Alright guys, please be merciful here if this is unnecessary, but I discovered how to get the First Strike map pack regardless of what region you live in. Would anyone need to know how? I don't mind doing a tutorial, but I don't want to do one for no reason.

TUTORIAL:

This requires no special things other than an ethernet cable. Now, since the ethernet cable has to be plugged from the xbox into the computer, you would need to have a second port or wireless internet on your computer. This is also for Windows 7, although it will work on other Windows versions some things may just be in different places.

Other requirements:
Xbox 360
Computer
Ethernet Cable

Before I begin I'd like to explain more about what causes the actual problem. The main issue occurs if either your IP, Account, Xbox, or Game are out of region; example: American Account, but playing in Canada on a Canadian Xbox. I spent 3 hours on the phone with Microsoft to get the support from an "xbox live specialist" who told me to go download it somewhere else.

Needless to say I was not at all pleased with this answer, nor was I willing to accept it. I did some research and found that people were getting past this problem by using VPNs ( [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] ) with American IPs to download the content to their xbox. The real issue is only the last 1% as I discovered; out of region it will download to either 98% or 99% and then say that it cannot download the content. Thus, you only actually need an American IP for that last 1% or 2%.

Step 1: Go to the site [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] and register for a free account.

Step 2: Once you have made your account, login; they usually don't require email verification, but use a legitimate one just in case. After you login, you will look to the right side of the page and find the VPN server list it displays.
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The one you are going to be using is the US test server. It is almost always there but has been down for a few minutes once that I saw, so if its not there just try back in a bit.

Step 3: Go to Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center until you are at this screen:
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Once there, click on the "+ Set up new connection or network.

Step 4: Once you have clicked on that another window will pop up. You want to select the "connect to a workplace" option.
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Step 5: If another window pops up asking if you want to use a connection that you already have, just say "No, create a new connection".

Step 6: Next you want to click on "Use My Internet Connection (VPN) on the screen that pops up.
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Step 7: On the next window to pop up you will have to enter both the internet address and the destination name. The internet address will be where you enter the information you go in step 2 (Usually us6.macrovpn.com) and the destination. The destination must be FLASHVPN (all caps). Don't check any of the boxes.
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Step 8: When the next window pops up, it will ask you for your username and password. You will use the same username and password that you used when you signed up for MacroVPN.
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Step 9: At this point hit the "connect" button. It should go through successfully, if not give it a bit of time and try again later; I have found that it may sometimes, but not usually, takes more than one attempt.

Step 10: Once it connects you can actually go ahead and disconnect it for the time being; the easiest way to do this would be to use the internet button on your tool bar, right clicking on FLASHVPN and choosing "disconnect"
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Step 11: Now you want to plug your ethernet cable into the Xbox and your computer. I don't have a picture to illustrate this one, but I have a feeling you can figure it out.

Step 12: Once that is plugged in you will need to bring the window back up that we had open in Step 3: Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center. Once there you want to click on "Change Adaptor Settings" in the top left.
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Step 13: You will now see the following screen:
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At this point you are going to need to discern which Local Area Connection (if you have more then one) is your Xbox. It is usually the first one, but this varies. The easiest way to find out is to remove the cord run between your Xbox and computer from your computer and then see which of them changes from disconnected to "Network Cable Unplugged". Once you have discovered which LAC is your Xbox you need to remember it.

Step 14: Right click on the FLASHVPN connection and click "Properties". From there click on the sharing tab.
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Step 15: Check the box beside "Allow other network users to connect...". Once you have an alert message will come up informing you about the username and password for the connection cannot be saved... Just click "OK"
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Step 16: From there you will need to select the Home networking connection. Choose the LAC that is your Xbox from the dropdown menu. The bottom box above "Using ICS" should be automatically checked. Once you have selected your Xbox LAC from the dropdown menu click "OK" at the bottom.
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So, what we have done so far is to setup the VPN and enable it to share its internet with the Xbox. That means that the Xbox will connect through the internet through the VPN and thus will have the VPN's IP. In this case the American IP that we are in need of. If you need to do this in the future this will all be setup and saved and will be able to simply follow the following steps to get content.

Step 17: At this point you want to connect to your VPN. You can right click on it in the "Adapters" screen or you can click the internet button on the toolbar and right click on the FLASHVPN and click "Connect".
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Step 18: Some of you may not like this, but this is by far the easiest thing to do. Disable your firewall. If you feel uncomfortable with this you can try to look for the individual restrictions, but I didn't have any luck connecting to XBL with Firewalls enabled. Its easier to disable if possible.

Step 19: Connect to XBL on your Xbox. You will experience slower browsing on there.

Step 20: Buy/Start downloading the content you want. At this point you can just let it sit there and download like that but it will be slow, so I suggest continuing the steps.

Step 21: Reconnect your Xbox to its normal internet and keep downloading it. Once it gets to 99% you will get a message that the content cannot be downloaded. This is ok.

Step 22: Reconnect your Xbox to your computer with the VPN connected and go download the item again. All the progress from the previous download will be there and it will download the last 1% as that is the only part that actually needs to be from an American IP.

Step 23: IT MAY TAKE AWHILE; it is downloading through a server in the US which might be having other trafficl; it may take a bit to download. Once it does, you can reconnect to your Xbox normally and the content will be downloaded and usable. You will want to disconnect the VPN on your computer and REENABLED YOUR FIREWALL at this time.

Congratulations you have just gotten around the Content Restriction. Now, I cannot confirm 100% that this will not get you into trouble, but there I cannot see any reason why it should. I have spoken to people who have done this 6 months ago and not run into any issues, and a staff member on the Xbox.com forums said that it does not violate the TOS or CoC.

You are free to repost this as long as I am given credit; I am seeing a lot of serviceman overseas getting this problem, so the solution should be spread around as widely as possible.

If you have any issues please post them. I am fairly certain I got everything right but I might have missed a step.

This may also be my first tutorial, possibly second, I can't remember, so any feedback/criticism is appreciated. And as a P.S. this was based loosely off a Youtube tutorial, although it needed a bit of modification to be easily workable. Link: [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] Definitely don't want to forget my sources!