Steam

I just bought half-life 2 and got steam, but i can't get on. The problem states that i'm not actually connected to the internet even though i am. I disabled my norton's internet security and my windows firewall and still nothing. I have the same problem with AIM now too. Maybe its just some setting i have thats being stupid or some program but if you know anything please help! Thanks.

 

From what I gather it seems you have 2 Firewalls, NIS has a built-in firewall, if you have any other software firewalls remove it. It is more than likely causing conflicts.

Steam itself is a major pain in the rear anyway, try messing with the settings on both AIM and Steam, if you're on a high speed connection make sure the both are setup that way and not set on Dial Up.

If you are on Dial Up, I don't know how much help I can offer there as it will be a long long long wait for the updates to begin playing (No I'm not exaggerating). Also if you're using a router or a hub in the case that you are on a high speed connection, I would suggest going directly through the modem.

You can also try configuring you you're router and opening up the ports, go Here for instructions on opening ports for steam and HL:2/CS:S in regard to you're firewal and router.

Hope this helps!

 

Thanks DarkCypher. I think the problem may be that i have a firewall i do not know about/ forgot about. Is there any way to search for firewalls on your computer? (Yeah I'm a noob at computers)

 

Well, that depends on which Firewall it is.

Navigate to Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs. Look on the list of programs for anything that says Firewall, most common ones would be Kerio (Now known as Sunbelt Kerio), ZoneAlarm and Sygate.

If you find it, remove it and then see if it helped you're issue.

 

Bad News: I have dial-up
Good News: I'm getting DSL in about five days
Well i don't have any other firewalls, but thanks anyways. i'm going to go ahead and uninstall and reinstall hl2/steam again and change some of the settings. if you have any other advice please go ahead. I'm all ears. Thanks DarkCypher, you're a god (one of the Greek ones I would think)

 

Ahh, yeah Dial Up was probably causing you're issue, hope it works out when you get DSL. If not just reply to this thread again.

Good Luck!

 

heh, its been awhile. Well that problem is solved, but now when i click on Half-Life 2, steam says preparing to launch but never actually does. Screw Steam. Turned of Windows firewall and listed Steam under permit all in Nortons Internet Security 2006 but nothings happening. any ideas?

 

Yeah...that's good ole' Nortons acting up, the only thing I could really direct you to do for that would be to reset all permissions incase it mixed up what permission you really gave it or incase it never showed up. It happend to me pleny of times when I used Nortons, and usualy when you get to many programs filled up on Nortons it will eventually get confused I guess you could call it.

So if you're willing try this ( Be warned doing this will make every application you have allowed in the past ask for permission again, but it might fix this issue if what I think has happend did. ) download the tool Here
Save it to "C:\Program Files\Norton Internet Security" folder. Run it, reboot.

Afterwards it will have you redue you're connections and whatnot but it does help along the way when it starts acting up.

If all else fails, I personally would switch to Freeware Firewall/Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware.

I would suggest, Kerio/Avast!/Windows Defender it's an awesome combo it keeps my backups clean as a whistle and they run 24/7 under alot of use. It's your choice though. EDIT also they don't use up as much memory and resources either.

Good Luck!

 

Tried to dl it to my computer but it says that access is denied and i cant move the program there unless i am the administrator, which is weird because i am the administrator. how do i override this?

 

That's a little weird...you could try moving it in safe mode, it really shouldn't be giving you problems like that, the program is small and doesn't even install. What OS are you on?

 

Alright turns out i just wasn't the computer administrator, dled the file and placed steam and hl2 under permit all but still nothing happens. Also disabled norton's internet security and tried to get on and it still didn't work. Any other ideas? (btw thanks again for helping out)

 

You did reboot after you ran the file right? don't go in settings and place the application under permit, run the application and when NIS comes up with an alert, permit from there and see what happens. I think that might your problem, because it may have other odd programs it needs you to permit afterwards.

If you did reboot, run the tool again, reboot and redue the process, Put NIS program control on High and change it's behavior, make sure it's asking you before taking any action. After all that then run HL2 again and permit all the things it asks.

If that doesn't work then my other suggestion on switching still stands, I still think you may be better off doing so.

 

nope that doesnt work. sorry. anyways tried doing half-life 2 in offline mode and it still doesnt work, so the firewall has nothing to do with it right? I mean i took out my ethernet cable and it still would not load. maybe its something to do with windows settings

 

Well steam won't work in offline mode, unless you already have downloaded the updates and have the game offline mode ready.

 

well i already dled all of the updates, on my steam account it says 100% and ready

 

yes! its finally fixed! because i just got a new computer i didn't dl the drivers or w/e for my graphics card. I did and now it works, thanks DarkCypher for helping and Cole for sort of but not really helping

 

Glad to see it works, happy to help...Video Card drivers huh, new to me. Anyway have fun!

 

Dammit. New problem. I can play HL2 for about two minutes just enough for G-man to talk and and me to walk around a bit before the game freezes, as stated before dled all the drivers and did the nortons internet security allow thing, any other suggestions?

 

no screens come up or anything just good el's screen freze with repetitive sounds, causeing me to restart my comp

 

Just doesn't want you to play huh?

Ok well, I need to know the specs of the PC...so I'm going to have to ask you to download this diagnostic EVEREST when it finishes, run it.

Once it's open click 'Report' at the top and when the wizard comes up click next>Check System Summary Only>Click Next>Select Plain Text. After it's finished click Save As Text File on the top left, save it to where you can find it and attach it with the next post.

 

Is half life 2 the only game it happens in, does it happen in other steam games aswell?

 

it just happens in half-life 2,

 

aight DarkCypher, here's the report

 

Everything seems alright with that, what are your Temps while playing and how many watts is the PSU?

Might try lowering the Video settings while playing also, when it freezes do you attempt to get back to the desktop...like Ctr-Alt-Del or Alt-Tab? Another thing that might work is if it happens again, IF you have it on your keyboard try hitting the standby mode on it.

What that will do is after it goes into full standby press the button again it will log back on to the desktop and the game will be minimized. If something had interupted you, you can see what it was.

 

dude, wtf are temps and PSU? i'm pretty sure i don't have a standby mode key on my keyboard, is that like sleep mode? sorry, noob at computers