Time to roll up the sleeves and get a tinkering into the gubbins of stuff
Before
you even start tinkering under the hood, now would be a good time to
actually your internet connection, this way you can highlight any
potential issues that might be isp related as opposed to your setup (if
there are any).
You
might see people post results of "speedtests" whilst these server a
purpose at times for network trouble shooting you are much better to run
what is called a pingtest.
PINGTEST
is one of the best sites to run one of these, as it breaks down and
explains what each value does, when you do run a test dont choose a
server thats really close try a few spread out as this would give you
amuch better indication of how your online play would be. Once you
recoeve your results look at the sperate sections packet loss, ping and
jitter,. to save me the trouble of explaining mouseover each one and it
will explain what they are/do/mean. If you have a really high jitter
and packet loss this could be an issue with your isp. It never hurts to
give them a call and say did some tests i seem to have a high jitter on
my line can you test it.
*disclaimer try/do at your own risk if you dont get it or dont know how to change something back dont start tinkering.The
first "tweak" is a pretty basic one that will drop your ping down by
varying degrees and involves a change to your xbox's network settings.
The DNS server setting on your Xbox.
A
dns server basically acts as the address book and route planner, when
you type say www.callofduty.com into a browser a dns server translates
that url into an ip address and sends you off to the correct place as
the internet actually uses ip addresses not urls to find and route
stuff.
when you plug in your xbox and set it up for the first time
it just connects to the default network dns which is going to be your
router /cable modem. These are not dns servers so when your xbox sends a
request for a website or in xboxs case an ip address the router just
takes that requests thinks screw this im not a dns server and passes it
over to the next link the chain which for the majority of people would
be your isps servers. They would then in turn think screw this im not
some glorified satnav and again will pass the request to an actual dns
server on the web.
In gaming terms this means your request or
packet ect has gone thru a few extra unneeded hops before it reaches the
main dns server and is sent whizzing along the interwebz, quite simply
it means your ping has increased as theres extra hops.
what
changing the dns setting in you xbox will do is eliminate these extra
hops and your xbox is sending the request/packet straight out to the
net.
In
theory depending on your connection, you may or may not find
matchmaking is slightly faster and the game is slightly better, if you
have a super best money can buy connection already you prolly wont
notice that much if any of a difference but again, you have optimized
the connection for xbox somewhat will knock a few ms off your usual
ping.
Changing the dns settings on your xboxFirst off credit to this goes to
ISilentKiller4I for this idea as he was the one who bought it up originally on the blackops forum.
I'll post a simple then a more complex version and also finally explain what it does,
Simple version.1) Turn on your xbox and via the dashboard open up the system settings tab and scroll down and click onto Network settings
2) Select the connection you use and then press configure network
3)
You should now have a screen that is tabbed basic settings with the dns
setting at the bottom, scroll down to the dns settings and press A
4) Chose "manual" and the screen will now show two options primary and secondary dns servers
5) Highlight primary , press a and enter this EXACTLY 8.8.8.8 (then press start button to confirm)
6) Highlight secondary, press A and enter this exactly 8.8.4.4 (then press start button to confirm)
7) reboot xbox and away you go.
8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 are googles public dns servers they are usually some of the fastest hence used for the simple method
Complex version that might give better results1) Goto Here and download namebench for your operating system (mac or windows) its a small program only 5mb odd
2)
Run the program and you should see it has entered your details ie,
location, browsr ect (make sure these are correct if not change then in
the drop down menus Make sure that
Include best available regional dns servicesis checked, then hit Start, it takes about 3-5 mins to run the entire program so sit back twiddle thumbs till it finishes.
3)
Once it has finished it should give you a list of the fastest dns
servers in your area , with the highest showing a percentage increase on
speed in the top left hand box, dont worry about any warning messages
you get to do with hijacked domains in the list ect as we arent changing
your browser dns only the xbox.
4) Top right hand box will show the primary and secondary dns sever ip addresses for the fastest dns server it found.
5) Turn on your xbox and via the dashboard open up the system settings tab and scroll down and click onto Network settings
6) Select the connection you use and then press configure network
7)
You should now have a screen that is tabbed basic settings with the dns
setting at the bottom, scroll down to the dns settings and press A
Chose "manual" and the screen will now show two options primary and secondary dns servers
9)
Highlight primary , press a and enter EXACTLY the ip address for
primary shown in namebench in the top right hand box (then press start
button to confirm)
10) Highlight secondary, press A and enter
EXACTLY the ip address for secondary shown in namebench in the top right
hand box (then press start button to confirm)
11) reboot xbox and away you go.
For either version if you want to
swap back to your original settings for whatever reason
1) Open up the system settings tab and scroll down and click onto Network settings
2) Select the connection you use and then press configure network
3)
You should now have a screen that is tabbed basic settings with the dns
setting at the bottom, scroll down to the dns settings and press A
4) Chose "Automatic" reboot the xbox