How to Fix the Xbox 360 “MTU Too Low” Problem with the Qwest Actiontec Q1000 DSL Modem

NOTE: If you are coming to this article after Googling the subject in frustration, here’s the quick-fix for you: Upgrade the modem’s firmware to QAQ01-31.00L.33 or later and you should be fine.

Qwest has been rolling their new high-speed fiber-optic DSL service out throughout Denver and Arizona for the last year or so (it’s not fiber-to-the-house, but with 40mbps available, who cares?). I’ve been a happy Qwest DSL client for about 3 years now — no complaints and more importantly — no outages.

When the fiber service started rolling out with speeds of 12mbps and 20mbps offered, I would reflexively crap my pants and throw myself into jealous rages because it wasn’t available in my area — that all changed last week.

Not only has Qwest rolled out fiber in my area, they also rolled out a new 40mbps/20mbps service as well for $115/mo — that doesn’t have any bearing on this post, it’s just awesome.

Anyway, I ordered the 20mbps/5mbps service which required an upgrade to the Actiontec Q1000 Qwest-branded modem. This is a Gigabit-capable 4-port modem with Wireless-N capabilities — I’ve had Actiontec equipment in the past from Qwest and it was garbage — replaced within months by 2wire which worked much better. Fortunately after a week with this Q1000 it looks like Actiontec may have cleaned some things up, the modem works fine with some basic firewall, port forwarding and advanced routing rules — this was something the older Actiontec modem that Qwest was selling couldn’t no — no joke, it literally couldn’t employ port forwarding rules AND the firewall at the same time — fail.

Anyway, after getting the Q1000 setup and the service enabled, I hooked my Xbox 360 via a WAP (I’ll give a review of later) and when I tried to get the Xbox online, I would get an error similar to the following:

Unable to connect to Xbox live, the MTU setting of your router is less than 1365 and must be increased. Please fix the problem and try again.

There is literally no MTU setting anywhere on the Q1000 — and reading through some other threads online, folks had suggestions ranging from disabling uPnP all the way to manually changing the MTU settings on your Windows machine (yea, I have no idea how they thought that would help).

As the threads went on, more and more folks said upgrading the firmware did the trick for them and magically the Xbox 360 started working again without any problems.

This sounded easy enough, but believe it or not, I was actually confused by the Upgrade Firmware screen on the Q1000 — on the older 2wire I had, there was a button that I clicked that would check the firmware against the remotely available version and then upgrade it if available — it also automatically upgraded itself constantly too (which got annoying after a while).

On the Q1000, there is simply a Download button and you end up with a file that has no identifying name or type, just firmware.

Believe it or not, this s all fine — and it worked great. So I’ll give you the instructions on how to update your firmware incase you are bamboozled by this — and get your Xbox 360 back online:

1. Go to 192.168.0.1 (or whatever IP address you gave your modem)
2. Login to your modem — I believe the default credentials are “admin” or “admin”/”admin” or just try password “admin” — it’s one of those.
3. Go to Utilities
4. Click Upgrade Firmware in the left menu
5. Click the Download button in section #1 — you will likely be prompted to safe a file named “firmware”, save it anywhere on your local computer.
6. Now scroll down to section #2, and click the Browse button and select that “firmware” file you saved.
7. Now scroll down to section #3, and click the Upgrade Firmware button, this will upload the file you just saved and apply it then restart the modem

And you should be all set. Let us know if you run into any problems. Happy gaming!

http://www.breakitdownblog.com/how-to-fix-the-xbox-360-mtu-too-low-problem-with-the-qwest-actiontec-q1000-dsl-modem/

Utilities series: A look at Cable One, Qwest and Cox

By Derek Jordan
Herald/Review

SIERRA VISTA — Cable One started providing service in Cochise County in 1994 in Bisbee. The telecommunications company now provides residents with cable and digital television as well as high-speed Internet access.

It’s only presence in Cochise County, Cable One serves 1,760 customers in Bisbee.

“Bisbee is our second smallest system,” said Melany Stroupe, director of public relations for Cable One. This area is served by only three full-time employees, Stroupe said.

Owned by The Washington Post Company, Cable One operates in several small communities throughout Arizona, including Prescott, Safford, Globe, Show Low, Winslow and Holbrook, with the state headquarters located in Phoenix.

“We tend to service small cities and large towns in non-urban areas,” Stroupe said.

In total, Cable One serves 720,000 households in 52 different locations in 19 states.

Though it has a much smaller marketshare than its larger competitors, the company believes that offering bundled services with attentive customer care will ensure it’s success and competitiveness in the market, she said.

One of the larger telecommunications companies in Cochise County is Qwest Communications.

In 2000, the fiber optics company Qwest acquired US West, one of the seven smaller telephone companies created after the antitrust breakup of AT&T in 1983.

“We were the original provider of telephone services in the state,” said Jim Campbell, Qwest president for Arizona.

Qwest services are available throughout Cochise County with the exception of Bowie, San Simon, Portal and Elfrida.

The publicly-traded company has approximately 70 employees in the county.

Currently, Qwest offers high-speed Internet and telephone service, while partnerships with Direct TV and Verizon Wireless allow for bundled offers.

“So a Qwest customer can order Qwest services and get Direct TV and Verizon services in one phone call and get those services all under one bill,” he said.

The company serves more than a dozen states in the western United States, with its main headquarters located in Denver. The state headquarters is in Phoenix.

There is a small office in Sierra Vista for Qwest technicians, Campbell said.

Like many similar-sized corporations, Qwest does not release it’s number of customers in a specific area.

As the Internet becomes a more and more common part of the daily life of millions of Americans, a new issue in providing access to it has been brought up numerous times in recent years.

“The big term you probably hear is net neutrality,” Campbell said. Basically, net neutrality argues against the creation of tiered Internet service in which customers would have to pay more for access to a greater number of Web sites or for preset bandwidth limits that restrict the amount of time a person would be able to browse the Web. In many ways, the idea is similar to the current structure of premium television channels.

“Qwest has never considered introducing bandwidth caps,” he said.

The other large telecommunications presence in southeastern Arizona is Cox Communications.

Cox entered Cochise County in 1998, when the company purchased the current cable system from TCI Cable, said Tim Cervantes, director of system operations for the county.

Cox provides high-speed Internet and cable television services to areas within Cochise County that include Benson, Huachuca City, Whetstone, Sierra Vista, Fort Huachuca, Douglas, Pirtleville, Sunsites, St. David and Willcox.

“We’re right at about 45 employees in Cochise County,” Cervantes said. The company’s main office within the county is in Sierra Vista.

Cox is the third-largest cable television provider in the country, with services in more than a dozen states. Its company headquarters is located near Atlanta.

The company was started by the Cox family, who got it’s start in the newspaper industry at the end of the 19th Century, said Cervantes.

It’s founder, James M. Cox, was an Ohio governor and member of the House of Representatives.

“He ran for president in 1920 with Franklin D. Roosevelt as his running mate, but they lost to Warren Harding,” he said.

The Cox family, acting through the entity Cox Enterprises, recently repurchased the remaining portions of Cox Communications.

“We’re in, I believe, our third year of being privately owned,” he said.

The company does not release subscription numbers for certain regions, but does have more than 2.5 million customers in Arizona and approximately 6.7 million nationally.

Herald/Review reporter Derek Jordan can be reached by telephone at 515-4680 or by e-mail at derek.jordan@svherald.com.

http://www.svherald.com