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Problems connecting to games on PS3 - please help

ugm2kt
Newbie
Posts: 1
Registered: ‎02-12-2010

Problems connecting to games on PS3 - please help

Hi,
I've set up my home network and connected my ps3 to it via the Thomson router supplied by plusnet.  I can log in to my account fine and stream iplayer no problem.  The problem comes when trying to play games online.  For instance when trying to play fifa i get to the team selection stage and then the screen freezes.
I've tried various things.  Firstly i checked my NAT type which is type 2.  I then set my ps3 a static ip adddress - still no luck.  I then found a website which advised opening up specific ports to the ps3 - which has made no difference.  The last thing i tired was setting up ps3 as a DMZ - this stopped me connecting to the ps3 to the internet at all.
I'm completely out of ideas, and my knowledge of router, networks etc... is very limited!  any help would be greatly appreciated!
many thanks,
Kevin
8 REPLIES 8
AWB70
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Registered: ‎28-08-2007

Re: Problems connecting to games on PS3 - please help

I'm having a few problems myself trying to get two ps3's online at the same time but usually getting one is quite simple. Firstly I'm not sure if you have done this already but there are three techniques for getting online. Other than UPNP you have tried them all  Smiley May be obvious but are you trying all the settings at the same time? this is a one or the other situation so make sure that you don't have all three going on at the same time which could be causing conflict. After you decide which route to go down I would re-boot the router and the PS3.
Upnp I don't know a lot about but in laymen's terms once activated when the PS3 requests ports to be open the router will do this automatically. You need to have it enabled on both the ps3 and the router. The ps3 being static should not make a difference but it will over ride any port forwarding rules you have. If you want upnp to work un-assign and delete any forwarding of ports and take the ps3 out of the dmz and re-boot the router. The ps3 also doesn't need to be static for upnp to work and does work, the router will just open the ports to whichever ip the ps3 has at the time. The down side of UPNP  is that any other computers on the network will use it and can be at risk. If you downloaded a malicious program that wants internet access it can use upnp to open up the ports it requires and bypass your fire wall. The ps3 is not a risk has upto press no malicious software has been written for sonys operating system.
Another method as you mentioned is DMZ, this should work and will open all ports to the static ps3(needs to be static) If you have not un-assigned the port forwarding there might be a conflict there. Did you have the ps3 on the same static ip has when you made it a DMZ?
The other method is forwarding ports which you can get from www.portforward.com, again the PS3 needs to be static.
All three of these methods should work as long as you only try one at a time not mix and match with a re-boot of the router and switching off of the PS3 in between attempts.
Let me know how you get on I'll be very interested in which method works for you, I am trying to set mine up properly and came across loads of problems. My two previous routers have been no problem at all but the thomson just isn't playing ball. I feel the re-boot of it is very important has with this router settings seem to get left over. When trying last night the only thing I could get to work was upnp but that was with two ps3's and may not apply to this case.
Edit just thought of something else  Smiley see what works for you in general on other games and then come back to fifa when you know everything else works. The problem may be with the game itself and often is which is patched later. If everything else works except fifa chances are the problem lies there. 
Mattz0r
Rising Star
Posts: 620
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎21-07-2010

Re: Problems connecting to games on PS3 - please help

Hey Guys,
If it helps, I've just assisted a customer with a similar issue, Nat type was 3, We assigned a static IP to the Playstation. Enabled uPnP, and opened the following ports to the PS3's static IP
TCP 80
TCP 443
TCP 5223
UDP port 3478-3479
UDP port 3658-3659
Then restarted the PS3
Nat type was still 3, however was able to connect to games that he couldn't before.
Hope this helps.
Matt
AWB70
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Re: Problems connecting to games on PS3 - please help

This seems to be a weird common problem on the thomson. I have the V8 I did all the forwarding and DMZ stuff but I only seemed to get any joy when upnp was enabled  Undecided
Very odd that you should have to open ports AND enable upnp, the upnp should in theory overide the port forwarding so shouldn't be necessary. For now I have upnp and no port forwarding at all and have had no issues connecting to either PSN or any games. I have been watching the router logs when I switch on the PS and it shows it opening all the ports needed.
What happenings if you just do one and not the other still nat3? Definitely do reboots of both the ps3 and the router in between changing settings. One thing I have noticed when using upnp is sometimes the router is so slow at forwarding the ports it often times out the psn network. It doesn't necessarily mean it's not connecting though it's just taking too long. if you leave it and run the test in a couple of minutes it often connects.
I experienced this with my 2nd system trying too fast, I need to know one off and leave it a little while which seems to be either releasing the ports from the router OR a delay on the PSN which thinks I'm still logged in from that IP not sure which.
Sony really need to sort this out as do XBOX live. They need to allow multiple ports for PSN/live traffic. 
dvorak
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Re: Problems connecting to games on PS3 - please help

It does seem to be an issue with Thomson's I've not had these issues with a couple of Netgear ones and my Bipac is excellent for gaming and had no issues whatsoever.
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AWB70
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Re: Problems connecting to games on PS3 - please help

This is the first thomson I have owned, previously I had a well old linksys wag354g and a bt business hub 2700hv with no problems at all. The BT one had one ps3 in the dmz and one ps3 with ports forwarded. The PS3 on the DMZ had a nat type 1 which means it's not firewalled in any way and is the same as being just on a modem. The second machine was able to log into the PSN while the other was knocked on without any problems and a NAT2
The problem seems to be definitely router specific some seem better than others at handling this kind of traffic. When I used the exact same set up I used on the BT one on the thompson I can only get one machine at a time to work.
Looking at the amount of posts in here and other places makes you also wonder if there aren't some problems at sonys end as well. Unfortunately my bt hub doesn't support upnp which I need for streaming from my pc to the ps3. If I can find a way of getting round that I would go back to that.
Fozastuta
Dabbler
Posts: 20
Registered: ‎22-02-2011

