Can't play Mario Kart 7 Online :(

[#1]

As the title says. I can play games on my consoles and my pc online just fine. The only game that won't work properly is Mario Kart 7 on the 3DS. Probably around 90% of the time when I try to connect it hangs for ages and then says "A communication error has occurred" and returns me to the menu.
I've obviously googled the problem and seen that many people seem to have the same issue, but none of the fixes works on my Plusnet router.
If I put the 3DS into DMZ using "Assign the public IP address of a connection to a device" then it cannot connect to the Internet at all! If I enable port forwarding on all ports to the 3DS (as suggested by many sites) my whole Internet goes down lol.
I have tried every single security method (WEP/WPA etc..) but that does not make any difference.
I also don't like the Plusnet modem / router anyway. Can anyone tell me what the best modem I can possibly buy for use with Plusnet and online games is?
Thanks everyone!

[#2]

Hi there,
I'm guessing that it's you I've been chatting to on Facebook? If so, let me know how you get on with the changes I've made. I'd be interested to see if it's made a difference ..?

[#3]

Hi and yes that's me! Thank you for helping me out.
Could you let me know exactly what you did? I'm at work until late tonight but I will try it out then and report back.
Whilst I accept there seems to be a widespread issue with Mario Kart and the 3DS online services in general the problem happens at least 90% of the time at home and works every time at my friends house. So there must be a factor at home causing it right?
Thank you again!
James

[#4]

Just been trying to play with no luck.
Sometimes it actually looks like it's connected to a game but then it says communication error before the race starts.
Very frustrating.
Is there a better router I can get? The one I got from you has always been seriously slow and buggy and annoying to use and I've had loads of issues like this.
I'd be willing to pay for a better router to get it sorted!

[#5]

The guy from Plusent who SAID he would help has disappeared. Can't get a response from them at all now so going to get a new Internet provider. Hope plenty of people can see this.
Cheers then Plusnet (talking to myself)
J

[#6]

Quote from: MacronX

The guy from Plusent who SAID he would help has disappeared. Can't get a response from them at all now so going to get a new Internet provider.

I *will* help but please be patient. No matter how hard I try, I'm unable to monitor our Facebook pages and the forums 24 hours a day.
I've just replied to your Facebook post anyway so let me know how you'd like to proceed ...
Edit: Have picked up your reply on Facebook. Thanks.

[#7]

Hello again,
I got the new router on Saturday. As standard the 3DS still does not work online. This router however actually has DMZ and when I put the 3DS in DMZ it works PERFECTLY! It connects every time and it's really really fast too. Faster than I've ever seen it.
If I take it out of DMZ it stops working completely again.
I think this narrows the issue down somewhat. It would be better if it didn't have to be in DMZ to work.
I am happy to run tests and provide feedback if you want to investigate further?
J

[#8]

Glad to hear you've had more success with the replacement router
Putting the 3DS in the DMZ doesn't really open you up to any nasties so you're probably safe to continue doing this. Just been doing a spot of Googling and I'm surprised so many people seem to have problems getting the 3DS to play ball. I'd have expected it to work out of the box using UPnP.

[#9]

Thanks. I agree with what you say, although I have to say when I try it on my friend's connection it works fine without DMZ. He also has a 3DS and has never had this issue. Is this something that you guys would consider contacting Nintendo about just to see if there isn't a way to work out a fix for everyone? The problem is really blatant in my case and I would be more than happy to demonstrate it or provide feedback to get it sorted.

[#10]

im getting a 3DS in the next few working days via ebay, bought it with mario kart 7, hope i dont have the same problems.......

[#11]

Hey can you help me out here please? This new router is awful. It keeps slowing down to a crawl, I keep getting errors all over the place, like on Facebook it keeps saying "your connection has failed try again later" and if I try to use FTP which I need for work it is slowing down to a crawl and I have to reboot the router every 10 minutes.
What gives? lol

[#12]

Hmm.  I don't think that will be the router.  You could have something more sinister going on with your line.  Worth a call to tech support?

[#13]

Is that over wireless or wired?
If wired then you could try changing the wireless channel or disabling wireless N. It would be the first time I've come across problems like you've mentioned with the 582n.
I've checked your connection and it's pretty stable:

Session Started	Session Ended	Session Duration
20:47 15/May/2012	N/A	  19:36:13 (on going)
01:41 13/May/2012	20:47 15/May/2012	 2 Days, 19:6:23
01:30 11/May/2012	01:40 13/May/2012	 2 Days, 0:9:13
20:09 06/May/2012	01:30 11/May/2012	 4 Days, 5:20:58 

Since February your line profile's been in excess of 6.5Mbps too. There's some pretty heavy uploading on certain days but that tends to be between Midnight and 8.00am. It's not during these hours that you're having problems is it?

[#14]

as i said earlier i was getting a 3DS and mario kart 7, ive now got it and played it online in my house with the plusnet router, just a shot in the dark, but have you downloaded the new update for mario kart 7 from the nintendo eshop?