Cannot see lobbies in-game

Kai Beginner Joined: 25 Oct 2021 Posts: 2

Hello XLink Kai mods,

Today, my brother and I tried desperately to get a match of Halo 2 going, but neither of us could see each others' lobbies in-game despite being able to connect and join each others' private arenas on XLink Kai.

Besides Halo 2, we also tried MechAssault, Unreal Championship, and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, but we still couldn't see each others' lobbies in-game.

We verified that XLink Kai is discovering our Xbox consoles under Metrics, and we also verified that Engine and Broadcast Traffic are showing activity.

We both set our ports to 0 because our routers use uPnP, but we forwarded port 30000 UDP through our routers and firewalls just in case. We also tried setting our ports to 30000 in the XLink Kai config, but that didn't work either.

My setup:
- Unmodified original Xbox connected to router (ethernet)
- Windows 10 laptop connected to router (ethernet)
- Halo 2 Limited Collector's Edition disc (NTSC)

Brother's setup:
- Modified original Xbox connected to router (ethernet)
- Windows 10 desktop connected to router (wireless)
- Halo 2 rom (NTSC; running off HDD) with version 1.5 update

I was able to join a Latin America private arena and see Halo 2 lobbies. My brother claims he used to be able to see Latin America Halo 2 lobbies as well, but now he can't for some reason.

We're not sure why our consoles refuse to talk to each other. My current questions are:
- Is it possible to have a Halo 2 version mismatch? (Do I need to update my game to version 1.5 somehow?)
- Do we need to set static IP addresses or edit our Xbox Network Settings?
- Does my brother need to connect his PC to the router via ethernet (rather than wireless)?
- Are there any specific boxes we need to check in XLink Kai config?

We would greatly appreciate any help with this. We're really hoping to get Halo 2 and the other aforementioned Xbox games up and running on Kai. Thank you in advance!

Kai Beginner Joined: 15 Apr 2020 Posts: 46

Hello

I will answer your questions

1. It is possible to play Halo 2 on XLink Kai without having the same update.
2. No need to set manual IP settings. You can use the default as long as the console IP is in the address range. If it is not, it is necessary to set the manual ip with the respective range.
3. Yes, your brother must connect the computer to the modem or he must connect the xbox to the computer.
4. You should not make any modifications to XLink at this time. Please restore them from the taskbar.

Finally, I recommend you review the official guide to make the proper configuration. https://www.teamxlink.co.uk/wiki/Original_Xbox_XLink_Kai_Setup Idea

For more help

https://discordapp.com/invite/UyyjNpa

Kai Beginner Joined: 25 Oct 2021 Posts: 2

Thank you so much! Connecting the Xbox directly to the PC (instead of the router) via ethernet fixed the issue, and we're able to play together.

It seems like this kind of setup is required if your PC uses Wi-Fi for internet.