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Odd Problem when playing DS2 or BW

I noticed a message popping up when starting and ending DS2 or Broken world, Server Error Dungeon Siege II
Servers Hosted by GameSpy are no longer available. I get this when I start and end a single player game.
I reinstalled both DS2 and Broken world and this did nothing. I ran the repair program on my wireless network card and this did nothing. I disabled in my firewall the ability for DS2 and Broken World to access the Internet and this did nothing. Starting the game either with AllSaves or Standard does not affect the problem. Only by removing the network card (easy since it is USB) I do not get the message. This is a new problem it was not there last week when I played a map in Broken World. This also doesn't exist when I play DS1 or DSLoA in single or multiplayer.

Anyone have a suggestion on how to make this go away without removing my internet connection?

Elf

Im getting this error too and i cant play multiplayer anymore :/

I have this problem too Sad .

Edit: Maybe this has to do with IGN taking over Gamespy.

I had thought the problem was elf related.

... why a single-user game makes any attempt to access the internet. I could understand opening a socket if you select multiplayer.

At least it appears to be dumb programming, rather than spying on your DS use, as the latter would keep quiet about its failures.

bare_elf wrote:
I noticed a message popping up when starting and ending DS2 or Broken world, Server Error Dungeon Siege II
Servers Hosted by GameSpy are no longer available. I get this when I start and end a single player game.

Anyone have a suggestion on how to make this go away without removing my internet connection?

Elf


Just block the game with your firewall so it can't access the internet and you'll get no messages. Of course if you want to play multiplayer with some other service you'll have to un-block it again.

Not sure if there's an ini setting or something to stop it trying to access the internet in SP but I doubt it.

attempted to block DS2 and DS Broken World in my firewall and still get the same message when playing single player. I think it may be do to one of the ports that Game Spy used is still open, but I can find no data on what ports Game Spy used and would have no idea how to disable them anyway.

Elf

bare_elf wrote:
attempted to block DS2 and DS Broken World in my firewall and still get the same message when playing single player. I think it may be do to one of the ports that Game Spy used is still open, but I can find no data on what ports Game Spy used and would have no idea how to disable them anyway.

Elf


What firewall are you using? If you have an antivirus program chances are that it comes with its own firewall as the one that Windows ships with is pretty poor and will be disabled by the Antivirus program. For example I use AVG Internet Security and all I had to do was to open advanced settings under the firewall component, scroll down the application name list until I found Dungeon Siege 2 Game Executable (there were 3 of them) and click on the Action icon next to them and choose Block in the dialog box. Poof. No more annoying messages.

Failing that I found this page that lists the ports that Gamespy uses; http://support.microsoft.com/kb/906302 Look for Port Listing near the bottom of the page.

A Firewall should automatically block the Gamespy ports when the application you Block tries to access it, at least that's how AVG seems to work. Here's a link to a page on how to specifically block ports in Windows firewall http://maximumpcguides.com/windows-7/block-a-port-in-windows-7s-firewall/ Caution! I've not tried this so I don't know whether it works or could even cause problems with other applications on your computer.

I also look to see if there were any commandline parameters that may help but there doesn't appear to be.

Well this is very weird. But I've fixed it.

You do need to block the Gamespy ports through Windows firewall. Simply set inbound AND outbound rules (following this guide: http://maximumpcguides.com/windows-7/block-a-port-in-windows-7s-firewall/) to block ports (UDP) 27900, and (UDP) 28900.

It'll try and go through Gamespy but won't do it, then you'll be able to go into LAN (edit: internet too). I tried this in Broken World, but it seems to work in plain Siege 2 too.

tis very sad indeed, that gamespy server is gone, had many characters, now gone, and they didn't make effort to tell people either, also noted that the internet and lan buttons dont work now too, which is bullshit. anyways it has always had a message that it had to connect but would only notice it if didn't have internet b4. bummer, that is quite annoying message.

Grrr i want to play this game with friends Sad Lets talk to IGN support.. Laughing out loud

Voty wrote:
Grrr i want to play this game with friends Sad Lets talk to IGN support.. Laughing out loud

Darkelf wrote:
tis very sad indeed, that gamespy server is gone, had many characters, now gone, and they didn't make effort to tell people either, also noted that the internet and lan buttons dont work now too, which is bullshit. anyways it has always had a message that it had to connect but would only notice it if didn't have internet b4. bummer, that is quite annoying message.

Haha, did you guys not see my post below yours? It's fixable (for LAN and Internet play), but I suppose the Gamespy section is still closed off until IGN sorts this out.

jethro250 wrote:
Voty wrote:
Grrr i want to play this game with friends Sad Lets talk to IGN support.. Laughing out loud

Darkelf wrote:
tis very sad indeed, that gamespy server is gone, had many characters, now gone, and they didn't make effort to tell people either, also noted that the internet and lan buttons dont work now too, which is bullshit. anyways it has always had a message that it had to connect but would only notice it if didn't have internet b4. bummer, that is quite annoying message.

Haha, did you guys not see my post below yours? It's fixable (for LAN and Internet play), but I suppose the Gamespy section is still closed off until IGN sorts this out.

