with it.
you can also read here :)
http://blogs.cisco.com/security/icmp-and-security-in-ipv6/ - From my understanding of NAT is that it was created for IPv4 because IPv4 was outdated and it extended the live of IPv4. Since you use IPv6 wouldn't that explain why you are not behind a NAT? Even after I enabled respond to ping on internet port I am still behind a cone NAT but I believe that is as good as it gets with IPv4.
So you are not concerned about the attacks on ports 53, 80, or 3544?
With UPnP you were attacked on more dangerous ports?
I do have cable internet, but I had read some different things about changing mtu to your "optimum mtu" by doing ping tests in the computer console and slowly lowering the mtu of the test until no fragmenting would occur (max mtu without fragmenting). When I did that I found that after adding the 28 or whatever they say you have to add to the result of that test, my optimum mtu was 1452. But I didn't seem to make a difference for me and other stuff i read says to leave it at 1500 so I put it back at 1500 and most likely won't be messing with it anymore.
After initial testing of enabling respond to ping request on internet port, Latency seems very much improved, it also feels laggy but in a good way, as my K/D has improved tremendously on a regular basis and when starting games i get in with the countdown often starting from 15 now instead of 3-10 normally before.
Also after playing all day and checking the logs I did not see any attacks.
So thank you very much for that advice, I hadn't really read anything about it before. But It might be what I have been searching for for years.
With my previous post talking about upload QoS, I think I forgot to mention that I deleted ALL of the default rules and setup one custom rule to my xbox's MAC address. I have heard that setting to the Mac address gets priority (possibly lower latency) and in my testing it definitely did not make it worse. NUKLRSOLDR wrote:
So you are not concerned about the attacks on ports 53, 80, or 3544?
With UPnP you were attacked on more dangerous ports?
I deleted the port forwarding for those ports. I forward all other suggested ports but not 80, 53 and not 3544 :)- how do you setup your qos?
Your XBOX with high settings via MAC Adress? Do you configure all other things also? I have configured www for normal queue. And DNS for highest.
How do you setup it right? and how is it right if I want all other traffic in a low priority queue? Do I have to setup a config for it or is all not matching any rules low priority? - This is what I did, but I don't care about anything but the xbox. I disabled the WMM (wireless) QoS. And I left the downstream disabled, which is default.
With Upstream i enabled it, and where you input your max upstream bandwidth, don't actually input your max input 80-95% of what you get from doing speed tests. I get 10 mbps from my isp but i enter 8 into this part of the router. From other qos engine setups this has to be lower than your actual or the qos engine won't work properly.
I went to setup rules and deleted all of the defaults. and setup one custom rule to my xbox's mac address, giving it highest priority.
Anything that does not have a rule setup for it will be given "best effort" priority by default, which I believe is the same as "normal".
I don't care about anything but my xbox, I don't use my internet to the extreme that I am always maxing out my connection, but if you wan't to feel free to setup whatever rules you desire. the rules will limit how much bandwidth can be used for different priorities but it also determines which packets will be processed and sent along their way sooner, think of setting priority to highest as being able to cut in line in front of everything that is not set as highest, (head of line privilages) if you have more than one set to highest however they will be dealt with most likely in the order they are received. I could be wrong but that is how I understand basic qos.
For me I wan't my xbox to have head of the line privileges at all times and Get as much bandwidth as it wants regardless of what else is happening on my network. When i am gaming I don't really care if my girlfriend surfing the web has to wait an extra second for her webpage to load. Get what I'm saying? But I am just a basic user who loves Call of Duty.
I did try DD-WRT (kong's latest build) and setup that qos engine exactly according to the official forum, but it did not perform nearly as well for my xbox in call of duty, so I quickly switched back. But who knows it could have just been a bad firmware load that could have been fixed by trying again, but I didn't bother to try. - and last thing I want to know. Do you play wireless. And why do you disable WMM? I read also that often users whio play online even if they play wired disabled wmm and their experience is better. Yesterday I disabled WMM and my connection to xbox live feels better (but I don't know why because I play wired). I'm not sure if it is placebo :)
- As far as I know, It is just qos for wireless, whenever you have a qos rule setup for something, it reserves some bandwidth for it, even if it is only a little bit. I play wired, so I disabled WMM because I do not want anything wireless to have any above normal priority or any reserved bandwidth, so that the qos can focus on my xbox instead of other things.
I am also not sure if it actually makes a difference, but it definitely didn't hurt as far as I can tell.
On another note, I found that if I disabled port triggering (on by default) that I was not seeing attacks in the logs with UPnP. I am going to try with port forwarding instead of UPnP and see if i get attacked. - Keep up the good work guys, I got a lot of useful information from your posts. I have Xbox One and Ps4 and I have the best connections when I disable Ports can and Dos protection, with Nat open checked and Sip disabled. I direct connect like quality when I use dmz on one of the consoles. I really want to try my connection with Upnp disabled but I have multiple consoles: 3 Ps4's, Xbox One, and 4 Xbox 360's. So I can't disable this feature. From my experience Upnp adds latency while dmz doesn't. But I will try Qos and see what my results will be, even though Microsoft says not to use Qos.
