Some important terms when you connect to Xbox 360 Live

When we try to connect to live we'll face some terms that may confuse some of us, that's why I added this page to illustrate the main terminologies that may be new to any one.

1. IP Address:
An Internet Protocol Address is a unique address that certain electronic devices use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a computer network in simpler terms, it’s the device address online.

2. DNS:
The Domain Name System stores and associates many types of information with domain names; most importantly, it translates domain names (Like: xbox360liveblog.blogspot.com) to IP addresses (192.168.0.1).

3. MTU:
Which is the Maximum Transmission Unit refers to the size (in bytes) of the largest packet that the router can pass onwards at the same time. The maximum MTU is 1500.
However large packets can block up a slow interface for sometime, increasing the lag on other packets so it’s better to be set to the lowest possible MTU.

4. ICMP:
The Internet Control Message Protocol is chiefly used by networked computers & operating systems to send error messages indicating, for instance, that a requested service is not available or that a host or router could not be reached.

5. NAT:
The process of Network Address Translation involves re-writing the source addresses of IP packets as they pass through a router or firewall. Most systems using NAT do so in order to enable multiple hosts on a private network to access the Internet using a single public IP address, Like when you have more than one device at home connected to a router, so the router using the NAT process will generate an internal IP address that differs from the original public IP address it got from the original connection. Nonetheless, NAT can introduce complications in communication between hosts.

- If the NAT on Xbox Live test is strict that indicates that you most probably won’t be able to access to Xbox Live.
- If the NAT on Xbox Live test is moderate you will be able to access to live but will not be able to join certain game sessions or to hear what other players are saying & that’s an important piece of info as it’s not always the headset faulty so check the NAT first before you troubleshoot the headset.

6. DHCP:
The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol is a set of rules used by a communications device such as a computer, router or network adapter to allow the device to request and obtain an IP address from a server which has a list of addresses available for assignment.

7. MAC Address:
The Media Access Control address is a unique identifier attached to most network adapters. It is a number that acts like a name for a particular network adapter.

In some devices like PC’s it’s called Physical address.

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