Re: Problems connecting to games on PS3 - please help

Could someone give me an idiots guide to changing the ports on the Router from start to finish, i have no experiance in doing this.  I have followed online steps to configuring the PS3 side with regard to enabling NAT2 through Ethernet, but have no idea how to open a router and locate where to change the TCP and UDP.
Thanks
AWB70
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Re: Problems connecting to games on PS3 - please help

www.portforward.com good luck, any changes I made to the router settings didn't seem to do anything and only worked with upnp enabled.
AWB70
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Re: Problems connecting to games on PS3 - please help

Has anyone in here actually managed to DMZ a PS3 using this router? Surely someone has managed it! Out of all the people with ps3's and this router supplied by PN there must be an answer other wise the router simply doesn't work as it is intended.
I messed about with settings at the week end to see what works and what doesn't. These are pretty much the instructions on how to go about it from various sources.
Quote
Placing your console in a DMZ is not a difficult thing to do, but you will need to set aside half an hour to get to grips with the process - and you'll need administrator access to your router.
First things first, turn on your console and go to Settings > Network Settings.
From here, you can change all the bits and gubbins which help your PS3 connect to the internet.
You will need to give your PS3 a static IP address. IP addresses are like street addresses, only for your internet network. A static IP address will ensure that your router always knows where it can find your PS3.
To do this, first you'll need to go to the Settings and Connection Status List and make a note of 2 numbers:
1. The 'IP Address'
2. The 'Default Router'
Once you've got these, back out of this menu and go to the Internet Connection Settings menu. From here, follow these steps:
1. Select 'Custom'
2. Select the type of connection your using (If your PS3 is plugged in to the router, select 'Wired', if not you're using a wireless connection, select that intead.)
3. If you selected wireless, set up your connection as normal untill you get to the IP Address menu.
4. If you selected wired, select 'Auto-Detect' at the next screen and continue to the IP Address menu.
5. At the IP Address menu, select 'Manual'.
Remember those numbers you marked down earlier? Here's why you noted them!
You'll now see a screen with 5 options:
IP Address
Here, you need to input the number you noted down earlier. However, you should change the last group of 3 digits to something else. Your safest bet is to increase this number by 50 and use that. So, if the IP address you noted earlier was 192.168.0.50 then your new IP address would be 192.168.0.100
Note that the numbers here only go up to 255, so use that as a maximum if you need to. Be sure to ONLY change the last group of numbers! Make a note of the number you decided to go with.
Subnet Mask
This is almost always 255.255.255.0, don't change this unless you have a specific reason to do so.
Default Router
The second of the numbers you wrote down, all you need to do here is input the IP address of your router.
Primary DNS
This bit is super easy. Remember the number you placed in 'Default Router'? Whack it in here again!
Secondary DNS
You don't need anything at all here, unless you have a specific reason to input a Secondary DNS.
Once you're done here, make sure to make a note of the IP address you entered at this menu and hit right on the d-pad to advance.
6. For MTU - select Automatic
7. Do not use a proxy server, unless you have a specific reason to use one!
8. UPnP - it's usually a good idea to enable this, but if you have voice comms trouble after using this guide, try disabling it.
9. Review the settings and test the connection!

I have tried different settings, DHCP on/off, static ip from the ps3, the router always setting the same ip to the ps3's mac address. Nothing seems to work until upnp is enabled. This is where it gets confusing, correct me if I'm wrong but some wise man from this community board once told me that UPNP should be disabled when setting up static routes so it doesn't cause a conflict. I was also told that it would be best to have an ip outside the dhcp server.
To get a NAT2 this is how I set up the thomson...
1. Have DHCP server enabled
2. Have UPNP enabled
3. Connect the PS3 using auto ip settings
4. Go to devices in the router/tasks/assign public ip to this device
5.Click renew and release ip
6.Connect the ps3 again using the instructions above.
That is the only way I can get NAT2 but it has to be said it didn't stop me getting disconnects from games last night. Now this doesn't seem to be any different than just setting the PS3 to auto ip and having upnp enabled  Undecided I get Nat 2 on both occasions whether or not the PS3 is in the DMZ.
I have read somewhere that in another post DHCP would have to be enabled to keep the ps3 in the right subnet mask! I'm not even going to pretend to understand that.
Few questions here, firstly is that the correct way to dmz the ps3 with this router? Things get sketchy when you get to the assign public ip part of the router set up. It says release and renew the ip. Does that mean just disconnect and reconnect with a different ip? Hmmm makes me wonder if the dhcp auto assign maybe conflicting when the ps asking for a fixed ip differing from the one it assigned.
Searching round PS boards disabling upnp seems to be the general census of opinion for losing connection to games problems, it would appear though that this router doesn't work at all with DMZ or port forwarding to the ps unless upnp is enabled.
So, in theory my ps is now DMZ'd, it shows up in router devices as assigned the public address( that's if I did it right) question is how do you know if it actually is? While UPNP is enabled surely that would achieve the same result as it being DMZ'd. The only thing I tried was finding a port scanner that worked in sony's browser and checking all ports which again would/should still happen with UPNP enabled  Crazy
Let me know if anyone has managed it properly please and the steps they took. I have only ever had problems with this router gaming. I'm trying to make sure I have tried all options before boxing it up and going back to my old BT 2700 business hub.