Friday, December 31, 2004
Swap-out
You know what the real problem with Steam is? No, not that - or that! The real problem is that there are so many things to go wrong, and so few of them that can be resolved by anyone but the user. Between the Steam client sitting on your computer and the Steam servers sitting on Valve's 120-odd computers, there are a raft of hardware, software and connection errors to dodge. The usual suspects, firewalls and AV, are the best covered by both the Steam support and vendors themselves and usually simplest to fix. It's the rest of the road where lesser-known problems that are harder to quantify seep in.
If you have a graphical glitch in Half-Life 2 you aren't going to find a solution here. Nor are you if you have been 'wrongfully' VAC banned or had your account disabled by accident (yeah, right), have forgotten your password and closed the e-mail account attached to your account or, let's face it, done anything dumb whatsoever. What you will very likely find a solution for is connection errors, weird login errors (including getting letters replaced when you send your account login name - god knows what was going on there), slow updates or updates that jump back and forth...in other words, anything related to getting information passed to and fro over the 'net.
This is a very basic summary of the path data takes between the Steam client and Steam servers. If you want to see exactly what servers it is bounced through open steam.log, find an IP and use a traceroute program on it.
Client: The Steam client running on your computer.
-->
Software: Other programs and services running on your computer, including Windows itself.
-->
Hardware: Your computer's physical components.
-->
Connection device: Although hardware like anything else, this is the most important piece of it as far as Steam in concerned. Includes modems, routers and gateways.
-->
ISP: Consists of your local exchange and a string of servers from there to your country's 'backbone' DNS servers. It's very large and very complex but completely out of your control - one entry.
-->
Internet: Once you leave your ISP's servers the signal could go anywhere. My connections to the Steam servers are passed though computers owned by AOL, for instance. They are usually 'backbone' servers too.
-->
Steam server ISP: Normally Limelight Networks. If you are connecting to a non-Valve content server it will be their ISP's rigs instead.
-->
Steam Server: The Steam servers.
As you can probably see, only three (first and last two) of these steps are under Valve's influence. The only connection between the others, where the vast majority of connection-related issues develop, is your use of them and that any one of them can cause problems that need not have any relation to speed or power.
The first thing to do is ensure that this is a problem only you are having. This can be achieved simply - just go to the steampowered.com General forum and see if every thread is about the same issue, examine the Status page for any obvious problems, or read the News page for announcements. Resist the temptation to base your judgement from Community Help and Tips as with the millions (yes) of Steam users there will almost always be SOMEONE with a connection problems such as yours.
In the image above, a graph of available and used Steam bandwidth, you can see several anomalies. The frequent, short-lived increase spikes are usual and mean nothing but the large, vertical dips are anything but regular and caused problems while they were around.
If Steam is behaving on the grand scale you know for sure it is a problem at your end. The best way to proceed is to first diagnose where the problem is. Swap out as many of the stages above as you can. Once you have exhausted the usual solutions such as updating drivers and bearing in mind that these need not all be done and certainly need not be done in order, here's how for each:
Client: Reinstall is all you can do in this article's context. How to perform a clean reinstall of Steam.
Software: The best way to rule out software is by trying to do whatever you are attempting in Windows' built in Safe mode with Networking. If it works in that state you can be sure your problem is other software getting in the way.
Hardware: Got a spare computer? It needn't be capable of playing HL2, just of running Steam.
Connection device: Swap it with another, preferably of another type altogether (router to modem). This can be achieved by taking your computer round a friend's house, but that will likely overlap ISP. As well as drivers, have you tried updating your router's firmware?
ISP: Temporarily swap to another. Easy if you're on dial-up...not so easy if you have broadband. Just as well there's plenty of free trials going around these days.
Internet: Switching ISP may partly affect this. Otherwise there's nothing you can do save getting a Steam server in another country.
Steam Servers: For both Steam server stages, deleting clientregistry.blob from your Steam folder will select a new one. This will sometimes bypass both Steam server ISP and the Internet in general.
