NOTE: This is VERY IMPORTANT that your Xbox 360 and computer are connected to the exact same router, or else this will not work and good luck finding a different way.
Alright, so here I will tell you all how to open your NAT. I’m running Vista, but XP isn’t much different from what we’re doing.

I’m not going to go into too much detail on what your NAT is or why it should be open, but in short, if your NAT isn’t open, you will have a hard time finding games, and it won’t let you join a friends party half of the time. So lets fix this problem.

1. Go to your computer, and get to Network Connections. To do this, you will click on the start menu, and go to “My Network Places”. Once you get there, click on “view network connections” to the right in the Network tasks box. If your computer is hooked up directly to the router, you will be using the Local Area Network, and if you are wireless, you will be using the Wireless Area Network
2. Right click on your connection, and then go to “Status.” If you are using XP, click the “Support” tab at the top. If you are running Vista, you will need to click the button that says “Details.”
3. After you click on “Details” or “Support”, look for and copy down the Default Gateway, and the Subnet Mask. You will need this later.
4. Close this out, and go to your 360 dashboard. Go to the system blade at the very end of the dashboard, and go to Network settings.
5. Go down to Edit Settings. Change your IP address settings from Automatic to Manual.
6. Depending on what your default gateway was, you may have different settings than mine.
7. For IP Address, enter your default gateway. Instead of one digit for the last number, you will need to change it to something such as 109.
8. Enter the Subnet Mask(default for most networks is 255.255.255.0) and Default Gateway in the boxes, and press OK.
9. Now, run a test for Xbox Live. More than likely, you will end up failing the DNS check. This is alright, because we will take care of this in the next step.
10. Go back to Network Settings, and then change your DNS settings to Manual. For primary DNS server, enter your default gateway.
11. Run another Xbox Live test, and you should pass everything. However, your NAT will probably still be Strict or Moderate. If it is open, then you are done!
12. Go back to your computer, and open up your browser. Type your default gateway into the address bar, and press enter. A username/password box should come up. This site has a pretty complete list of routers and passwords.
    
13. Once in, look for a link titles “Applications and Gaming” or something along the lines of that. Click it, and then find DMZ. Click it.
14. Click the “Enable” radio button, and type in the last(4th) octet of your IP(octet1.octet2.octet3.octet4) Save your settings, and exit.
15. Go back to your 360 dashboard, and run another Xbox Live test. If all went well, you should now have an open NAT! Give yourself a pat on the back, and dance around the room a couple times.

Edit 1/1/08: Helpful comment #48804… Click to view if you need extra help!

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