How to improve your PS3 connection to the internet and improved NAT

A common woe of the average PS3 owner is the lack of proper internet speeds, a PS3 at stock settings is fairly slow even with Ethernet plugged directly into it, today I will help you clear this problem and help you achieve

1. Improved Download speeds from PlayStation Store.
2. Better NAT Type.
3. Improved Latency in games like Black Ops, Modern Warfare 2, World at War (i.e Games with hosting) .
4. How to be a good host for private games of Zombies (i.e games where people will connect to YOU)

When I bought my PS3 slim the number one problem I had was lag in online games, but after some basic googling and guides I found my way through the slow speeds and improved my downloads and game greatly, my PS3 on 4Mbit DSL used to take 20 minutes to download a 30 MB Patch but now it takes <2 minutes , how did I achieve this you ask? Well just follow the simple steps below

1. Identify your PlayStations Network! In layman terms this means that find out whether you are using ethernet or wi-fi, I would HIGHLY recommend ethernet over Wi-Fi but I get the same results on Wi-Fi too but my experience could vary to yours.
2. Once you have found out your network go on a device ON the same network, i.e if you are on Wi-Fi then connect your laptop to the Wi-Fi and do the following. I assume you are running a windows OS in which case you should press WINDOWS KEY + R (this command works from Windows XP to Windows 7, all editions) to bring up the command console, in the command console type "ipconfig" without the " "
3. In the IP Config grab a pen and paper and note down the details I have made a red arrow at on a piece of paper, this is essential for you when you setup your PS3.
   
4. Start up your PS3.
5. Scroll the XMB to "Settings" and then scroll down to "Network Settings" at the bottom
6. Press X / O on "Network settings"
7. Open "Internet Connection Settings"
   
8. Choose " Custom" (Don't choose Easy) followed by your connection type and choose between Wireless and Wired (As I said earlier Wired is preferred)  If you choose Wi-Fi fill out the details of the SSID, password etc.
9. Whatever you choose just choose every setting as AUTO until you get to IP Address settings (Except Wi-Fi SSID and password)
10. Now this is where things get tricky, remember at step 3 I asked you to write down the RED Arrow details from the command console? i.e your IP Address, Default Gateway, Primary, Secondary DNS Address? Fill in the rest of the details EXCEPT IP Address in the settings i.e Primary and Secondary DNS and Default Gateway.
11. Now come to the IP Address, what ever network your PS3 is on should also be given the same IP as the device already on the network, suppose your laptop has the IP 192.168.1.50 you can give your PS3 192.168.1.45 if you want as long as no other device in your house is using those LAST 3 digits the address i.e 192.168.1.xxx (the xxx indicated that this value can be anything between 0 - 255).
12. This is what your IP Address settings should look like right now, I will give you an example using MY settings. The following values below are just examples of my values, each value can vary depending on your ISP.
13. IP Address : 192.168.1.46
14. SubnetMask : 255.255.255.0 (THIS IS AN AUTOMATED VALUE and does NOT require changing)
15. Default Gateway : 192.168.1.1 (This is also the settings page for your router / modem which can be opened by typing the address in any web browser on any OS)
16. Primay and Secondary DNS : xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (didn't wanna waste time with this so just leaving it blank)
17. ONLY READ IF YOU DON'T HAVE A PRIMARY / SECONDARY DNS, Contact your ISP and ask for it! The DNS works on any and every device so just call your ISP and ask for the two DNS addresses, in case your ISP does NOT give you one you can use your default gateway in both or use
18. Primary: 8.8.8.8
19. Secondary : 8.8.4.4
20. Now for the rest of the values keep choosing the following
21. MTU: Automatic, Proxy Server: Disabled (Unless you know what this is and have one leave it so) UPnP: This is a tricky option, some say it gives better performance enabled while others say the opposite. I just leave it disabled since I don't have UPnP settings in my modem. But experiment and see if both options help.
22. Do "Test Connection" to make sure your PS3 is able to connect to the internet.

If successful your PS3 should pass all the tests and your NAT Type should be the same or for some people this helps increase it from 3 to 2. For some people this can be the end of the guide but for some who have more customizable modems / routers they can assure themselves full speed by doing the steps below, those of you who have certain brands of modem may not be able to do the following steps below so feel free to carry on.

Now that we have covered the basics this last step is something I will not be able to help you with because it varies from modem / router but you have to look for ONE particular value.

1. Open your web browser
2. In the address bar type your "default Gateway" as we discussed earlier
3. You will see a prompt for a username and password, the default is (almost) always "username: Admin" "Password : admin" but again if it isn't then contact someone who knows the password preferably someone who setup your network connection and ask them the username and password
4. look around in your settings for an option called " D M Z " this is a VERY useful feature which helps speed up your PS3 for the most part, what we did above was assign our PS3 a Dynamic (Fixed) IP Address, now once you find your "D M Z" insert your PS3's IP Address, save the settings and reboot your modem / router.

If you have done BOTH the above steps correctly you should now see an increase in your internet performance with your PS3, I for one went from <1Mbit to <3.5 Mbit after the above settings.

NOTICE: MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING WITH THE ABOVE INFORMATION, WCCF IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU HARMING YOUR ROUTER / MODEM SETTINGS WHILE DOING THIS, IF YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT NETWORKING I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU CONTACT SOMEONE WHO DOES AND SHOW HIM THIS GUIDE OTHERWISE YOU COULD END UP DOING SOMETHING WRONG AND MESSING UP YOUR INTERNET. I AM MAKING THIS GUIDE AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE BUT IN CASE YOU STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND A TERM OR TWO FEEL FREE TO ASK ME FOR HELP AND I WILL HELP YOU IN THE COMMENTS.

AND I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO ADD THAT CERTAIN ISP DON'T GIVE YOU A GOOD MODEM THAT ALLOW YOU TO CUSTOMIZE YOUR INTERNET SETTINGS MUCH, SO IF YOU DON'T FIND THE OPTION OF DMZ AFTER LOOKING THROUGH EVERY CATEGORY / SUB-CATEGORY ASK A NETWORK EXPERT TO FIND IT FOR YOU, AND IF THEY CAN'T FIND IT EITHER IT MEANS YOUR MODEM / ROUTER MAY NOT HAVE THIS FEATURE AND THAT THE FIRST 22 STEPS ARE ONLY FOR YOU. ONCE AGAIN I WOULD ENCOURAGE YOU TO NOT TAMPER WITH SETTINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW OTHERWISE YOU COULD END UP RUINING YOUR HOUSE INTERNET SETUP.