Xbox 360 VPN setup for Xbox Live - Buy DLC & Games on Demand from the Japanese Market

This tutorial will show you how to easily setup your Xbox 360 to connect to Xbox Live through a VPN (Virtual Private Network) using Windows 7

Note: although this guide will cover the setup process using Windows 7, it should be a very similar process with Windows Vista and possible to setup with Windows XP.

Note 2: Its also worth mentioning games on demand games use region locking, so if the game is region locked to NTSC-J for example, even if you buy it like this it will not work on your PAL console. Do some research on what you plan to buy first.

Why would you do this?

They are various versions of the Xbox Live Market place for different regions, you can easily access the market places from other regions by creating a Windows Live account saying you live in that region e.g. Japan then sign up for Xbox Live with that account, you will then have access to the marketplace and all the content for that region.

However certain content you buy on the Xbox Live Marketplace such as Games on Demand games or certain downloadable content requires you to be connecting to Xbox Live from that region to purchase it. By checking your IP its easy for Xbox Live to see you are trying to buy something from the Japanese market place from say England, and stop you from doing so.

This is where a VPN comes in, when you connect to the internet through a VPN you can trick a website or service, such as Xbox Live to think you are in one location when in reality you are at the other side of the world.

Here is a diagram to better show how a VPN works:



What you will need?

• You will need a computer with two network connection, one can be wireless if you wish, however you will need at least one wired connection. With this in mind a laptop would be an ideal device to use.
  
• An Xbox Live account for the region you wish to purchase something from
  
• Microsoft Points loaded on to this account for that region:

Play Asia will let you have points instantly via email for Japan, Asia and the US, they are probably the most safe place to buy points for other regions from.

1400 Microsoft Points (Japan) – Sent By Email

3500 Microsoft Points (Japan) – Sent By Email

1600 Microsoft Points (Asia) – Sent By Email

3200 Microsoft Points (Asia) – Sent By Email

1600 Microsoft Points (USA) – Sent By Email

4000 Microsoft Points (USA) – Sent By Email

• A VPN provider with a server in the country you wish to buy from

You can use any VPN Provider, if you havent got a provider yet, I strongly recommend NordVPN. I picked NordVPN because of its zero logging policy, it's Netflix US friendly as well as P2P friendly while operating out of Panama meaning DMCA and Blocking Streams just doesnt happen. On the plus side, they also have multiple Servers in Japan which is essential for this guide.

Getting Started:

For the purpose of this tutorial we will look at downloading content from the Japanese marketplace as it has by far the most exclusive content compared to most other regions.

We will use NordVPN as they offer servers in Japan and many other regions so should be perfect for most peoples needs.

Sign up for an account at: https://nordvpn.com
Remember your username and password as you will need them later

After signing up, you will get an email with a link to confirm your account, do so.

Now you have an account you can pick a VPN server in the country you want Xbox Live to think you are in, have a look here for a list of VPN Servers NordVPN offer:

https://nordvpn.com/servers/

For the purpose of this tutorial we want to appear like we are in Japan so we will use a VPN server in Japan from the list.

You should now have:

• A username / password for the VPN provider
• IP address of the VPN server you wish to connect to

I would also recommend going to Digiex IP Address Detector and making a note of your IP address so we can verify the VPN is working later on.

Setting up the VPN:

Now we have everything we need we will set the VPN up, this tutorial will show you how to do so on Windows 7, however it should be easy to do with Windows Vista or even XP.

First click the start orb and go to Network



Click on Network and Sharing Center at the top



You can also get here by going: Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network and Sharing Center

Select setup a new connection or network



Then connect to a workplace (setup a vpn)



You then want use my internet connection (VPN)



Now enter the IP address of the VPN server you wish to use



Next you will need to enter the username / password provided by the VPN provider



Next click connect, depending on the VPN provider this will likely fail so we want to change some advanced settings of the VPN connection. To do this we want to go back in to Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network and Sharing Center and click change adaptor settings on the left.



Right click on the VPN connection and select properties



Here your VPN provider could provide you with specific settings you need to have, thise are the settings I found to work perfectly with VeryFastVPN:



Now we need to share the VPN connection to the Xbox, so in the sharing tab select “Allow other network users to connect through this computers internet connection” and below select the connection that connects the Xbox to the computer.

