Network strain, not the update caused Live to act up
by Dustin Burg 
{ Dec 5th 2007 at 1:30PM }
With yesterday's release of the Xbox 360 Fall Update, Xbox Live got hammered. No, not drinking hammered the kind of hammered that happens when millions of gamers clog Xbox Live's network causing all kinds of clunky things to happen. We confirmed with Major Nelson and his Xbox Live ops crew that there were Xbox Live network issues going on last night, but they've since been fixed and everything should be cleared up by now. So, know that it wasn't the Fall Update that was making your console and Xbox Live to act funny, it was simply Xbox Live getting hammered. Now go, enjoy and embrace your new Fall Update without a drunken Live dragging you down.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
xenocidic @ Dec 5th 2007 1:41PM
What about all the problems written about in this post?
http://forums.xbox.com/17126057/ShowPost.aspx
TORO @ Dec 5th 2007 1:45PM
Minor problems on my end, xbox guide would hang occasionally, but I believe it was all ironed out by the end of the night.
dunnypop @ Dec 5th 2007 1:50PM
yeah after restarting my 360 a couple of times, my friend and I realized it was a network issue, which fixed itself after a few hours. Then the system was running insanely fast.
the divx feature is pretty sweet. and the new dashboard is a bit more organized. Not a fan on how reliant the dashboard is to the Xbox network.
Captn Apollo @ Dec 5th 2007 1:56PM
Well the update bricked my system... and I think many others too.... can the 360 Fanboy boys (and girls) follow up with some info about the many Rings of Death the update caused? And why?? Please...
Deezul @ Dec 5th 2007 2:06PM
Great, it WAS Xbox Live's fault. So can Bungie restore any lost EXP from Halo 3 due to network issues? I got a DNF, as well as a few team members.
phant0mgrave @ Dec 5th 2007 2:07PM
Yeah my dashboard took forever to load...I was like WTF!
But I'm glad it's all better now.
Josh @ Dec 5th 2007 2:13PM
Everything went smooth for me, only took 10 seconds to download the update. Overall I think it was a great update with stuff that I'll actually use.
todd @ Dec 5th 2007 2:21PM
Not that much of a biggie to me but really what do we pay for ha, and they of all companies should be able to handle a load of traffic to their site. Bet it was their crap Windows server OS.
alex @ Dec 5th 2007 2:47PM
if only my xbox had actually been returned from repair, I would have got the update. 2 months next week ive been waiting. 2 months!
Captian appolo said, he got the RROD, I wish you luck in getting your system fixed, its a bloody nightmare. But hey, captian, BE NICE TO THE GUY OR GAL ON THE PHONE, because they are sending me a wirless controller, Kameo, and 6 months free gold live membership. Ofcourse I know that this is only a sweetener to keep me as a customer, afterall this will be my third xbox 360 since launch so I suppose its the least that they can do.
See you online around easter time captian appolo
Captn Apollo @ Dec 5th 2007 7:45PM
dude... I was nothing but nice, I know the lady on the other end wasn't at fault for my system RRODing. However all I got was one month of Live Gold out of the deal, probably to compensate for the month (hopefully) that I will be without my system. Too bad Christmas is ruined... oh well.
DjDATZ @ Dec 5th 2007 8:13PM
WHAT?! I sent mine in for the 3rd time in august and all i got was the measly 1 month of free live card...next time i'm asking for more. fuck that shit. the only special treatment i got was a manager to handle my initial request, and some annoying bitch to call me every 2 days that she has no new news on the console...i ended up pulling a string from within and wow...magically...shit started moving. my console came back 1 day short of exactly a month of dying...
xenocidic @ Dec 6th 2007 8:27AM
@apollo, the free 1 month is a standard gift for xboxen in for service. you have to beg/whine for anything more.
i wasn't able to get anything [more] out of them when mine was in for service, but i'll be more persistent if it ever goes in again.
