Hello there. I've got one of those cheapy 20dollar mics and I can't hear other folks. It worked before. I made a recording and could hear myself so I think it works. But I can't hear others. I have privacy settings set to "allow all" and I have the volume settings for the mic all the way up. I also have it set to play just through the headset. Am I not hearing others because they are in a private chat party? I'm still new to live so I'm still pretty lost when it comes to knowing what's what. Thanks.

You can go into your xbox settings and crank up the volume. It helps a little. Also the plug in mics have really cheap cables so if it got bent the wiring might be damaged. Other than that I have no idea what the problem might be.

Go to your network tab on the dashboard and check your Xbox Live connection. If it comes back as Moderate or Strict, odd voice comms and sometimes connections issues start popping up (but might still work intermittently).

Otherwise, it could be that people aren't talking in the games or they're in a party. Test it out with someone you know. Possible that with these issues comms might work in chat/party but not in-game comms. If it tests moderate or strict, there are things you can do, just check back.

Alternately, if you have another headset, give it a shot. Some cell phone plug in headsets fit.

Thanks everyone for the responses. I know people are talking because I can see little mic icons light up next to their names in lobbies as well as mic icons pop up during games. I'll try as you suggested and report back.

Yeah, with NAT issues, you'll see the icons but won't hear them when it's acting up. Some games like GRAW 2, if you have comms set to "friends only" you won't hear anyone at all---that feature just doesn't work with that game. If it's not a physical mic/wire problem, I bet it's the NAT issue.

Online works for me but I do get those NAT messages. I have absolutely no clue as to what these are and how to fix it.

It's got to do with data packets being filtered or misdirected.

I'm assuming you're going through a router, although a dsl modem can sometimes cause the same issues, since it has a router built in. It's usually just the router though.

You need to access the router, since usually the application you install from the disc that came with it will not have the options you need. You can check before doing this to be sure, just look for features I describe.

Going to put this kind of basic to be clear, so don't think that I'm talking down to you. A lot of people need to know this and I'm sure they'll check in here.

For example, if you use a Linksys router, you would input on the browser address bar: 192.168.1.1 and enter. The IP address you put in there is the one your router uses, aka your Gateway. If that IP isn't the right one, you can find this info pretty quickly in a web search, or if you know how to get your pc's IP info, you would look for the "gateway" and that will be the number.

After you do that, you'll probably get a login of some sort, user and password.
It's usually ADMIN (user) and ADMIN (password)...or even just ADMIN password and no user...maybe ADMIN and PASSWORD...again, a quick internet search will get you that info, just search for your router make/model.

It's always a good idea to back up your router settings at this point. Probably under administration or something like that. Always good to back up so you can return, just in case. What we're doing here isn't anything to be worried about though.

Once you've gotten access to the router, look for a tab or heading for something along the lines of "applications and gaming". You may just have to explore a bit. You're looking for an area for "DMZ". We want to assign your 360 to the DMZ, which means ALL ports open (applications communicate in/out of your computer/360 by going through ports. HTML normally uses 80 for example, your 360 uses TCP/UDP 3074 and 88 IIRC. What we're trying to do here works without you having to worry about the number of those ports.

Find the DMZ. You'll probably have a checkbox to enable it, and then a box to put in either a MAC address (a unique number identifier for any network device) or an IP address. I'm hoping you can input a MAC address since it's the easier route. If you do not have that, let me know.

Now look at your 360. On the back, you'll see a MAC address, or you can go to the dashboard, System settings tab, Network Settings, Configure Network. Go over to the Additional Settings tab, then Advanced Settings (do NOT restore to factory defaults below that LOL).
In Advanced Settings, you'll see your Wired Mac Address. Write that down.
If you're using the wireless adapter, it should be under wireless information. The wireless adapter has it's own MAC address, which is what you would need for this rather than the wired MAC.
Back out without saving anything.

Take that MAC address and go back to your router interface and put that in the DMZ MAC address destination. What that means is that the device you input there is completely outside of any firewall filtering, all ports are open. You do not want to put your pc in there of course, but for a console it's perfect.

*If you cannot put a MAC address in there and it only allows you to put in an IP address, let me know*
We would need to assign a static IP address if there is no MAC address input.

This is faster and easier than "forwarding ports" that some people do.

Save your settings on the router. Go back and check to be sure your DMZ setting is in there.
Boot up the 360 and test again. It should connect and not give you any messages if this is done correctly.


Things that might come up:
--Router might not accept MAC addresses for the DMZ, although I think most do now. Possible it could require an IP address, which means we would need to assign a static IP address (doesn't change, unlike using DHCP) and then put the static IP address in the DMZ
--If this doesn't work (do it again to verify before going any further) and you're on DSL, then you may have to access the modem like you did your router. There would be settings in there to open up the internal router for gaming. Most likely it would have a drop down box where you could select Xbox Live or something like that. If ports on the DSL modem are blocking packets, then it doesn't matter if your router is wide open for the console.

