Both the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 are excellent gaming consoles to enjoy AAA games at high frame rates. Among the many reasons to buy an Xbox Series X over the PS5 are exclusive features like Quick Resume, and support for Dolby Vision in games. Despite being released a couple of years ago, the Xbox with its 12 teraflops GPU still has enough horsepower to push visually stunning games like “Elden Ring” and “Microsoft Flight Simulator” for not a whole lot of money.

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The Xbox Series X|S benefits greatly from the Xbox Game Pass subscription service too, allowing gamers to enjoy a huge catalog of games at an affordable rate instead of buying each game individually. This is assuming you have access to a reliable internet connection, though, either through Wi-Fi or Ethernet.

If you’ve been wondering why your Xbox hasn’t been able to connect to the internet in your college dorm or office, it is because most of these establishments block unknown devices by default as a security measure, as well as to preserve bandwidth. Though unlikely, some Wi-Fi routers at home may also need an extra bit of tinkering to whitelist devices such as gaming consoles. If your Xbox is having similar issues with your connection, you first need to identify the MAC address of your device — here’s where you can find it on the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles.

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The term “MAC” stands for “Media Access Control,” and acts as an identifier for a device connected to a local network. Digging into your router’s settings, you will find ways to blacklist or allow specific devices on the network from accessing the internet — and the 12-digit hexadecimal number is the MAC address.

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Both the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles let you access the MAC address for further configuration purposes. Here are the steps to reveal this information:

1. On your controller, locate and press the Xbox button to access the Guide Menu.
2. From the “Profile & system” tab to the far-right, select “Settings”.
3. Navigate to General > Network settings > Advanced Settings > IP Settings.
4. Here, you will find the values for both the wired and wireless MAC addresses.

After having noted the MAC address down for your Xbox Series X|S, you can log in to your Wi-Fi router’s setup page and input this number in the MAC Filter section. You may also have to specify whether to allow or block this device. To test your connection now, head to network settings, and select “Test network connection.”

Whitelisting your Xbox Series X|S console using its MAC address identifier should now allow it to access the internet. If you’re still unable to connect to Wi-Fi on your Xbox, however, there are a few solutions worth looking into. Start by ensuring your router itself is able to provide an uninterrupted gateway to the internet. You can do so by testing the connection using any other device connected to your router.

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Both the Xbox Series X and Series S devices come equipped with plentiful connectivity options, including a gigabit Ethernet port. For setups that have your console and Wi-Fi router in close proximity, switching to a wired connection can improve latency and lets you steer away from any network interference from other devices in your home. Try plugging in your Xbox console directly to your router to see if this fixes the connection problems.

You can also try to forget your Wireless network and connect to it again for good measure. On your Xbox, navigate to Settings > Network Settings > Forget wireless network. Then, choose “Set up wireless network” from the same settings page, select your Wi-Fi network, and connect to it using your password.

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