After all that you will have found where the problem lies. If the issue remains then you have indeed found a genuine flaw in Steam and should make a Support ticket to get it looked at.
What should you do now you know where the problem is? I don't know. You can't prove a negative and you can't write down every solution to every problem. Contact the support people for where the problem lies and ask them to fix it or just stick with the alternative you have found if you like it. Good luck!
Please see Steam support for further help.
If you have a graphical glitch in Half-Life 2 you aren't going to find a solution here. Nor are you if you have been 'wrongfully' VAC banned or had your account disabled by accident (yeah, right), have forgotten your password and closed the e-mail account attached to your account or, let's face it, done anything dumb whatsoever. What you will very likely find a solution for is connection errors, weird login errors (including getting letters replaced when you send your account login name - god knows what was going on there), slow updates or updates that jump back and forth...in other words, anything related to getting information passed to and fro over the 'net.
This is a very basic summary of the path data takes between the Steam client and Steam servers. If you want to see exactly what servers it is bounced through open steam.log, find an IP and use a traceroute program on it.
-->
Software: Other programs and services running on your computer, including Windows itself.
-->
Hardware: Your computer's physical components.
-->
Connection device: Although hardware like anything else, this is the most important piece of it as far as Steam in concerned. Includes modems, routers and gateways.
-->
ISP: Consists of your local exchange and a string of servers from there to your country's 'backbone' DNS servers. It's very large and very complex but completely out of your control - one entry.
-->
Internet: Once you leave your ISP's servers the signal could go anywhere. My connections to the Steam servers are passed though computers owned by AOL, for instance. They are usually 'backbone' servers too.
-->
Steam server ISP: Normally Limelight Networks. If you are connecting to a non-Valve content server it will be their ISP's rigs instead.
-->
Steam Server: The Steam servers.
As you can probably see, only three (first and last two) of these steps are under Valve's influence. The only connection between the others, where the vast majority of connection-related issues develop, is your use of them and that any one of them can cause problems that need not have any relation to speed or power.
The first thing to do is ensure that this is a problem only you are having. This can be achieved simply - just go to the steampowered.com General forum and see if every thread is about the same issue, examine the Status page for any obvious problems, or read the News page for announcements. Resist the temptation to base your judgement from Community Help and Tips as with the millions (yes) of Steam users there will almost always be SOMEONE with a connection problems such as yours.
In the image above, a graph of available and used Steam bandwidth, you can see several anomalies. The frequent, short-lived increase spikes are usual and mean nothing but the large, vertical dips are anything but regular and caused problems while they were around.
If Steam is behaving on the grand scale you know for sure it is a problem at your end. The best way to proceed is to first diagnose where the problem is. Swap out as many of the stages above as you can. Once you have exhausted the usual solutions such as updating drivers and bearing in mind that these need not all be done and certainly need not be done in order, here's how for each:
Software: The best way to rule out software is by trying to do whatever you are attempting in Windows' built in Safe mode with Networking. If it works in that state you can be sure your problem is other software getting in the way.
Hardware: Got a spare computer? It needn't be capable of playing HL2, just of running Steam.
Connection device: Swap it with another, preferably of another type altogether (router to modem). This can be achieved by taking your computer round a friend's house, but that will likely overlap ISP. As well as drivers, have you tried updating your router's firmware?
ISP: Temporarily swap to another. Easy if you're on dial-up...not so easy if you have broadband. Just as well there's plenty of free trials going around these days.
Internet: Switching ISP may partly affect this. Otherwise there's nothing you can do save getting a Steam server in another country.
Steam Servers: For both Steam server stages, deleting clientregistry.blob from your Steam folder will select a new one. This will sometimes bypass both Steam server ISP and the Internet in general.
After all that you will have found where the problem lies. If the issue remains then you have indeed found a genuine flaw in Steam and should make a Support ticket to get it looked at.
What should you do now you know where the problem is? I don't know. You can't prove a negative and you can't write down every solution to every problem. Contact the support people for where the problem lies and ask them to fix it or just stick with the alternative you have found if you like it. Good luck!
Please see Steam support for further help.
