360 can't see pc

[metshaz]

I've used ics (internet connection sharing) using my laptop and my 360 over the last few years when i'm away from home.

Anyway, i had to reformat and reinstall windows 7 the other week, and ever since then i can't get the two connected.

I'm not after the internet connection as i can sort that out later, i'm just trying to stream media from the pc to the 360

Windows 7 pc connected to the 360 via an ethernet cable. 360 states it has no ip address.

All the hundreds of pages i have read suggest rebooting router or messing about with router settings, but i'm not using a router just my pc's lan connection.

The 360 shows up as an unknown network

I have used a different cable and have ensure the obvious services are running. (like Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service, UPnP Device Host, SSDP Discovery, and firewall is completely off. And sharing is enabled in both the network settings and media player. And the pc can see the 360 in the network map, although bizarrely althought it can see it here when i run the Windows Media Centre program it states no extender found.

Lastly the 360 gets assigned an ipp starting with 169 which apparently means something too.

Any ideas?

[starbuck251]

If you are using a direct cable between pc and xbox then what is setting your up addresses? It sounds like you might need to assign your xbox a static ip address in the same address range as your pc.
To find out your pcs ip address go to start, type in cmd and a black window opens, type in ipconfig and then look at the number next to ipv4 it should say something like 192.168.1.1, also make a note of the subnet mask and default gateway.
Try making your xbox ip static and use a number like 192.168.1.120 (the first 3 number sets must match what your pcs are, the last number must be different so put it in the 100's,) then add the subnet and default gateway exactly like your pcs. See if that makes any difference. Sorry if I've just told you the equivalent if tying shoelaces, but I'm not sure how computery you are!

[metshaz]

Cheers for that, got loads of ideas to try for tonight.

As for giving the 360 an ip, i was sure that last time it was left to automatic.

Out of interest i thought the laptop should give an ip address to the 360

Also should it say "unidentified network"?

[starbuck251]

I'm pretty sure that windows 7 won't do that as it's not a server with dhcp or dns on it- you only get that on servers like 2008 or 2003. Can I just check- are you connecting the cable directly between your pc and the xbox? Is there no hub or router in between? It will prob say unidentified network if the xbox is has any sort of number that's different. Give it a go and see how u go

[metshaz]

direct ethernet cable connection

[metshaz]

Got there in the end.
Did a system restore to remove the changes i had made previously and started from scratch, going methodically through the services that needed to be running etc.

I'm going to write them all down, as there are a lot of variables. One of the culprits may well have been my firewall, i selected exit to stop it running but i don't think it was quitting properly. Although it'sfree and fairly easy to use, I still can't set it to allow the 360 in /out so i have to set it to "allow all" whilst the 360 is connected.
The 360 does show up as an unidentified network, and with win 7 you can't change it, so i had to open up sharing when in a public network, which i would prefer not to. going to work on the security side of things next.

in the end you don't have to open ports or do make any changes to the 360, no setting ip's or anything, leave it all to automatic.

[starbuck251]

Oh good, well done. Yes it's frustrating losing everything settings wise because you always end up forgetting! Glad it's sorted