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We (myself and roomates) have been attempting to play Halo: Reach on XBox Live. However, despite no other issues with our internet connection, the XBox randomly decides to drop the connection. We then get penalized for a noncompleted game, and don't get credit for the game. We have to restart the XBox to reestablish a connection with XBox Live.

What kinds of issues might cause this? Is there anything we can do to troubleshoot? I can say that we are not wanting in terms of bandwidth or anything like that; we're at a University backed by some seriously fast fiber. (And therefore I can't see why we'd be having issues)

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  • Your parents paid the IT department to keep you offline. – Doozer Blake Oct 19 '11 at 23:56
  • Seriously though, have you tried the obvious and walked through some of the Xbox Support site items for testing your connection, checked your router settings, your NAT settings? support.xbox.com/en-us/xbox-live/troubleshoot/connection-issues – Doozer Blake Oct 20 '11 at 0:48
  • @Doozer: Yep. It works for everything else; it only has a problem with this particular game. – Billy ONeal Oct 20 '11 at 18:04
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There are three things you need to worry about:

  • Upstream bandwidth
    Bandwidth is a measurement of your network’s available data throughput. Generally, the more bandwidth you have, the better a gameplay experience you will have. Note: it’s not true that bandwidth = speed. In fact, they’re quite different.

    College networks are shared and experience high usage. This can adversely affect upstream bandwidth. Though your available upstream bandwidth from cable to modem may be high, other devices and behaviors can contribute to overall performance degradation. You can't change this if you are living in a dorm or on the college network.

  • NAT Type
    NAT (Network Address Translation) helps determine how your router interacts with players over Xbox LIVE. If your NAT settings are restrictive, you may have problems finding games and establishing voice communication links.

    You want NAT Type to be open. You can adjust this on your router.

  • Packet Loss
    Packet Loss is a quality of service measurement detailing the percentage of data being sent to or from your network versus the amount of data ultimately received. Data lost in transit needs to be resent, resulting in lower speeds and data errors. Both may result in a crummy online experience.

    Because you are on the college network, not much you can do. Make sure your cables are undamaged and you are not using Wifi to connect to the network.

Source: Bungie

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  • I can confirm that packet loss and NAT aren't issues. The university has 3 10GigE fiber lines supplying us with internet; but "only" about 600Mb capacity paid for over those lines. Looking at the campus' network graphs, there appears to be ample capacity available when testing; less than half the upstream bandwidth is used in cases and we're still disconnected. It seems the routers here just don't like something the xbox is doing... – Billy ONeal Jan 17 '12 at 22:02
  • Have you tired: support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-live/connecting/connect-xbox-live – Elpezmuerto Jan 17 '12 at 22:05
  • We have no problems connecting to XBox live. This is a Reach specific issue; it disconnects us during Reach games. If we quit Reach we can login without issues. (E.g. watching Netflix for hours isn't a problem) – Billy ONeal Jan 17 '12 at 22:27
  • It can't hurt to try the xbox support – Elpezmuerto Jan 18 '12 at 15:23
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    +1 short of examining the actual packets sent/received by halo reach, I don't think you'll get a more satisfactory answer than this. Bungie is particularly harsh at disconnecting low-ping or high-jitter players (due to a long history of network-abuse-based cheating), so perhaps that has something to do with it. – Chris Browne Feb 15 '12 at 12:03

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