several resources to help me out but nothings working

Have you checked your NAT type to see if you are showing open? I know I have been having issue with my NAT and my xbox not requesting ports at times or at other times the xbox just being slow with requesting a port to open. It happened a few updates ago
and I'm starting to think there is some firewall issues for myself. Hasn't been a major issue for me because it starts working with a reboot. Hopefully either xbox will update or I'll get some new firmware for my router and it will solve things. I know the
only thing that has this problems with port requests is my xbox.

Honestly Media center is a horrible POS. It tries to much to be stylish with out any concept of being functional. I have tried Media center for the last week. And it is slow and horrible. one of the worst design features is that when watching a video streamed
from your PC none of the buttons on the controller match the same functions as when watching a video stored on the Xbox. The functions are clunky and messy.

In all honesty, use Tversity, it's much more intuitive and streams the media to your console and then the console treats it like it is on the console rather than running through a different program on your PC. Accessing Tversity is faster than waiting for
Media center to connect and it's much smoother. Tversity is free too.

1. Not sure. I've never ripped a CD to my 360

2. How to Setup System Link

3. XBOX 360 as Media Player

The following links for 2&3 should get you started.

In the end found out It was B.T that have blocked ports on my hub and I had to disable the firewall to get a good connection and it only works through Ethernet. They tried to charge me for it so I wasted their time found out how to do it and done it myself.
The bloody cheek of em whilst on the phone they asked to speak to the account holder so they could offer them a load of rubbish, no chance, they leave with nothing and I'm changing ISP. For a much cheaper and superior Virgin.

Hi there. Let's see if we can get you a solid connection.

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First up, are you connecting to the Internet via Wi-Fi or via an ethernet cable?

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If connecting via Wi-Fi, are you using an adapter attached to an original 360 or are you using the built in Wi-Fi in the 360 S/360 E?

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If using an adapter, is the adapter black or white?

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If you're able, you should try to connect the 360 to your network via an ethernet cable (if you're not doing that already).

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Also, you could try contacting your ISP to see if there's problems on their end that are affecting XBL traffic.

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Hope that helps.