With the new Steam update, i was very excited as now under Settings/Downloads there is a new setting to select your region, and more specifically, there is a region of Australia specifically for Bigpond. This meant for me that i could get all my downloads of games from Steam basically unmetered (don't bother asking about the cruddy Australian internet quotas).
Anyways, while redownloading TF2, i noticed via the "netstat -b" command in cmd and in TCPView, that there was non Bigpond content servers connecting to steam. After following this link: http://whisper.ausgamers.com/wiki/index.php/Gamearena_Steam_Content_Server_Help#Step_1_-_Ensure_you_are_allowed_to_use_the_GameArena_Steam_Servers, i noticed 1 to 2 of these following IPs:
1. Internode (steam1.games.internode.on.net): 203.26.94.251
2. Internode (steam1.adl6.internode.on.net): 150.101.135.1
3. 3FL (steam-wa.3fl.net.au): 202.72.191.174
These of course i do not want as it means my downloads will count towards my downloading quota. The main one, was no 3, and it kept reconnecting even after i closed the connection via ESET Smart Security's firewall. That specific IP finally stopped connecting after a few disconnects, but then my downloading of TF2 seemed to have stopped. So i closed Steam and entered the settings of my modem/router (Billion 7402NX) and having not too much experience with changing around my modem/router's settings i couldn't seem to find where i could simply block these 3 IPs. So i tried the next best thing, my software firewall, which as mentioned earlier, is ESET Smart Security. So i went into the firewall settings and created a new rule.
It was to block both incoming and outgoing TCP/UDP connections of those 3 IPs. I clicked OK, then Apply. I then deleted the Clientregistry.blob as the guide says to do, then reloaded Steam back up. Steam halted on the Updating bar, then after 30 seconds or so, came up with an error saying:
"Unable to connect to the steam network. 'Offline Mode' is unavailable because there is no Steam account information stored on this computer.
You will not be able to use steam until you can connect to the steam network again"
I thought that this could potentially be because i blocked those ports, so i closed the steam error, went back to ESET Smart Security, and disable that Rule that i had just created and rebooted my laptop.
I then try to load up steam and i get the same erroreventhough i have clearly disabled the rule in ESET.
Sorry for the long post, but i try not to leave out any details when i ask for help. So basically i need help on first of all getting Steam working again, then somehow blocking those 3 IP addresses without getting the same result that i just recieved.
Thanks heaps
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Not you can do the latter, have you tried restarting your computer and redownloading clientregistry.blob?
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I denyed connection to the IP which was connecting to Steam, then surprisingly at the moment it has not come back. I now am connected to 2 IPs, but i can't properly tell if they are GameArena servers...
With netstat, it shows ga2 (gamearena) is connected which is exactly what i want, but it also shows steam-nsw:27070 connected, and if the 3rd banned IP is anything to go by, this could be the NSW equvalent of the 3FL server. Only problem with this is, under Netstat, the internal IP of the steam-nsw connection is: ***.***.***.***:4951 5 And it doesn't match the IP of the 3FL IP shown in my first post.
But when i look at ESET's connections for Steam, the 2nd IP's internal IP is: ***.***.***.***:4951 4
So i am uncertain whether to close the 2nd IP or not, but according to netstat, i do not want to have this steam-nsw:27070 connection running just to make sure there are non-GameArena connections.
edit: i found out that the IP with the 49514 port is in fact a 3FL server so i immediately blocked it
Help IP Blocking for Steam
Discussion in 'Networking and Wireless' started by ben3gfc, Feb 5, 2009.