you really cannot rely on LIVE when it comes to being FAST and connecting to servers without a problem...its known that recently LIVE has been having issues so thats the main reason why u cannot connect or your game freezes...on the other hand...if u have a router and you are wired to it with your xbox you can try forwarding the Xbox LIVE ports to that specific IP for your 360...that usually opens up my NAT and flow through matchmaking in halo and COD4