Internet share Mac's AirPort to Ethernet Xbox 360

I have a Mac (OS X 10.6.8) getting internet via AirPort. I would like to share my AirPort connection via Ethernet to my wired only Xbox 360. I enabled internet sharing on my Mac:

… but my Xbox can't connect to Xbox LIVE, because it doesn't get an IP:

This is what my Xbox says:

ip settings: automatic
ip address: 169.254.16.98
 mask: 255.255.0.0
gateway: 0.0.0.0
dns settings: automatic
primary DNS server: 0.0.0.0
secondary DNS server: 0.0.0.0

I've connected my Xbox to the Mac with an Ethernet cable.

A screenshot from my router settings:

enter image description here

user176105

Posted 2012-07-29T21:51:29.083

Reputation: 103

@slhck i don't know why i have 3. also, as shown in the picture, the options on the right are grayed out. i can't change them – user176105 – 2012-07-30T12:01:23.213

i choose only "ethernet" and i got the exact same results – user176105 – 2012-07-30T12:08:06.060

Can you show us a screenshot of your Network settings too? Also, how do you physically connect the machines? Ethernet via switch? Router? Are you sure they should be able to see themselves? – slhck – 2012-07-30T12:13:36.370

My laptop (the mac) is connected via wireless router. check out my edited screenshot – user176105 – 2012-07-30T16:27:16.347

Yes, but how do you connect your Xbox with the Mac? Via a direct LAN cable, or through the router? You have to directly connect them to each other to be able to share the internet. – slhck – 2012-07-30T16:40:28.480

@slhck i run a cat5e ethernet cable from my mac into my xbox. no router between the mac and xbox (direct lan) – user176105 – 2012-07-30T17:02:35.397

Are you able to get any more diagnostics from the Xbox? Does the Xbox work with the same cable when plugged into the wireless router? Are you sure the cable works? – slhck – 2012-07-30T17:08:02.327

no more diagnostics from the xbox. 100% sure the cable works – user176105 – 2012-07-30T17:27:46.397

Has the xbox ever been online? How was that connected? Do you have another networkable device you try to share the internet with? Can you try to plug the xbox into one of the wireless router's LAN ports? Basically, can you try to rule out that the xbox itself is the problem? – JoshP – 2012-07-30T17:45:17.020

@josh the xbox has been connected directly to the router via ethernet and works. I connected my mac to another windows laptop via the same cat5e cable and the windows laptop had internet. – user176105 – 2012-07-30T17:53:26.667

@josh i do have the option to set my xbox's ip settings manually – user176105 – 2012-07-30T18:06:58.163

Answers

When I've shared an internet connection with my mac before, it handed out an address in a different network. One possibility would be to plug in the PC and check out what network settings the mac handed out.

ipconfig at a windows command prompt

Then you can setup the xbox network settings manually. You'll need to take note of a few things from the PC's ipconfig output:

IP address of course

Subnet Mask

Default Gateway

On the xbox, instead of choosing "Automatic", choose "Manual" (or whatever it's called), and enter those values EXCEPT for the IP address. For that, pick an adjacent one. For example, if the IP address you saw was 10.0.2.2, choose 10.0.2.3 or something like that.

You may also want to look into some of the behind the scenes configuration possible with Internet Sharing. There is an interesting question over at AskDifferent that may help you out. Also, the Internet Sharing man page may offer some starting points and google-searchable terminology.

JoshP

Posted 2012-07-29T21:51:29.083

Reputation: 2 236

thanks for your answer, but i get the same results. I noticed that the PC get's a dramatically slower connection than the mac it is connected to. IDK what this means, but perhaps someone else could explain this behavior. – user176105 – 2012-07-30T18:54:52.503

You have to have a router between the X-Box and the Mac, unless you have a crossover cable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_crossover_cable

Willie Matthews

Posted 2012-07-29T21:51:29.083

Reputation: 66

not true. i used my friend's PC and it worked fine – user176105 – 2012-08-06T13:37:07.083

Was it your cable or his cable? If I were you I would use the exact same cable that you used the first time. – Willie Matthews – 2012-08-06T21:49:23.453

it was the same cable – user176105 – 2012-08-06T22:25:34.520

-1

You probably cannot connect to xbox live through the mac because you are using the mac's internet connection. Xbox live has security measures to make sure only xboxes can connect to the true xbox live (not the site you get online, the actual service that provides multiplayer to all xboxes)

Try purchasing a wireless bridge. This will create an ethernet port while using the AirPort

Wolfizen

Posted 2012-07-29T21:51:29.083

Reputation: 1 122

The Mac is just a NAT, just like a typical home gateway router. If you couldn't connect to Xbox LIVE through NAT, Microsoft would have a customer mutiny on its hands. – Spiff – 2012-08-04T04:36:03.890