Quote:
Seems like a complete load of cow manure. What exactly is so special about an xbox 360 that it needs a "microsoft certified" router?


Yeah, I semi agree.

My NetScreen 5GT or 5XP is a quality firewall, but it doesn't have UPNP as Juniper/NetScreen don't sell these devices as consumer devices. I read this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/908874/en-us and set those ports to be open. I've never once seen an XBox live related packet hit my FW (from the outside). I DO see lots of XBox packets LEAVING my trusted internal network.

I can't get my XBox NAT evalutation to be anything less than "strict". I think that UPNP just opens and closes needed ports whenever XBox Live needs them. Since I have mine open all the time, I don't know why I get a "strict" designation. I think it has something to do with our implementation of NAT...

I think the Microsoft certification just means that the company is a "friend" to Microsoft AND they tested the implementation of UPNP to be sure it works ok with XBox live. I'm sure that most implementations will work, although if you scan through the XBox forum posts, there are a lot of routers that seem to give people headaches...

- Jon