However some of us are still using windows xp and are not using the windows firewall. I have logged in to IGN to ask them about the problems people are having with the stupid message. I am also re-reading the documentation on my firewall to make sure I am blocking things correctly. Will let you know what I discover

Reilana's picture

I'm finding the same issue, and can't seem to work around it, blocked the ports in Windows Firewall as well as my Norton's, but STILL nothing happens upon pressing LAN or Internet >>

i've taken a look at the issue as i was trying to mod ds2bw again but hit the gheyspy server error brick wall and cudnt test out my mods. Sad

using some firewall programs, it appears ds2 tries to do a dns lookup and tries to resolve a particular dns name to an ip address then connects to it.

currently, as of this time in writing, the ip address it tries to connect to is 69.10.30.248

therefore, we can do two things to prevent the multiplayer server error from occuring.

1. block remote or outgoing port 53 for ds2bw.exe to prevent it from looking up the domain name of whatever its trying to connect to. however, this method does not always work or the firewall might not have such a setting. also, u might end up blocking urself and/or other programs from accessing the internet which results in self-pwnage PHAIL. alternatively, u can also block remote or outgoing port 27900 as described below BUT if u play other games on gheyspy, u have to remove this block or else u wont be able to connect.

2. totally block out the specific ip address, 69.10.30.248 , with a firewall program. i've tested this and it works. i can now test out my mods in lan. however, im not sure if windows firewall (its crap. never used it lol) Laughing out loud :mrgreen: allows blocking out a specific ip address.

so there u have it lol. try it and post here if it does or doesnt work for u keke~

there is also a third way to solve this with only editing a text file called hosts in ur winxp folder but this method requires the full and exact URL and DNS name of what ds2 is trying to look up which i havent been able to find out.

i might have to install a packet sniffer to sniff out the exact url/dns name its trying to lookup. then hijack the lookup by putting it in hosts to point to a null or invalid ip address (usually localhost 127.0.0.1) which shud also prevent the mp server error from occuring.

EDIT: i've managed to get a packet sniffer and found out that dsiege2.available.gamespy.com is the dns name that ds2 tries to look up to check for multiplayer service availability.

by adding the following line to your hosts file in windows\system32\drivers\etc

Quote:
127.0.0.1 dsiege2.available.gamespy.com

it shud hijack the dns lookup attempt by the ds2 executable to try to connect to gamespy to check for mp service availability. it instead makes ds2 connect to a loopback to your own system. since u dont run a gamespy service, the connection times out. so now u no longer need to try anything funny or complicated to play ds2 on lan again.

ENJOY FOLKS! :mrgreen: Laughing out loud

well thanks Femme, but unfortunately that wont bring back gamespy server where all the characters were saved Sad and those were my best characters too cries

yea sadly i doubt it will be back. companies these days dont care about their users. so those chars are gone forever. thats why im not a fan of server-side chars cuz i dont have intellectual property or fair use rights on my own chars. my chars are my own.

the reliability of a game's mp service is an important consideration if i decide to play with server side chars. especially NOT if the mp provider is sumthing crappy and unreliable like gheyspy.

on a side note, i wonder if the EFF cud sue the new owner of gheyspy for violating a user's fair use rights of a multiplayer gaming service...

Works Great!

Adding the line 127.0.0.1 dsiege2.available.gamespy.com to the end of the hosts file located in windows\system32\drivers\etc corrects the issue of DS2 and Broken World (Single Player or Multi-Player) reporting that the game can not find the GameSpy Servers. For those of you that are not as computer literate as Lady Femme you can open, edit and save the hosts file using any text editor that you happen to have Skrit Pad will also work. If you update your hosts file on a regular basis do not forget to add the line back into the hosts file.

Again Lady Femme Thank You

So here is the story of why on line play stopped working. GameSpy sold there technology to IGN. This prevented all the games hosted on GameSpy not just DS2 from working. I wrote to IGN asking if they planned to get the on line game play working again. They never answered me and so I started reading the forums for many different game and discovered that IGN sold the Game Spy Technology to GLU and they do not intend to support any game they do not own. Go to their site http://www.glu.com/ and complain if you like.

Elf

Hi here is a guide to get you set up in playing ds2 and bw online using tunngle

http://www.siegetheday.org/?q=node/2431

Elys has just uploaded the Elys DS2 Succubus Manager v9

New version 9: Updated and smaller installer than previous version, and the new Manager fixes the unfamous "dsiege2.available.gamespy.com" error preventing to use multiplayer functionalities.

Therefore if you have not edited your hosts file as Lady Femme suggested or update your hosts on a regular basis then I suggest you follow this link and download the updated manager
http://www.siegetheday.org/?q=node/1290#comment-39171

Note the Elys DS2 Succubus Manager v9 replaces older versions of Succubus Manager, DS2*AllSaves, DS2BW*Allsaves, Elys DS2 Succubus Modlet, Elys DS2BW Succubus Modlet. This is a winner all around. I uninstalled the older version(s) and continued right where I left off with no messages about game spy and everything else worked fine. Elys recommends that you uninstall any and all of the older versions.

Elf

If you're old version was installed by an Elys Succubus Manager installer(msi), the new installer will automatically uninstall it before installing the new version.

Uninstalling old versions is only necessary for the old Succubus/allsave related stuff that required manual installation.

Thank you so much for this Elys! I missed playing with my friends on ds2 thanks to you! ^_^