So.. I don't like being the host of online games.

I dont know how my friend knows, but we'll jump into online Black Ops to run some games and he always can tell whenever I'm the host, so, naturally, I immediately quit, and before it sends me back to the game menu I have to wait for it to switch hosts, which makes everyone mad. I can't afford to be hosting games. So.. how can I not be host? Settings on my 360 I can change? Or, would I have to setup a new network to filter my connection? Or, would I have to go through my ISP?

Of course, I want to be able to be host and not be host, changing the settings whenever I want.

Two things factor into you being host:

1. Your upload/download speed.

2. More importantly: the ping others have to you.

The "best" you could do is throttle yourself with a QoS setting on your router.

Daaaannng. So I need to get a router huh. Currently its just cable to modem to game console.

It's not really a good solution anyway, as you'd be just limiting your maximum upload speed.

So theres no way to make it so that I can't be a host but still have a good connection? Or to make it that way I would have to keep playing with various network/QoS settings to find a good balance between a good connection and not almost always hosting?

My school has a sick setup where the internet connection is ridiculously fast provided the host was good 2 go, and at the same time nobody on the schools internet would ever be hosts of games.