Wasn't sure where to post this so I posted just about the same on the gaming thread.

Recently bought Halo 4 and Black Ops 2, but. When I play online, infact don't even have to be online gaming just have to be connected to Xbox Live. I regulary get disconnected from XL. Now I don't have the best internet connection and know next to nothing about download/upload speeds etc. I've tried wired and wireless but still always lose connection. Never lose connection via my laptop though.
I've spoken to my interent provider (Karoo, who are awful) and then seem to think I have a faulty phone line? If so is this fixable?
Could my router be the problem, seeing as I've had it for about 6 years maybe longer?
I'd heard of something called a gaming profile which I asked karoo about and they said they will put it on for me, which is something to do with interleaving?
Basically any suggestions would be brilliant and nothing stupid like move out of Hull



Cheers guys.

Have you looked into port forwarding? I did it on my router the other week. It's a bit of messing about if you don't know much about router settings and I.P addresses though. You first of all need to give the xbox a static I.P address and then if you look on google for the xbox live ports you need to then go into your router settings and forward those particular ports to your xbox. This might give you a better connection. worth a try anyway. Not got all the information to hand but if you google it there are plenty of guides to help with the port forwarding. also if you go onto www.speedtest.io you can test your broadband connection which will give you your speeds etc. and your ping, the lower the ping the better.

Have you looked into port forwarding? I did it on my router the other week. It's a bit of messing about if you don't know much about router settings and I.P addresses though. You first of all need to give the xbox a static I.P address and then if you look on google for the xbox live ports you need to then go into your router settings and forward those particular ports to your xbox. This might give you a better connection. worth a try anyway. Not got all the information to hand but if you google it there are plenty of guides to help with the port forwarding. also if you go onto www.speedtest.io you can test your broadband connection which will give you your speeds etc. and your ping, the lower the ping the better.

Quote ="Robbo"Have you looked into port forwarding? I did it on my router the other week. It's a bit of messing about if you don't know much about router settings and I.P addresses though. You first of all need to give the xbox a static I.P address and then if you look on google for the xbox live ports you need to then go into your router settings and forward those particular ports to your xbox. This might give you a better connection. worth a try anyway. Not got all the information to hand but if you google it there are plenty of guides to help with the port forwarding. also if you go onto www.speedtest.io you can test your broadband connection which will give you your speeds etc. and your ping, the lower the ping the better.'" How good at this stuff are you? I already have a PS3 that I have already forwarded a port for in the past following a set up I found online a few months back. Anyway, I've just got an Xbox and I'm trying to open the ports it needs, 53, 80, etc. but it appears the ports I have open for my PS3 are conflicting with the ones I need to open for my Xbox. Basically, the Xbox needs 1863 and 3074, but the PS3 already has from 443 to 3478 open. Now, the way I'm doing it with my Xbox seems to be different with the PS3, with the PS3 I just added one service with the start port 443 and end port 3478, with the Xbox I'm doing them individually, i.e. start 53, end 53. Do I go back and edit the PS3 one ad make them start 443 end 443 and start 3478 and end 3478? If you don't know, fair enough.

Quote ="Robbo"Have you looked into port forwarding? I did it on my router the other week. It's a bit of messing about if you don't know much about router settings and I.P addresses though. You first of all need to give the xbox a static I.P address and then if you look on google for the xbox live ports you need to then go into your router settings and forward those particular ports to your xbox. This might give you a better connection. worth a try anyway. Not got all the information to hand but if you google it there are plenty of guides to help with the port forwarding. also if you go onto www.speedtest.io you can test your broadband connection which will give you your speeds etc. and your ping, the lower the ping the better.'" How good at this stuff are you? I already have a PS3 that I have already forwarded a port for in the past following a set up I found online a few months back. Anyway, I've just got an Xbox and I'm trying to open the ports it needs, 53, 80, etc. but it appears the ports I have open for my PS3 are conflicting with the ones I need to open for my Xbox. Basically, the Xbox needs 1863 and 3074, but the PS3 already has from 443 to 3478 open. Now, the way I'm doing it with my Xbox seems to be different with the PS3, with the PS3 I just added one service with the start port 443 and end port 3478, with the Xbox I'm doing them individually, i.e. start 53, end 53. Do I go back and edit the PS3 one ad make them start 443 end 443 and start 3478 and end 3478? If you don't know, fair enough.

Yeh sounds like you've opened up too many ports there.

You do each one on its own so like you say, start and ending on the same number will open that port to it's assigned I.P. So open and end on 443 and again for 3478 as far as the ps3 concerned.


Now for the xbox you can enter the i.p addresses and gateways in manually going through your settings. When you get to the network section where the settings are obtained automatically you can press on manual. If you don't make it static, everytime you start the xbox it's I.P on the network could be different and you'll end up not always having the ports open.

If you don't know what all you're network details are, from the start window click on run, type cmd and load the command prompt. Then when that open's type in ipconfig/all and hit enter, You'll be given your dns servers and default gateways aswell as your pc's address which is usually along the lines of 192.168.0.?...


I'm not very good at explaining thing's but there are plenty of guides on google. once you've got a static ip on the xbox forward the ports
Port 88 (UDP)
Port 3074 (UDP and TCP)
Port 53 (UDP and TCP)
Port 80 (TCP)


do them all individually. It might not help if the issue is with your provider but you never know.



