NAT type, strict vs. open...does it matter and how to change it

Hi everyone. I've moved into my new house and was testing out the internet by playing a few matches of MW3. Seemed really laggy at first when playing with randoms then was better when playing with some 30s. The main MP says my NAT type is "strict" and to go to www.infinityward.com/nat to change it to open. Well, that website got stuck in a repeating loading loop or never loaded on 2 computers in our house.

I goggled for some help and found this:

http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/PlayStation-Network-General/How-to-put-your-PS3-into-a-DMZ/m-p/10655314

So questions:
1) what is the NAT and does it matter to my playing?
2) does that link sound reliable/correct?

Thanks!

I'm not very up on the technical mumbo jumbo involved with this, but yes it matters...does your interwebs run through a router? If so you can benefit greatly by putting your PS3 into a DMZ...this will usually change your NAT to open and give you better connectivity. Mine used to be open, but after a recent update it has said moderate and I've had issues with leading parties, inviting people to parties, joining other people, and general lag. I can't figure out how to get mine back to open as my router setting haven't changed...

Hey if you havent read this yet take a look and see if your questions are answerd. If not ask Black Death, hes real smart about this kinda stuff.

https://over30clan.forumotion.com/t4025-the-ultimate-network-router-thread

Ok so i took the time and read through the topic i said to check out and i didnt see where he explained how to do it. Ask him on there after what i tell you doesent make sense lol

So i had to change my NAT after i port foward my xbox. What i had to do was go to the web site for my router, i think this is done by going to the start menu and clicking run. Then typeing someting lol and clicking on your ISP. like i said this may not help at all. Once you get to the site you have to type in a password, should be password and then click on nat type and chage it to open. I know any IT guy that sees this is gonna think im a dumb ass but damn it i did it on my own lol.... look it up on youtube, thats how i did it.

If you want to put your ps3 on a DMZ, you need to assign it a static ip address. if you are using 192.168.1.1, assign it something like 192.168.1.101.

In your router, go to application and gaming or the equivilent (i use cisco linksys so that is what it is called for me) and toggle dmz on. when you get to the DMZ it will ask you for the ip address that you want to allocate for the dmz. Put in the same ip address as the ip address you assigned for your ps3 or xbox. Voila, you now have a gaming machine that is in a DMZ.

If you need any more help other than this, I will be happy to get on the phone and walk you through it. Sometimes these types of things can be daunting. As for validity, I do this kind of stuff day in and day out for Fedex.

So...awhile back I put my PS3 into a DMZ...it made my connections better and moved my NAT from moderate/strict to open. Not so long ago there was an update and I've had a moderat NAT and connection issues ever since. So I dug around a bit and looked into my internet connection settings on my PS3...the IP address that I set up for the DMZ and had previously put into the PS3 was no longer there. I re-entered the IP address info and logged on...I got into the multiplayer screen faster than usual and when I got there my NAT was back to open.

I know others have mentioned a similar problem, so you may want to look into this. Around the same time as one of the MW3 updates I believe there was a PS3 update that may have changed your settings.

That is all...

Update...played for a couple hours and it seemed better...I was pulling 4 bars more frequently and the results seemed to show...

Believe it or not last night I was playing MW3 and my Xbox 360 was on STRICT all night long I surprisingly was given party host most of the night and we had not a single issue getting into matches it was kinda crazy how quickly we where getting into games we ranged from 4 people all the way up to 8 and from East coast to Texas.

Yeah the latest update fucked something up bad. I didn't change any router settings either but my connection changes between all 3 randomly. If you are not in MW3 and check your connection in Network Settings, it will say your NAT is one thing but MW3 will say something entirely different.