Doesn't really take long to do this, just takes getting familiar with the router more than anything.




AFTER that is all done...(not before, one thing at a time)
This is something else everyone should consider doing.

Go back into the router and look for a QOS setting (quality of service). Sets up similar to the DMZ: MAC address or IP address.
Put your MAC in there and set QOS to Medium (first) or High (later if you want).
What this does is to give your 360 priority over other network devices for bandwidth. If you have a console online and a pc boots up and goes online, you may have lag or disconnection...whatever. QOS lets you prioritize the device that you want to have the best service. Set the console with higher priority and then if the wife gets online somewhere else in the house, it shouldn't affect your console's connection. Most commonly used with VOIP phones to prevent dropped packets and hence poor communication quality. With gaming consoles it's a marriage saver.
Anyone who hosts games online should do this, in particular.

Thanks Raw Kryptonite for the instructions. I may try those out in a bit. Before I got your info I did a search for some help. I'm not savvy when it comes to this at all and so most of this I do not even understand. But I tried my best to follow the info that I found to open up some ports on my router. I don't even know if I did this correctly. I basically just tried to fill in the numbers according to a picture I was looking at except that I replaced the instructor's console IP address with what I 'THINK' mine is. I used the address next to the "gateway" heading on the xbox. So I fiddled around with some stuff that I don't understand at all. I re-tested the xbox live connection several times on the 360 and now I do not get a yellow triangle with exclamation point in it between the internet and xbox live images. I haven't found a game with folks talking yet but I can only hope its fixed now. Once again this is like Chinese to me. If this didn't do the trick, I'm going to follow through with that mac address stuff you suggested. I may just go ahead and do that anyways if you said that just opens all ports up and its safe enough because its just a console. Thanks again and I'll report back.

Find the DMZ. You'll probably have a checkbox to enable it, and then a box to put in either a MAC address (a unique number identifier for any network device) or an IP address. I'm hoping you can input a MAC address since it's the easier route. If you do not have that, let me know.


Okay, I'm looking into that mac# method you suggested. I found and can enable the DMZ but it only allows for the input of a IP address. What do I do?

1)If you have the 360 set up on "automatic" for the IP address, that means it's using the DHCP server in the router to assign it an IP address automatically, which is the norm for things at home. The IP address is just a number address. That number is leased for a certain amount of time. Before it expires, it's assigned another IP address. It may end up being the same one, but then it might change later. It's like living in apartment #100, telling someone where you live, but next month you may live in apartment 200 and now they don't know where you live.
So, you might be "open" instead of strict or moderate for now, but in a week or month, you may be having these issues again since your router may assign your 360 a new IP address.

2)You need to assign a static IP address to your 360--an IP address that doesn't change. This isn't hard.
Look on your router admin page we pulled up earlier. Maybe under and "administration" tab, or something similar. Look for a section referencing DHCP (this is the service that assigns IP addresses as I described). This will either have a RANGE of addresses, such as:
192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.200 (the 100 or 200 might be different, that's not the issue)

Or it might say:

Start IP address: 192.168.1.100 (or often it might start at 100 for that last number)
Max users: 5 (whatever number)

That means the first number is will assign to a network device is 192.168.1.100 the next would be 192.168.1.101 then 192.168.1.102...it's going to go up to however many users are assigned (in this case I'm showing 5, so 192.168.1.100 to .104)

That range of addresses is being used by DHCP, so you want to use a last number outside of that range. If it goes up to 192.168.1.200 then write down on some paper 192.168.1.201 (but do not exceed .254). Something just outside of that range.
Must not be the router's IP address (see what you used to access it)
Must not be .0
Must not be .255
Must be outside of that range used by DHCP.
MUST keep those first 3 sets of numbers the same, almost always 192.168.1.___

I don't think any routers will come with the full range assigned to DHCP by default, usually just a few.
Take that number and it will be the IP address you put in on the 360.
Subnet will be 255.255.255.0
Gateway will be the router's IP address we've been talking about.

So far you've only written down an IP address for the 360.
Go put all of that in on the 360. Test, but you may still come back moderate or strict.

Go back to the router. Find the DMZ area and put the 360's new IP address in there.
Save settings. Go back and double check that the DMZ is saved and set how you wanted.

Go retest the 360 on the Xbox Live test.

If this has all been put in correctly, it's in the DMZ and all ports are open. No need for that port forwarding business (opening ports manually). All ports to the 360 are open now.

If the 360 won't connect, then recheck the IP address you chose. Make sure you didn't use one in the DHCP range, that it's not the one used by the router and that it is not .0 or .255

Other devices on your network will be within the DHCP range, unless you or someone else has assigned a static IP, so you shouldn't have any other possible conflicts.