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Fiddler on Xbox devkits

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Use this topic to understand how to use Fiddler with an Xbox devkit. Fiddler is a web-debugging proxy that logs all HTTP and HTTPS traffic between an Xbox devkit and the internet. To understand and debug web service calls, use Fiddler to log and inspect traffic to and from the Xbox services and Relying Party web services. Fiddler is available in several versions. Fiddler Classic is freeware. To download it, see the Fiddler website. The following sections refer only to Fiddler Classic.

In normal operation, a devkit that communicates through a proxy is at risk of having its communications modified by the proxy. This might allow users to cheat. As a result, retail devkits are designed to not allow communication through a proxy. Using Fiddler with your Xbox devkit requires that you perform some special configuration steps on the dev kit so that it can use the Fiddler proxy.

Fiddler can affect the network status that's reported by the console. If an upstream connection is disabled from the development PC that's running Fiddler, the console might not detect this disconnection until the authentication of the console has expired. If you're using Fiddler, don't use it to simulate a disconnect. Instead, break the connection between the console and the development PC that's running Fiddler. Better still, use the network stress tools to simulate disconnection for testing purposes.

Install and enable Fiddler on the development PC

To install and enable Fiddler to monitor traffic from your dev kit

  1. Install Fiddler Classic on your development PC by following the directions on the Fiddler website.

  2. Open Fiddler. On the Tools menu, select Fiddler Options.

  3. Select the Connections tab, and then ensure that the Allow remote computers to connect check box is selected.

  4. Select OK to accept the change that you made in the settings. A dialog box appears, saying that Fiddler must be restarted for the change to take effect, and that you might have to configure your firewall manually. Select OK, but don't restart Fiddler yet.

  5. Configure the necessary firewall rule to allow remote computers to connect.

    a. In Control Panel, select Windows Firewall.

    b. Select Advanced Settings > Inbound Rule.

    c. Go to the FiddlerProxy rule, and then scroll to the right. Verify that the values match those in the following table.

    Setting Preferred value
    NameFiddlerProxy
    GroupDo not set a value for Group
    ProfileAll
    EnabledYes
    ActionAllow
    OverrideNo
    ProgramPath to fiddler.exe
    LocalAddressAny
    RemoteAddressAny
    ProtocolTCP
    LocalPortAny
    RemotePortAny
    AllowedUsersAny
    AllowedComputersAny

  6. Configure Fiddler to capture and decrypt HTTPS traffic.

    a. To enable the best performance, set Fiddler to use Streaming Mode by selecting the Stream button on the button bar.

    b. In Fiddler, select Tools > Fiddler Options > HTTPS.

    c. Select the Decrypt HTTPS traffic check box. If a dialog box appears, asking whether to configure Windows to trust the CA certificate, select No.

    d. Select the Export Root Certificate to Desktop button.

  7. Close Fiddler, and then restart it.

Configure an Xbox devkit to use Fiddler as its proxy to the internet

Fiddler can be enabled or disabled for Microsoft Game Development Kit (GDK) titles.

To configure a dev kit to use Fiddler as its proxy to the internet

  1. Go to the Network tool in the Xbox Device Portal UI.

    a. Using a browser, go to your console's system IP address on port 11443 (for example, https://<your console's system IP address>:11443/).

    b. Ignore any security certificate failures. Continue to the web page.

    c. On the left menu, select the Network tab.

  2. Go to the Fiddler root certificate that you exported to the desktop.

  3. Enter the IP address or host name of the development PC that's running Fiddler. If you're using the development PC's host name, it must be the fully qualified domain name, including any domain name suffix that you've configured.

  4. Enter the port number where Fiddler is listening. By default, Fiddler uses port 8888.

  5. Select Enable. This restarts your dev kit.

To stop using Fiddler as a proxy to the internet (and to stop Fiddler from tracing all the dev kit's network traffic)

  1. Go to the Network tool in the Xbox Device Portal UI.
  2. Select Disable. This restarts your dev kit.

Ensure that Fiddler can capture your title traffic by using some additional steps. For more information, see Debugging WinHTTP.

Exclude Microsoft Store endpoints from Fiddler

Microsoft Store downloads detect Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) interception and fails when Fiddler is used to decrypt HTTPS traffic. These endpoints aren't needed for title analysis and can be excluded from Fiddler as follows.

  1. In Fiddler, select Tools > Fiddler Options > Connections.
  2. Add the following hosts to the Bypass Fiddler for URLs that start with list: assets1.xboxlive.com;fe3.delivery.mp.microsoft.com;sls.update.microsoft.com
  3. Confirm this change, and then restart Fiddler.

See also

Fiddler website