FAQs

I need a static fixed IP Address for my Xbox

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Written by Administrator

First of all, I would question why you want to use a static ip addres?

If its for use with portforwarding or a DMZ setup, its actually better to still put your Xbox settings on auto and let the router assign you an ip address, doing ths will ensure you get the same address from the router each time. I cover how to do this for Netgear routers in this section.

IP Addressing and Subnet Masking is a pretty complicated subject and you'll have to trust me that its not worth explaining in here. So I will cheat and just give you enough information to get you through this static IP address requirement.

You may need a static or fixed IP Address on your Xbox because you need to set-up NAT (Network Address Translation). NAT is sometimes needed when you have problems joining Friends games or not hearing voice.

The easiest way to get a static address

Leave Xbox IP Address on auto and use your routers DHCP/IP Address reservation setting to reserve the same ip address for your Xbox (based on its mac address) each time. Most routers have this feature these days.

The easy way to get a static address

Another easy way to assign a static IP Address to your Xbox is to actually just leave it on automatic. So set the Xbox to auto in the System Blade/Network Settings. Once your router has assigned the xbox an IP Address view the IP Address on the Settings/System/Network Settings/Wired or Wireless/Configure Network.

Write down the IP Address, Subnet Mask and Default Gateway. Then simply go into the IP Address settings, change the settings to manual and enter all of the information you wrote down.

Using this method means there's a possibility you could get a duplicate IP Address later on as the router might hand out that same address again. If it does, just add 30 to the last digit of the IP address. e.g. if its 192.168.1.10 make it 192.168.1.40

Also some routers do not like you using a static ip address that appears within its defined DHCP pool, so either change your chosen ip address to be one outside of the pool or make the DHCP pool smaller if it uses your entire range of addresses.

The harder way to get a static address

The first thing you need to establish is the LAN (Local Area) IP Address of your router. This will probably start with 192 or 10. Depending on your router you might already know this address as you may have had to type it into your browser to configure the router. If you still don't know it consult your manual. A common IP Address for routers is 192.168.0.1 so I'll use that in the example.

An IP Address is made up of four sections AAA.BBB.CCC.DDD (192.168.0.1) you are not concerned with AAA.BBB.CCC only the DDD part.

If the IP Address of your router is .1 that means you have the numbers from .2 to .254 to assign to devices on your network. So that's for your Xbox, your PC, a laptop a second Xbox etc etc.

But one thing to watch out for is DHCP and IP Pools. DHCP is enabled on most routers and is a protocol that takes all the hassle about assigning IP addresses to devices.

For example, if you set your Xbox to "auto" DHCP will give your Xbox an IP Address all on its own. Which is fine, but it doesn't help when it comes to NAT. The reason I mention the DHCP Pool is because it normally reserves a range of IP Addresses for itself to give out to devices. Normally the first 19 or 20. So a router with the address 192.168.0.1 might reserve a pool from 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.20

So what I'm actually leading to is that if you set-up your Xbox to have the IP Address of 192.168.0.2 and don't have your Xbox powered on at the time. The router might already assign that same IP Address to another device and then you get a conflict of addresses as every address on the network needs to be unique.

So with that in mind. In the above example I would choose the following IP Address details for your Xbox:-

IP Address:- 192.168.0.30
Subnet Mask:- 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway:- 192.168.0.1 (This is always the address of the router)

Put those details into your Xbox Dashboard and then set-up your DMZ or Port Forwarding