Error: 'Failed to connect to the server'
Stub This article is incomplete This is an article about a topic that should be covered in more detail by the FreeAllegiance Wiki, but is lacking in content.
You can help by improving it!
This error happens typically when a firewall-like software drops the packets Allegiance sends to connect to the game servers.
Fix
Replace your firewall-like software; that includes software such as Norton Internet Security or a standard install of Avast! on Windows Vista.
If you are ok with a free replacement, we suggest a custom setup of Avast!, installed as follows:
- Download Avast Home Edition;
- Uninstall your firewall/antivirus/antimalware security products;
Warning! If you just uninstalled Norton Internet Security, bear in mind that simply uninstalling will do you no good - the uninstall program leaves all the components in place. You will need to grab the Norton Cleaner product from the Norton official website and run it.
- Before rebooting, run the Avast installer;
- When prompted about whether you want to do a standard, a custom or a minimal install, pick Custom;
- In the same screen, tick off all service providers but Standard Shield (Outlook shield, P2P shield, IM shield should be safe to enable if you need them, although this was not tested);
- Complete setup and reboot.
Avira is also compatible with Allegiance on all platforms supported; free versions of Avira, however, do regularly display big, obnoxious advertisements for the full version.
Commercial antivirus products compatible with Allegiance on all platforms include NOD32.
Diagnosis (investigation needed)
Typically, all lobby functionality works fine and the lobby correctly sends the gameserver IP address to the client (investigation needed: can Allegiance process this packet?); all traffic to that host is however killed.
If you traced your connection with a tool like Wireshark ("Follow UDP stream" is your friend), you would see the server sending the game server IP to Allegiance, then Allegiance failing to do anything with it. This is of course not required to troubleshoot the error.