In the example below anything connected to “Local Area Connection” will connect to the internet through the VPN once it is connected.



Now we need to connect to the VPN, back in Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections double click on the VPN connection.



You should be presented with a box that has your username / password for the VPN in, if not enter it



All been well the VPN should connect



Here the VPN is connected and should also be shared to the connection the Xbox will be connected to.



If you go to Digiex IP Address Detector again your IP address should now have changed from the one you noted down earlier.

You are now set to connect to Xbox Live, all been well you can sign in to Xbox Live using the VPN.

When you are signed in to the account from the region you want to buy from, find what you want to buy and purchase as normal. You should now be able to and you will not be denied by the IP checks performed when purchasing.



Downloading through a VPN will likely be very slow, I only got about 30kb/s at the very most, however once the download has got to 1% they will not be any IP checks until the download reaches 99%



You can pull the network cable out that is connecting your Xbox to the computer and connect the Xbox directly to the router again, when you sign in to Xbox Live again the download will continue.

Note you must keep an eye on the download, the second it reaches 99% you must pull the network cable out, if you let the download finish wall not on the VPN your download will fail and you will have to start again.



Simply connect the cable going to your computer again and let the last 1% download over the VPN, your download will finish and your console will acquire a licence for the content. Once the content is downloaded it can be used with any profile that is signed in on your console and you will not need a VPN to use it on Xbox Live.



Thats it you have your game / dlc purchased form another regions marketplace

 

Yes i believe all arcade games are region free, so you should have no trouble. Just to be safe download the trial first to confirm.

Games on Demand titles along with DLC are region locked however, so even if you managed to download them your console would need to be NTSC-J for example to play them.

 

That would be an expensive alternative to getting a Jtag if all you wanted to do was play games from any region...

 

I dont have an account on there currently, I just signed up for the free 2 hour trial and my account has since expired.

 

Depends on the game, all i play are the exclusive shoot em ups which you could play and understand without knowing any language if you ask me.

The main menu's are in English on most of the shoot em up games, as are all the in game stuff which is nice:

[video=youtube;fN9Uk1xXK4k]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN9Uk1xXK4k[/video]

Of course if you were playing some RPG you would need to know the language, it would bug me if a game like that had anything but English text and audio.

 

I have never done it with streaming video, try it and see?

VPN servers in other countries will usually be slow, I can only usually get 1 or 2 mbps when downloading from servers in the USA, where as servers in Europe I can get the full 20mbps from.

I think you will find it hard streaming content though a VPN.

 

To download from the JPN marketplace you need to create a JPN account, that is the only way you will be able to access the JPN marketplace.

When you are no longer in Asia you will need to use a VPN to download purchased content from the JPN marketplace though.

Any games downloaded on the JPN account will work with your US account however (as long as you play on your NTSC-J 360).

We do have a fair few region free games, America has a more than we do however.

 

Nope you need an NTSC-J account to download NTSC-J content, if you download from the NTSC-J market on your console anything on there will work fine.

As for games look on Play-Asia and search for the game, it will tell you the supported regions of all the games they sell.

 

They are multiple versions of the same game, like the version of Blackops sold in the UK is region free, and the version sold in other European countries is region locked.

GoD downloading is filtered by region, hence you having to use a proxy server to download from the marketplace of a region your not in. The only real problem is what you have where you move from one region to another, nothing you can really do about that unless you import sadly.

 

Yes that is correct.

A Jtag or Reset Glitch hacked Xbox 360 is the cheapest solution, however neither of them will get you on Xbox Live as you know.

You can region switch an Xbox 360 vunerable to the Jtag hack (and i presume the Reset glitch hack) by modifying the keyvault, you can then remove either the Jtag or Reset Glitch mod, update it and go on Xbox Live with it. I have no idea if it will be detectable that you switched the region or not however, if you were to do that you might get banned at a later date, its impossible to say as i've not done that.

Also a few good Shumps are region free:

Mushihimesama Futari
ESPGaluda II
Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu (PAL release, works on an NTSC 360 too)

Some others that i was not really keen on:
Muchi Muchi Pork & Pink Sweets
Bullet Soul
Eschatos