Steps to make Allegiance work with Vista

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From what we know, only Vista Home Basic has issues with the Allegiance client itself. However there have been reports of it working on this edition without any problems at all. We haven't been able to isolate what exactly causes the "Cannot connect to server" errors, but it almost always is because of a 3rd party anti-virus/firewall solution installed on the user's computer.

To quote server admin aarmstrong:


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The installation and issues are the same in all of them. ASGS refuses to autoupdate and ASGSUpdate.exe must be launched manually after the initial installation. Once ASGS is updated, everything runs like a dream. A windows firewall blockage alert pops up, but I’ve selected “continue blocking” and it works fine. Other than that I have had no other issues whatsoever. The specific Vista edition has absolutely no bearing on Allegiance’s operation.

However, I have no antivirus / Internet security suite loaded. And I’m guessing that the “advanced” firewall / application “protection” (read castration) in most of these pre-loaded AV / firewall apps is the true root cause. I know that I’ve run into countless problems with Norton Internet Security in XP and the only solution is to uninstall this POS and get a basic AV program.

— Quoted from aarmstrong


Here are the requirements to get Allegiance running in Vista :

  1. You must be logged in as an Administrator.
  2. After installation, you must run ASGSUpdate.exe once from the directory in which you installed Allegiance to. Allow the program access to the Internet and the necessary permissions from UAC.

From here on out, you should have no problems.


If you do, here are some additional things to try:

  • Run ASGS.exe as Administrator. Sometimes, even if you are logged in as an Administrator, Vista will run a program in restricted mode. Right click the program and select the necessary options.
  • Try running Allegiance in Windows XP compatibility mode. You can right click Allegiance.exe and enable this option. This has fixed the issue for at least one of our members.


If you have Norton Internet Security or other similar integrated AV/Firewall packages installed, they will cause problems. A considerable number of users have been able to connect to the game only after a complete uninstall of the Norton products. The product(s) continued to block the game when it was added to their exceptions list and even when they were disabled.

It is recommended that you switch to a free or alternative AV/Firewall solutions. AVG and NOD32 are two good antivirus software that are known to be well behaved and safe.


Generally, if you are behind a router, you do not need a firewall. The general principle is that a firewall only keeps out friendly programs. Once a dangerous program is installed on your system, it can and will bypass any security you have. However, if you still require a firewall for peace of mind, Sygate Personal Firewall is a very good option.

If you still have problems, please see the articles in the Vista section of the Tech Support article. If your problem isn't solved by the documentation in that section, please post in the Helpline. Kindly read the stickies and fill up the template provided there.