Ever since opening Halo 3 and hopping on Xbox Live with it, it’s been complaining about my router’s NAT settings. Apparently, it needs certain ports open to connect to other gamers. Tonight, I finally set out to get it working properly, but came up short.

After first doing a little research and discovering that Xbox Live uses TCP and UDP port 3074 and UDP port 88 (largely UDP port 3047, as indicated by my Ethereal packet dumps), I thought I could get away with forwarding those ports straight to my Xbox 360. Since my console was set to automatically lease an IP address from my router, it would quite probably get a different IP each time it boots up, thus “breaking” my carefully forwarded ports. The obvious solution is to choose a fixed IP address in the Xbox Dashboard. Once the IP is set statically and the appropriate ports are forwarded, all seems to be well, except for one minor hangup…

If you boot directly to the Halo 3 disc with with a fixed IP address, the network connection never links up before executing the game. Halo 3 runs, then refuses to connect to Xbox Live. I have to exit the game, go back to the Xbox Dashboard, Sign In to Xbox Live, then re-launch Halo to get it to go online. It couldn’t be a more roundabout way, but it seems that’s the only answer aside from enabling uPNP on the router, which I’ll never do for security reasons. I doubt my DD-WRT powered WRT54GL router is Microsoft-certified, but the problem seems to lie with the Xbox 360 or Halo 3, as it won’t even acknowledge the presence of an Ethernet cable until the Xbox Dashboard launches. (And on a side note, why would routers need to be “Xbox Live Compatible”? What kind of proprietary crap are they running that can’t play nice with off-the-shelf networking technologies?)

Has anyone else tried using a static IP on their Xbox 360 with Halo 3 and run into this issue? I’d love to hear some opinions or suggestions.

After purchasing my new HDMI-equipped Xbox 360, I decided to hook the console up to my LCD computer monitor to check out the video quality the system can produce. As I wrote about earlier, Best Buy pestered me throughout my visit with offers of pricey cables, including a $40 HDMI to DVI adapter, an $80 HDMI cable, and more. Not wanting to pay those ridiculously marked-up prices, I found a much cheaper solution.

Getting high quality video out of the Xbox 360 is quite easy with the help of a $15 (shipped) HDMI to DVI cable from NewEgg. Connecting the console and the display is a snap, and the video settings are easily adjusted to match the native resolution of the LCD panel.

Audio, on the other hand, is another matter. The placement of the HDMI port on the Xbox 360 is quite poor. It resides directly below the standard A/V output, and the component+composite cable that ships with the premium console is too bulky to plug in above the HDMI cable. It’s only possible to plug in one at a time, as one connector blocks the other. Frustrated, I turned to Google to see if anyone else had run into this design oversight. As it turns out, the Xbox 360 Elite package comes with an HDMI cable and an audio adapter cable with a much thinner plug. Unfortunately, the audio adapter cable is not available as a separate purchase, and can only be bought from Microsoft as a $50 HDMI+audio adapter cable kit (or on eBay for $30 and higher). Clearly a better answer was needed.

I took a trip to my local GameStop store to see what kind of cabling they had in stock, and I managed to score quite a deal that easily solved my audio problem. A standard composite+stereo audio cable, presumably from a now-discontinued Xbox 360 Core package, was available for $5, and it had a thin plug attached.

Using the HDMI to DVI cable and the regular video/audio cable, I can get crystal clear video and stereo audio out of the Xbox 360 for a combined total of $20, which trumps Microsoft’s kit by a great margin. After digging up some additional stereo adapters of my own, I now have a pair of headphones connected, ready to play Halo 3 in crisp 1280×1024 video without waking the neighbors.

In preparation for the impending release of Halo 3, I finally got around to picking up an Xbox 360 yesterday, after nearly two years of waiting. Best Buy has stock of some of the newer consoles with a built-in HDMI port, so I opted to get one of those, so I could hook it up to a DVI computer LCD if need be. After being bombarded with offers of expensive extended warranties, unnecessary accessories, and “nitrogen injected cables”, I got out of there with just the new console and a game. After unboxing it and playing for a while, these were some of my impressions:

Power
The power brick for this console is huge. It’s quite literally the size of a standard red masonry brick, only a little longer. Taking a slightly modified computer power cord for AC input, the adapter consumes just over 200 Watts of electricity when fully active. It has a big indicator LED to let you know when it’s working or failing (yikes), and at least one fan for cooling. This is one power-hungry system.

Cables & Wireless
Xbox 360 came with everything I needed to get it up and running, including a few extras like a wired headset and RF controller. Noting that the headphone jack on the controller is the same mini port on the audio unit from the original Xbox, I was pleased to discover that my Halo 2 headset attached and worked with no trouble (sans the volume control and mute button). Being able to remotely boot up the console from the couch with the Xbox button is the ultimate in advanced laziness technology. Count me in!

Performance and Games
The system is louder than an off-the-shelf original Xbox, but no louder than my modified version, so the noise isn’t too much of an issue, thankfully. Graphics performance is quite good from what I’ve seen: high polygon models, textures heaping with detail, and plenty of processing power to sustain high framerates will serve the 360 well for years to come. I was decidedly unimpressed with gameplay in Gears of War, and felt thrown into action with little instruction. Normally, I enjoy first-person-shooter games, but the lack of a constant targeting reticle, somewhat confusing controls, and weak plot will send me back to the store hoping to swap for BioShock or another title.

Overall, the Xbox 360 seems to be a fine console with plenty of horsepower and extras, but my (admittedly short) gameplay has not impressed me so far, save for the graphics. Here’s hoping Halo 3 will make it all come together… Only 16 days to go.