BerZerker117 @ Dec 5th 2007 2:49PM
Interesting.. I was wondering why it was taking over 10 minutes to load my dashboard when signed in on Live.
dunnypop @ Dec 5th 2007 2:53PM
I don't like the fact that the dashboard is so reliant to the network. if the network is down... you can't do anything on your dashboard.
Jonah Falcon @ Dec 5th 2007 3:13PM
Yeah, Microsoft must be upset there's TOO MANY people using Xbox Live. (grin)
Nate @ Dec 5th 2007 3:23PM
Free online services can crash, trash, and blow up, but when I pay for something, it better work. Microsoft is the king of selling things that don't really have customer service.
Christopher Mitrione @ Dec 5th 2007 3:27PM
HAHA. The MODS used Mac OS X Mail for that sticky!
Chroma @ Dec 5th 2007 3:35PM
Oh ya, I noticed this too.
lothar @ Dec 5th 2007 3:40PM
It wasn't a big deal even for my mere $50 a year geez your paying less than price for a game title for a years service that is down how many times? I'm pretty certain its up more than my ISP.
So I had to wait a little bit and there was some slowness, big deal. This update had the biggest feature that just about every 360 owner has asked for (DIVX) plus a whole lot more. Something to consider not everyone that has a live connected 360 goes straight into live and start downloading things immediately, well that is what this update did for all connected 360s but all at once. All the people getting home from work connected up and started downloading the update, then started checking things out streaming video previews, downloading the DIVX Codec, downloading new content, downloading the new music videos, downloading XBox classics.
It was the best Dashboard update period, everyone should be very happy. I am.
geekinabox @ Dec 5th 2007 4:03PM
Though I'm happy (enough) with the update, and though I'm patient and not overly affected by the problems that occurred, I'm still surprised that MS can't somehow isolate the network issues of distributing a new dash away from the core-functionality of XBL.
I do server IT for a living and we regularly dedicate separate infrastructure (network, servers, CDNs) for various purposes to isolate one piece from another. While I'm sure there are smart folks architecting the XBL infrastructure, sure sounds like they could do it better.
Oh, well ... nothing tests like production.
Phocas @ Dec 5th 2007 4:14PM
I cannot believe how fast my 360 blades and dash button are after the update. Is it just me or does your 360 seem to be much more responsive and just plain faster in the navigation between screens?
Kev @ Dec 5th 2007 6:06PM
I've noticed the same things. The interface seems much smoother now.
Daryl @ Dec 5th 2007 4:19PM
Works great on my end. A bit laggy at first, but that cleared up soon after.
TheLegendary87 @ Dec 5th 2007 5:06PM
So does this mean the problems when changing your Windows Live ID associated with your gamertag are fixed?
matt @ Dec 5th 2007 6:59PM
Just one question, how do you get your AVI files to the Xbox. Will they play from a burnt cd or dvd or do you need to setup Media Player or Zune???Please help...
Chain @ Dec 6th 2007 12:21AM
I heard they work on DVD and CD, I haven't tried it myself. I'm currently using Media Player 11's sharing to stream the videos. I was using TVersity before this and I love that I can now pause / resume without something failing to resume. Also fast forward / rewind is a huge plus. I didn't bother to even try Zune Media Players sharing as DivX/Xvid isn't natively supported in the player. If they update the Zune for DivX I will give it a try. DivX Ver. 5+ is supported, luckily I only had 1 DivX 3 sitting around and have encoded the original media to Xvid already.
layla10 @ Dec 6th 2007 1:18PM
You can play them from DVDs for sure (I was able to). Go into videos, press x to change the source, and then select current disc. I think that if you plug in a flash drive and do the same thing, it should work as well. Of course, streaming using Windows Media Player 11 works like a charm (assuming good bandwith.) Unfortunately, none of my subtitled anime plays because subtitles aren't supported.. grr...
Matt @ Dec 6th 2007 6:52PM
Thanks Layla, one thing is when I stream using Media player it says there are no videos. I dont have a media centre pc its just Windows Xp...Any thoughts