TG: Game Patcher - Troubleshooting Tips

[liliputt]

OK thought I would give it a go myself. Finally found out that I had to do.

Went to

C:\Program Files\Artifact Entertainment\Horizons\version_info

And deleted the 5 or so files in there so that patcher updated these as well and this seems to have sorted the problem out (I hope).

[Theolaerynn]

So what is dangerous about opening those ports? those are common enough ports, actaully IIRC just about every program that uses FTP protocol asks you to open ports in the 65000 range, I wonder why?

OH YEAH! they are the ports that FTP uses to transfer data and if you have an active firewall you have to open them up or FTP doesn't work!!

Talk about keeping up with the class! In another note you made an almost intelligent remark, had me goin for a minute, but nope. You have confirmed my suspicion. I have those ports closed and guess what? I commonly FTP, and never have a problem.

Simply because you hate Microsoft is no reason to spout scare tactics.

Not surprising that you would try to cover your ignorance with a comment like this. I don't recall stating that I hated MS, nor do I remember this being about MS. It just so happens that many of the on-topic security flaws are MS vulnerabilities. I am not singling them out, security is a common flaw in software these days.

As to the Active X issue, if you ONLY make security changes for trusted sites and the only trusted site you have is https://horizons.istaria.com then Guess what?

No other site has access to the lower level of security!!!

Lets just go with this as if it were accurate, and lets ignore the whole spoofing conversation. As I posted in another thread, web sites do get hijacked and computers do get redirected as attack sources. Just because it comes from a given net address does not mean the code getting executed is the code that was intended by the operator of that address. This happens pretty much daily. And for the zillionth and 1 time, I doubt highly that anyone would bother with AE/TGs site at this point, so the risk is quite likely low to say the least. But it still isn't a good idea.

I also find it interesting that the term 'paranoia' keeps being used in various threads to describe the process of educating ones self and of providing links for others who may not be aware of them or the relevant issues they discuss.

Anyway, this whole security conversation has degraded from its original intent of informing users of unsafe practices that AE/TG is asking us to do, and to let AE/TG know that there are a number of us that are not willing to take these extra risks. I have provided links to sites that explain these in much better detail, and that also show just how frequent attacks like this are (including daily logs of the top 10 sources). You can choose to inform yourself and make your own decisions, or you can blindly trust whatever you are told by whichever source you choose to listen to. I certainly don't want anyone to take my word for it, that defeats the purpose.

Oh, and for those that I know are waiting to jump on this, I am not saying AE/TG are the only ones asking us to do unsafe practices. I am only talking about them specifically because the topic (the Horizons patcher) is specific to them. I don't want anyone to get confused by a firewall discussion in another thread.

I am sure a few folks at least will be relieved to hear I will post no more on this. And Stranyr, feel free to continue to thump your chest. It has got to make you proud to argue something that you have made absolutely clear you are unwilling to adequately research. I do think the use of retina-burning yellow text was a nice touch, though.

[Guaran]

The new patcher is still there, they just changed the old patcher to the default. To try the new patcher, you need to click the link on the left where the connection to the old patcher used to be.



Also, I've tried these things, still getting ActiveX blocked.

That was what I was getting. make sure you added https://horizons.istaria.comunderneath trsuted sites button.(Note the s)then with >Trusted sites still the selected zone< click custom level, and set all the active-x choices to enable.

Then delete the "Launcher Control" active x downloaded control, c:\windows\downloaded program files\launcher control

Then delete launcher folder horzions\launcher

After I did all that, the blocked active x control error went away. you might also want to flush temp internet files before going back to the page also.

[Stranyr]

[img]/Web/Themes/Generic/images/icon-quote.gif[/img]Stranyr wrote: So what is dangerous about opening those ports? those are common enough ports, actaully IIRC just about every program that uses FTP protocol asks you to open ports in the 65000 range, I wonder why?

