STEAM validation rejected / connection to server timed out

[Hakariaki]

So i have this half life curse going on for more than a half year now and wonder if you guys have any hints on the problem.

I can join servers fully normaly but within 1-10min i keep getting connection to server timed out, and half of the times when i try to reconnect to the server i get this STEAM validation rejected message not being able to connect back for sometimes just a few secs and sometimes minutes of waiting. So this bug is keeping me from playing this game anymore.
Also this bug dosent only happends in msc. i tested around and it seems to happen on all half life games; counter strike, opposing force, cs source, half life, those i tested so far, same problem everywhere.
Works fine on LAN servers.

Things that i have tested so far to fix.
- Verify integrity of game cache
- removed ClientRegistry.blob from E:\Steam and uppdated
- uninstalled halflife games and reinstalled
- removeing all lose files in the E:\Steam folder
- removed items for dedicated server in E:\Steam\steamapps and E:\Steam\steamapps/(yourusername)
- uppdated all files on steam again

And after all this still no progress. Any ideas of what may cause this problem? Gabe Newell?

 

[Thothie]

Re: STEAM validation rejected / connection to server timed o

Ctrl+Alt+Delete -> Task Manager -> Processes Tab

Find Steam.exe, right click, Set Affinity... - select all cores. Set Priority, set Above Normal. Or, if you're running your game at High Priority, set Steam to High as well.

Alternately, and this will also resolve some other problems... Control Panel -> Network Settings -> Properties -> Right click [Whichever is your internet connection] and click Properties. Click on QOS Packet Scheduler, and click Uninstall.

CPU Priority settings in the Task Manager also affect the priority of internet packets, thanks to QOS, so sometimes, when some program or other decides it has high priority, because either you or it decided so, lower priority programs will fail to send or receive their packets. This being a common cause of Steam FUBAR'ing, due to its inability to assume you own the game you successfully launched two minutes before - even if you've successfully launched it, 50 times sequentially, that same day. >_>

 

[Hakariaki]

Re: STEAM validation rejected / connection to server timed o

Tested both of the above now and none of it works. i keep getting disconnected after 1-2min.

i think it might be some problem with the router or something but still not sure whats cousing it

 

[Thothie]

Re: STEAM validation rejected / connection to server timed o

Drat, that's almost always it... :\ (Although sometimes it's a sticky account, but you've covered that, logging out and all). So, what's left, is something is soaking up all packet priority (likely a ninja virus), or your router is blocking Steam's communications for some reason.

Steam's "Official" Port List

Sadly, the "official" is not exhaustive. Right now, for instance, I see that, back home, Steam is broadcasting UDP from 40415.


Only other things I can think of is stupid crazy net settings, and bad cloud+download localization settings (check Steam->Settings->Download+Cloud->Region). Those might cause you to drop from the server, and reconnecting too quickly might cause a Validation error. How often are you losing connection? (I've got a post with typical net settings here, somewhere...)

edit: ah, here, typical net settings:

- Check your Steam->Setting->Downloads+Cloud and see if the indexing changed your connection type. (Sometimes the region server indexing changes, and you have to reset it manually)
- Go to console (~) and...
- Check cl_updaterate is in a reasonable range (~100)
- Check that cl_cmdrate is in a reasonable range (~100)
- rate and cl_rate should be ~20k and ~5k, respectively
- ex_interp 0 (auto)
- fps_max 999
- cl_cmdbackup 6

 

[Hakariaki]

Re: STEAM validation rejected / connection to server timed o

Drat, that's almost always it... :\ (Although sometimes it's a sticky account, but you've covered that, logging out and all). So, what's left, is something is soaking up all packet priority (likely a ninja virus), or your router is blocking Steam's communications for some reason.

Steam's "Official" Port List

Sadly, the "official" is not exhaustive. Right now, for instance, I see that, back home, Steam is broadcasting UDP from 40415.


Only other things I can think of is stupid crazy net settings, and bad cloud+download localization settings (check Steam->Settings->Download+Cloud->Region). Those might cause you to drop from the server, and reconnecting too quickly might cause a Validation error. How often are you losing connection? (I've got a post with typical net settings here, somewhere...)

edit: ah, here, typical net settings:

- Check your Steam->Setting->Downloads+Cloud and see if the indexing changed your connection type. (Sometimes the region server indexing changes, and you have to reset it manually)
- Go to console (~) and...
- Check cl_updaterate is in a reasonable range (~100)
- Check that cl_cmdrate is in a reasonable range (~100)
- rate and cl_rate should be ~20k and ~5k, respectively
- ex_interp 0 (auto)
- fps_max 999
- cl_cmdbackup 6

I have been disconnected allmost allways 1 min from joining the server and that first minut works perfectly fine no problems at all.
ok so i will give it another try now.

download region alredy my country
cl_updaterate changed from 20 to 100
cl_cmdrate changed from 30 to 100
rate changed from 9999 to 20k
cl_rate changed from 9999.00000 to 5k
ex_interp changed from 0.1 to 0
fps_max from 120 to 999
cl_cmdbackup from 2 to 6

These changes dident affect a shit. timed the disconnect time to 78 sec from joining the server. also changeing these rates i dident think from the start that it would actually change something since i got this problem in all hl mods also hl2.

not sure what to do with the router if i can do anything. alredy tried port forwaring steam ports and dident do any diffrence.
And also about ninja virus? i doubt that and even if there were i have the capacity of downloading stuff in above 1MB/s so should it really matter? i can play other games just fine.

 

[Thothie]

Re: STEAM validation rejected / connection to server timed o

HL2 as well? Jeeze...

Other games don't require Steam to authenticate every 5 seconds, so still could be ninja virus unless... Do you have another Valve game, like Left4Dead, that's causing the same behavior? :\

Effing Steam...

Pretty much out of ideas, save maybe giving Steam its own core, and the game another, and set Steam's priority over the game's, but really... Tis a long shot. Might be something up with the account itself as well.

 

[Hakariaki]

Re: STEAM validation rejected / connection to server timed o

I havent tested with left4dead yet but i do have allot of steam games including that game so i may try later.

Heres a full list of my steam games http://steamcommunity.com/id/hakariaki/games?tab=all
got 400GB of installed games so i dont really want to redownload everything.

I may try to download msc on my laptop see if it works there or not. I just have to get the freeking wifi to work again. Broke down 2 weeks ago

 

[zeus9860]

Re: STEAM validation rejected / connection to server timed o

Heres a full list of my steam games http://steamcommunity.com/id/hakariaki/games?tab=all
got 400GB of installed games so i dont really want to redownload everything.

Haha, show off!