Help:Connecting
From XfireWiki
This help page belongs to Help category Connection
Contents |
I can't connect to Xfire
Causes
If your Xfire program can not connect to Xfire servers then most often the problem is on your end. Usually people experiencing connection problems are running a firewall or other Internet security program that the user has not configured to let Xfire use the Internet connection.
Another rare possibility is that Xfire servers are either down for mainteinance or there are so many members trying to connect at once that the server just cannot handle all users trying to simultaneously connect. This happens especially after Xfire updates when all users are disconnected for the update to take place.
Error messages
These are the error messages you might get when trying to connect, and what they mean:
- Error connecting to Xfire server.
- This message is seen on a Automatic reconnect dialog. It means that the program was unable to find the server at all. Possible causes are:
- Firewall blocking Xfire's access, see Firewall configuration
- You don't have Internet access. Check if you can use any other Internet program.
- Xfire is trying to connect to wrong server, see Xfire.exe command line parameters
- Timed out while logging into the server.
- This message is seen on a Automatic reconnect dialog. It means that the program was able to establish a connection to the server, but did not get response in the allocated time of 60 seconds. Possible causes are:
- Firewall blocking Xfire's access, see Firewall configuration
- Xfire server is too busy to handle the log in request. Try again later.
- Invalid username or password
- This message means that either your username or your password was misspelled or the username you used is not registered to Xfire with that password. If you get this message, make sure you type in the password as it should be, notice Caps lock and Num lock status. Also make sure you have correctly written your Xfire username, it can only contain lower case characters and numerals. Do not use your nickname in the login box.
Connection steps
It might help you pinpointing the cause of failed connection by checking in which part it fails. Here is the list of messages you see on the connection dialog:
- DNS Lookup
- Xfire is trying to resolve the server's DNS entry into numeric IP address. Normally Xfire tries to connect to cs.xfire.com, and the DNS Lookup should resolve that address to 204.71.190.24. If your connection stops to this part, then it is definitely a software firewall or other aggressive security program if you can browse Internet pages with your browser.
- Connecting to server
- Xfire has acquired the IP address of the server it wants to connect and is now trying to establish the connection.
- Getting login salt
- Xfire has connected to the server and sent request that it wants to log in. Now it is waiting for the server to respond with an unique code (salt) that is used to authenticate the user.
- Checking login
- Xfire has sent your username and password encrypted using the salt and is now waiting for the server to respond if the login was succesful or not.
- Login successful. Initializing interface...
- This message means that Xfire has succesfully logged in and is now creating the main window with the skin you have used last time. It also is waiting for the server to send you the list of online friends, your favorite servers and such information.