OH YEAH! they are the ports that FTP uses to transfer data and if you have an active firewall you have to open them up or FTP doesn't work!!Talk about keeping up with the class! In another note you made an almost intelligent remark, had me goin for a minute, but nope. You have confirmed my suspicion. I have those ports closed and guess what? I commonly FTP, and never have a problem.

Read the whole question before you answer... ACTIVE Firewall is Key here, if you have a passive firewall you shouldn't have to open any ports, but and ACTIVE firewall is different, it you DON'T open ports it won't work.
[img]/Web/Themes/Generic/images/icon-quote.gif[/img]Stranyr wrote: Simply because you hate Microsoft is no reason to spout scare tactics.Not surprising that you would try to cover your ignorance with a comment like this. I don't recall stating that I hated MS, nor do I remember this being about MS. It just so happens that many of the on-topic security flaws are MS vulnerabilities. I am not singling them out, security is a common flaw in software these days.

[img]/Web/Themes/Generic/images/icon-quote.gif[/img]Stranyr wrote: As to the Active X issue, if you ONLY make security changes for trusted sites and the only trusted site you have is https://horizons.istaria.com then Guess what?

No other site has access to the lower level of security!!!Lets just go with this as if it were accurate, and lets ignore the whole spoofing conversation. As I posted in another thread, web sites do get hijacked and computers do get redirected as attack sources. Just because it comes from a given net address does not mean the code getting executed is the code that was intended by the operator of that address. This happens pretty much daily. And for the zillionth and 1 time, I doubt highly that anyone would bother with AE/TGs site at this point, so the risk is quite likely low to say the least. But it still isn't a good idea.[/quote]
In the first post about this I said it wasn't something that I would recoment because of this very reason, however when doing risk assessment (part of my job) it's a low risk, and as it is likely a 3rd party software issue on your end (works fine for me without having to do this) or a corrupted file, or missing update etc etc.

I also find it interesting that the term 'paranoia' keeps being used in various threads to describe the process of educating ones self and of providing links for others who may not be aware of them or the relevant issues they discuss.

I don't think I used that word once, but I may have not going to go back and look for it

Anyway, this whole security conversation has degraded from its original intent of informing users of unsafe practices that AE/TG is asking us to do, and to let AE/TG know that there are a number of us that are not willing to take these extra risks. I have provided links to sites that explain these in much better detail, and that also show just how frequent attacks like this are (including daily logs of the top 10 sources). You can choose to inform yourself and make your own decisions, or you can blindly trust whatever you are told by whichever source you choose to listen to. I certainly don't want anyone to take my word for it, that defeats the purpose.

Oh, and for those that I know are waiting to jump on this, I am not saying AE/TG are the only ones asking us to do unsafe practices. I am only talking about them specifically because the topic (the Horizons patcher) is specific to them. I don't want anyone to get confused by a firewall discussion in another thread.

I am sure a few folks at least will be relieved to hear I will post no more on this. And Stranyr, feel free to continue to thump your chest. It has got to make you proud to argue something that you have made absolutely clear you are unwilling to adequately research. I do think the use of retina-burning yellow text was a nice touch, though.

IF each person had up to date security software/hardware there would be no issue with this patcher. the problem is not eveyone has the most recent version of their particualar software firewall or the lastest firmware version for their hardware firewall. Common troubleshooting techniques are to disable the firewall in some way for a short time period to see if that is the issue.

[refuse]

IF each person had up to date security software/hardware there would be no issue with this patcher. the problem is not eveyone has the most recent version of their particualar software firewall or the lastest firmware version for their hardware firewall. Common troubleshooting techniques are to disable the firewall in some way for a short time period to see if that is the issue.

Not to be counter or anything.
But the latest estimates of a non-protected machine (even for "trouble shooting") is in the 4-9 minute range. I.e. connect to the interenet (even dialup) for 4-9 minutes with a raw version of XP and you will probably be infected (thus XP SP2 installing the fire wall as "on".

Up todate software really isn't an issue, though it will mitigate many problems. It is the "never" patched issues that are persistant.

I would highly recommend not shutting off your firewall. Try every other option, but always have a firewall.

