Explain this one... 360 internet issues

[basslover1]

Me being cheap, and not wanting to pay 50+ for a wireless adapter for my 360, decided to go wired. I'll explain a little better. My router is on one side of my room, the xbox on the other, the shortest distance for wired, has a door in between the two. I didn't want to pull up carpet just to run a cable, so that was out of the question.

I tried ICS, but to no avail, so I decided I would run a 50FT Ethernet cable, the long way because I could hide it behind furniture.

Yesterday, I went to a local cable place (basically think of monoprice cables, with a storefront), picked up a 50FT Cat6 cable. Before running it, I decided to test it.

Low and behold, I would get a constant MTU error while trying to connect to Xbox Live.

Process of elimination, swap my new Cat6 with the Cat5 that came with the xbox, it works (had to stretch it across the room to reach).

I swapped it back and forth about 3-4 times, just to make sure I wasn't going crazy.

Cat6, no go, Cat5 works like a champ.

My solution? Move the router with my 50ft Cat6 cable, to the other side of the room. Now, for connecting the xbox to my router (which is now 16" away from it), Cat5e that came with the router? Nope, doesn't work. Same MTU error.

Cheap Cat5 that came with the xbox? Yep, that works perfectly.

Can anyone else explain to me why this is happening? Why is my xbox so damn picky about Ethernet cables?

 

[Queasy]

Have you tried the Cat 6 with any other devices? It may just be bad cable and not the Xbox.

 

[basslover1]

Have you tried the Cat 6 with any other devices? It may just be bad cable and not the Xbox.

Yes, I'm still using it. It's the cable between the router and my modem. I'm able to access the internet on my xbox, desktop, netbook, and iphone. 3 out of the 4 are wireless, the xbox is wired. All work fine.

 

[Hopeless]

Have you tried the new Cat 6 cable going from the 360 straight to the modem, completely bypassing the router?

 

[Schfifty Five]

Not sure why your xbox is having issues, but i've used 4 different cables before (xbox original, 50ft, and 100ft x2) and they've all connected ok.

 

[Muadib]

Have you tried the new Cat 6 cable going from the 360 straight to the modem, completely bypassing the router?

Either this, or did you try another port on the router?

 

[guyver01]

Can anyone else explain to me why this is happening? Why is my xbox so damn picky about Ethernet cables?

Compared with Cat-5 and Cat-5e, Cat-6 features more stringent specifications for crosstalk and system noise

You may have a noise problem on the line, since you have a long run, and the cable isn't liking it.

I'd return the Cat-6 cable and get Cat-5e. No reason to run a Cat-6 line unless yer running a Gig-E router, and even then, unless ya have Gig-E internet, it's not gonna do ya any good anyways.

 

[Muadib]

Cat 6 does have more stringent specifications for crosstalk and system noise,
but that's a good thing, as it makes the cable more resistant to noisy lines. And he doesn't have a long run, it's only 50 feet. The Cat 6 spec is based on lengths up to 100 meters.

 

[guyver01]

And he doesn't have a long run, it's only 50 feet. The Cat 6 spec is based on lengths up to 100 meters.

aye.. but if he's running 50' of Cat6 for a 16" run, he's got alot of cable coiled up on the floor.

 

[basslover1]

Have you tried the new Cat 6 cable going from the 360 straight to the modem, completely bypassing the router?

Just did this. Doesn't work, same MTU error. The IP, Gateway, and DNS settings were all correctly assigned from my ISP.

Either this, or did you try another port on the router?

Yep, still didn't work.

aye.. but if he's running 50' of Cat6 for a 16" run, he's got alot of cable coiled up on the floor.

I'm running a 50' cable from my modem to my router. I probably only needed maybe 30' but I don't believe network cables come in that length, unless they are hand made. The 16" run is from my router to Xbox, which is the cable that came with the Xbox, and it works fine.


I ran the modem directly the the Xbox, with the Cat6 cable, and it doesn't work. If I run the Cat6 to the router, the Xbox (and everything else connect to my router) works perfectly.

I'm able to connect to Live on my 360, which was the point of purchasing the 50' cable (BTW, the store I bought from only sells Cat6 cables, regardless of length). Though, it wasn't the direction I had originally intended, but everything works. I'm just confused why my Xbox doesn't like the Cat6 cable directly, but the router is OK with it.

 

[Hopeless]

Just did this. Doesn't work, same MTU error. The IP, Gateway, and DNS settings were all correctly assigned from my ISP.

I ran the modem directly the the Xbox, with the Cat6 cable, and it doesn't work. If I run the Cat6 to the router, the Xbox (and everything else connect to my router) works perfectly.

I'm able to connect to Live on my 360, which was the point of purchasing the 50' cable (BTW, the store I bought from only sells Cat6 cables, regardless of length). Though, it wasn't the direction I had originally intended, but everything works. I'm just confused why my Xbox doesn't like the Cat6 cable directly, but the router is OK with it.

Just to make sure I'm understanding you. No live when new cable is before router, but it works when new cable is after router?

If the 360 is set to auto get IP info and it still will not work with the new cable going straight to the modem, may even power cycle modem before turning 360 on. Than I'd exchange the cable as something is fishy with it. From what I recall from reading in the past when the 360 is doing the live test it is testing to make sure that it can get a min. MTU (can't remember what it is), if it doesn't then it will through an error. If it is working with the cable after the router, the router may be masking a problem with the cable or "lying" to the 360 that it is getting the min that it wants.

 

[basslover1]

Just to make sure I'm understanding you. No live when new cable is before router, but it works when new cable is after router?

If the 360 is set to auto get IP info and it still will not work with the new cable going straight to the modem, may even power cycle modem before turning 360 on. Than I'd exchange the cable as something is fishy with it. From what I recall from reading in the past when the 360 is doing the live test it is testing to make sure that it can get a min. MTU (can't remember what it is), if it doesn't then it will through an error. If it is working with the cable after the router, the router may be masking a problem with the cable or "lying" to the 360 that it is getting the min that it wants.

It's the other way around.

If the new Cat6 cable goes directly to the Xbox, it doesn't work. If I use the new cable to connect the router to the modem, everything works correctly.

 

[spidey07]

Technically a 50 foot patch cable is too long and out of specification. Maximum length is 10 meters. The spec calls for 90 meters of horizontal rated solid cable and 5 meters of stranded patch cable on each end for a total span of 100 meters.

Out of spec cabling can cause all sorts of "really weird" problems like yours.

 

[SnipeMasterJ13]

Different devices handle cables differently, too. I just ran some cabling in my house last weekend and it was a pain in the ass. I would have 100' cable and plug my MacBook in, works like a champ pulling 46-47MB/sec on my fiber connection. Unplug it and plug in my Windows machine....nothing. Back to the MacBook, instantly connected.

This happened with both store bought cat-6, and hand made cat-5e. Drove me insane. The cat-6 now works (I'm thoroughly convinced by sheer magic.) and the cat-5e was wired wrong. The friend helping said that "it didn't matter as long as they were wired the same." I re-did them myself and wired them to spec....bam....everything worked. With runs as long as we had the interference was actually the issue, and apparently newer devices (MacBook) could still sort it out while my older Windows machine and Xbox 360 could not. Was a hell of a Saturday.

 

[basslover1]

I just found it odd that the 50' cat6 running from my router to xbox didn't work, but the same 50' cat6 running from modem to router, works just fine.

Oh well, the end result is the same (networked xbox), just had to attack it differently than I anticipated.

 

[OptimumSlinky]

Hope you get it sorted. I just bit the bullet and bought the wireless adapter from Microsoft.