can't connect to any server w/ Half-life.

[aanyone]

I suppose this would be better posted in gameing, but since I'm having problems I thought I'd get better results here.

When I go on-line with half-life, or any of the mods, and select a server from my list I can't connect. If the server I select is valid, the game shows the loading screen and the text below says I'm trying to connect. Then it says I'm connected, the timer starts counting down, and I get a deny message saying connection could not be completed. It seems the server is looking for someting from me, or vice versa. What could be wrong?

Thanks for your help!

[jbell255]

Sounds close to the problem I had (still having sorta).
Half-Life games wouldn't even connect, they would retry my connection number 4 times and then kick me. I found out that this was because my annoying brother had taken my Half-Life cd and installed it on his computer. Whenever one of us is on the other can't be. Im guessing this isn't the same thing as what your experiencing but at least it got you a bumb. :D

[aanyone]

thanks... I don't think that's the problem. This Cd key has been used on another computer, but the other PC can't even get on-line. So reasonibly, that shouldn't stop me...

What trouble shooting can I do? There aren't any connect settings I've seen in the games. Could it be compuserve? I'd like to blame them, but i doubt it's my connection.

[broKen_ImpuLse]

do you have all of the updates?

[aanyone]

Yeah, I went through all of that earlier, hence my frustration. I had version 1.1.0.6 so I downloaded 1.1.0.8 and installed it. I don't get the "you version is too old" error anymore. I even used the auto-updater to double check.

[broKen_ImpuLse]

are you timing out?

[aanyone]

yeah, but it won't just come out and say that.

When I select the server it goes to the loading screen, the status at the bottom says it's "trying to connect," then it says it's "connected to server." Still on the loading screen, with "connected to server" written at the bottom, it's restarts this timer to 120, and starts ticking back. once it's done, I go back to the server selection list, and I get an error "connection could not be complete." Kinda like the server was looking for something from my computer after I connected, or vice versa, and it never got it.

[broKen_ImpuLse]

if you are timing out then it should say "connection timed out" in the console. so look in the console and see if that is the case. you can also adjust your timeout time with the cl_timeout command. the timeout time is ultimately governed by the default server value. so if the default server timeout is set to 35 sec and you use cl_timeout 100 your timeout will still be 35 sec. also update your server list again.

[aanyone]

it definately says "connection could not be completed" not "connection timed out" but I can watch the counter count down, and when it hits 0 I get the error, thats why I say it looks like it times out. The timer also counts from 120, and if I can't connect in two minutes I doubt it'll connect at all.

Maybe I can check more in the console? Are there commands I can type that will provide more information about this problem?

[doyinger]

Hey,

Im having the same problem and its driving me nuts, I can connect in spectator mode and watch but that sux **** I also get initializing and downloading line to but just when its about to connect it boots me, it must have something to do w/ friggin XP. when I was loading the half life ver 1.8 and cs 1.3 each time i got a "i/o corrupted file" and it asked me to abort or retry so i hit retry and it loaded, did the same thing happen to u and if it did maybe thats the problem. I'm going to do a fresh install of the game and see if that helps......good luck to you!!

Athlon 1.2
windows XP pro
running DSL connection

[aanyone]

perhaps I should have mentioned I'm running Win98 SE. I'm frustrated about all this, since I've never been able to connect to an internet game with half-life, but now that I have the current update and I can't play any of these great mods it's driving me nuts!

Are there any tech supports I can contact? What about trouble shooting procedures, like in the console?

[doyinger]

Hey aanyone,

Check in your half life folder for a folder called "cheater document" I found this in mine and it wasnt there when I was running cs with no problems, that might have something to do with the problem, also do you have punkbuster? maybe try getting that and see if it helps but I doubt it will, good luck

[doyinger]

P.S ,
Try Sierra.com or type half life in your search engine to find sites with possible tech support

[cerberus6]

Just a shot in the dark, since noboby mentioned it yet...

Are you behind any firewalls? If you use BID, the "Paranoid" setting may prevent you from joining any games. And if you use ZA, make sure "Half-Life launcher" is allowed to connect.

[asterias]

along the line of cereberu6, if you are behind a fire wall try disabling it, and if that does not work then uninstall it. Had similar problems with sygate personal fire wall. Sometimes it just stops all connections and the only way to allow them again is to uninstall and then install it again. By the way sygate personal firewall is very good and is a free download from sygate.com. Try this.

[MATR1X]

I was having the same problem - only with CS though - all the other mods and halflife were fine.

I sorted it out by deleting the CS folder (making sure that I had the latest patch and cd's available and close at hand) and uninstalling Halflife - then reinstalled and all was fine - opbviously you need to run through all of you settings again to get it back to scratch but it worked for me.

I believe that when installing the cs update the system asks for you to select you connection method which it then goes on to configure your connection settings - this can or has become corrupted and as such stops you from connecting.

Was your problem with only Halflife, CS, oppossing Forces etc?

[aanyone]

My problem has been with Half-Life and all the mods associate. I have yet to play a FPS on-line.

The mods I've tried so far are OpFor, CS, TFC, The Opera and maybe one or two others I can't remember.

I would have reinstalled Half-Life, but after spending hours and hours downloading version 1.0.0.6, then 8... then downloading Counter Strike and a few other mods, I'd hate to loose them! I have Blue Shift and OpFor on CD.

Is it possible for the connection set up to be corrupted in Half-Life and affect all the Mods? Or is connection setting saved within each mod?

[MATR1X]

Where are you? If in the Uk I strongly advise to get a years subscription to PCzone - with this you get their patches CD which will have the latest Halflife patches and CS. (even their own maps to play on their server)

If not then I must stress that you need to check the sierra website and see if there is a forum there where they may be more clued up with the connection side of things for halflife.

Are you on Dial-up - cable/dsl so forth - if you are on cable then the full patch is only 74 mbs for halflife and should not take too long to download.

If you have any mods then you can move the mod setup to another directory. Other than that I must admit that I am at a loss.

--------------------

[doubleclick]

BTW, Win XP has a built-in firewall, try disabling it (even though i don't think this is the problem).
I Have XP (Pro) and am running TFC and CS without problems. Although I am running the game in Compatibility (W98) mode (not because it didn't work/connect at all, but because of some strange crashes and a screen resolution problem).
R u running the game in compatibility mode?

And finally, when u d/l a patch I suggest u don't delete it after the upgrade. Whenever u have to reinstall, u still got the patch.
If u have a 10GB (or more) HDD u should have enough space for your patches.

Good luck! ;)

[DougM]

I'm having the same problem. When I moved my machine from win95 to win98se I lost the ability to connect to any half-life server. I'm going to try to reinstall and see if that helps.

[ivan of ASEC]

also try useing game spy www.gamespy.com. this will find the servers for you and also works with a multitude of games.

[Nemesis1s]

i had that same problem when i tried to play online with my illigal version, has to do with the cd-key..so i went to the store and bought the game. And now everythings works perfectly.

[DougM]

I was having the same problem but now it is cleared up.

There are two things that I did:
- reinstall half-life BUT before applying any updates I started the game once and then it asked for my CD Key. (I don't think it did if I installed all the updates before using it once).

- Changed the video mode. I switched to hardware accelerated and suddenly it started connecting, don't know why this is related but it worked for me.

[Newbie2building]

I dont know if this will work, but try downloading the gamespy 3D from www.gamespy.com Theres a unregistered free version. I got mine from the cd that comes with my pc gamer magazine, but when ever I cant connect from the cs game itself I use the gamespy and it works fine. Just my 2 cents :D