On another subject, anyone on here use sky player on the pc? I run it through my TV as an extended desktop and everytime I go back and click on anything on my pc's monitor it goes out of full screen. BBC I and anything else I watch doesn't do this and it's driving me potty!

can anyone help me with this, my lad wants a laptop and pvr for xmas but thats costing way to much so could i run a pvr of a netbook?
I dont know anything about pvr's and was just wondering if a netbook would support the running of one.
When you record stuff does it save to the pvr or your netbook (he is wanting to record cod live games).

Posted this in games thread incase some people use pvr without recording gameplay

As a technology Luddite can anyone help me with this.

My wife wants an iPad for Xmas and I have been looking at the new ones, but some are WiFi and others are WiFi & 3G. If I bought the latter I know I can use the WiFi bit through my system at home, but what does the 3G do and do you have to pay monthly fees as in a phone to use it out of the house.

Thanks (and explanation will need to be written for a 55 yr old, not a 15 yr old

Apart from one that comes with a HDD built in they record to the computer and take up a lot of space and on top of that to render it etc you need a good computer so a netbook would be pretty much useless for the job.



For the 3G you would need a sim card and data plan.

Cheers, I'll skip that one and get the WiFi only I think as its £100 dearer.

It's highly likely nowadays that she'll be somewhere near a free WiFi service of some kind, certainly most of the times she'll actually want to use it.

My thoughts as well. I saw people using them in the hotel in Mexico and Egypt, so around UK should be good for free signals. I have seen other similar things (not Apple), which seem a lot cheaper, might need to do a bit of research.

And you can always connect to a mobile phone for the odd time you need 3G

indeed

Been thinking of getting something to convert my tv into a "smart tv"

I've seen that you can get a raspberry pi system and install xbmc on it for things like iplayer and 4od

there are also android boxes available.

Ideally I'd like something cheapish and capable of streaming flash video's, Don't think the raspberry pi supports flash and I'm not sure about the android boxes either as it seems flash isn't supported anymore.

My tv has a usb connection which supports most video files so being able to play files from it isn't to much of an issue.

anyone got anything similar? at the moment I just connect to my pc through hdmi but my desktop has a 650w psu and is quite noisy so seems a bit overkill to be switched on for long periods just for watching media (plus my mothers not happy about the increasing leccy bill!)

Going to New York in about 12 days and was thinking about picking up the new IPad Mini while I'm over there. The only thing which will be different is the plug adaptor right? Which I could then buy one back here?
Another not sure wether I would be better off with a 32gb version or just the 16gb?
Would it be really worth while me purchasing it from over there or buy one from the UK?

They don't come with the wall plug.

Quote ="Big Graeme"They don't come with the wall plug.'" Eh? They do come with a wall plug, so yes if you buy one in the US you will have to either buy a travel adapter for over here or buy a replacement which are £15 from Apple. store.apple.com/uk/product/MD812 ... r?fnode=3c

Quote ="Big Graeme"They don't come with the wall plug.'" Eh? They do come with a wall plug, so yes if you buy one in the US you will have to either buy a travel adapter for over here or buy a replacement which are £15 from Apple. store.apple.com/uk/product/MD812 ... r?fnode=3c

I have a 16gb one and have plenty of photos, music, apps etc on it and ive not got close to filling it. Id stick with the 16GB unless you have lots of photos or need for apps etc.

Im debating trading in my iPad 2 to get an iPad mini. Worth it?

Are there any differences other than the obvious ones? The Mini is a lovely looking piece of kit, it makes all the plasticky things on the market look naff, but there's nothing revolutionary about the tech behind it, right?

Any itunes whizzos on here? I am importing a CD, which has a few tracks as 'artist featuring x' the relative tracks are put in separate folders in Windows based on the artist. Is there a way to store the album based on the album title instead?

Do's the mini iPad actually exist, I have tried everywhere (online & outlets) to no avail. Most places advertise it and then tell you its out of stock, Currys, PC World, Tesco, HMV, ASDA, Sainsburys to name a few are advertising it but have never actual had one in stock.

I'll be picking my Ipad Mini up next week in New York

Get me one

Cost you double due to shipping

Apple and Nintendo's first point of call when it comes to new releases is the 'limit supply to maximise demand' mantra. Seems to work perfectly, particularly when Christmas is around the corner.

Just get a Google Nexus 7 instead.

Only 25 Tesco stores in the country have them. A few were available on Direct but I was told Apple have only given Tesco two lots (at best) of 400 iPad minis.

Was in the Apple shop in the Arndale before, I tried getting on the iPads but they were doing a 'workshop' so I couldn't go on the full size ones. As nice as the minis looked, a few of them were chipped and had bits of paint missing around the edges (admittedly on the black ones, it's harder to notice on the silver ones), the design is outstanding but the paint quality on the black ones is just like the iPhone 5's. Read up on a few reviews and you'll find plenty of people moaning how easily they chip and scratch. Will Apple pull another stunt and release an iPad in March like usual? I think the design of the iPad is looking more and more average, especially when you compare it to the Mini. Surely they can't go an entire year with this design?

On a different note, I was playing with one of those Acer Icona W700 tablet/wireless desktop things the other day, it had an i3 processor on it which intrigued me; could you download Steam and play football manager on one of them? Admittedly it would be a struggle without a mouse but an intriguing prospect nonetheless.