[Stranyr]

True enough Refuse I should have included " lastest patches etc " in my statement

[Ahkaskar]

Okay, looks like my problem was in my router. I'm not precisely sure why, yet. It seems that my router allows passive FTP and all, but isn't allowing me to download the patcher from AE. I tried it with our other line and a different router, and it works fine and dandy.

Now, the question is what is it in a linux router that deals with passive FTP...

[gena_st]

These did not work for me - the game does not launch after the patcher window closes.

Edit: To be more specific:
-I am running Windows 98SE
-I have added the site to my trusted sites list
-I have enabled unsafe ActiveX components for my trusted sites
-I have run the file that updates my computer's root certificates (I deleted the Launcher Control and the Launcher directory after running this)
-I am not behind a firewall
-I have .NET 1.1 installed
-I have run the Caspol file (I deleted the Launcher Control and the Launcher directory after running this)

When I use the multi-threaded patcher, the following image comes up on the screen briefly:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v341/g...cherwindow.bmp

After that, nothing happens.

[Stranyr]

Hmmm if you get that far Gena_st then your problem isn't with IE, or Admin settings, or active X, its something else :(

[Kwinn]

Here's a cute one...started last night

Problem...Cant log in at all now with new patcher. Until last night I used the patcher without a hitch.

Frequency...everytime

Symptoms...Microsoft Internet Explorer msg stating that Horizons does not appear to be installed on my computer. I swear to God, thats what it says.

Fixes...Log in the old way. No problems and I did not reinstall the game

Speaking of reinstall...should I?

I use Windows XP Home edition, cable modem and a router. Never had a problem with firewalls or anyother security features interefering with the game in any form or fashion until now.

I dont know if this is important or not...this problem started last night after a crash and lock. Had to restart by powering down system and when I tried to log in the problem reared its ugly head. I have restarted the machine since then twice. This problem heads the list in the "Beats the hell outta me" category.


Kwinn

[Kwinn]

everything is on C drive no partitions

Kwinn

[Zideon Locke]

I've been getting a lot of PM's here on the forums regarding the patcher, I would like to apologize for those I have not yet gotten back to. Sending in a case on the support site would be preferable to a PM. This is cause I have been focusing on the support site lately to keep it under control. So if you are still having major problems and you sent me a Pm then I would recommend a case as well....

Thanks,

[evilkarl]

Not sure about the new patcher but the old patcher at least required horizons to be in a directory called \Horizons. It can be the default (C:\Program Files\ArtifactEntertainment\Horizons) or anything else such as Q:\FinishtheAROP\Horizons. But the dir must be called Horizons.

The old patcher also requires a registry key ([HKLM\Software\ArtifactEntertainment\Horizons]) that contains the path to horizons.

If you know the registry check for it if you don't know the registry then find someone who does.

<insert usual registry disclaimer>

[Dalton]

I would be curious to know how long it took people to download today's updates. With the new patchers, it went so fast I couldn't read the file names like I could with the old one.

[Mordoth]

I'm actually able to use the new patcher, but not consistently. I notice if I log out and try to log back in to another character, it won't work. But the old patcher will. If I reboot my computer, THEN the new patcher will work again. But this is not consistently happening.

[cauri_order]

Zideon,

new problem for me....After every reboot, I need to run both of the files listed in your help list for the new patcher to work. I've no idea why this happens :\

[gena_st]

So... Is there help for the point that I'm at? Where do I go from here?

[Stranyr]

These did not work for me - the game does not launch after the patcher window closes.

Edit: To be more specific:
-I am running Windows 98SE
-I have added the site to my trusted sites list
-I have enabled unsafe ActiveX components for my trusted sites
-I have run the file that updates my computer's root certificates (I deleted the Launcher Control and the Launcher directory after running this)
-I am not behind a firewall
-I have .NET 1.1 installed
-I have run the Caspol file (I deleted the Launcher Control and the Launcher directory after running this)

When I use the multi-threaded patcher, the following image comes up on the screen briefly:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v341/g...cherwindow.bmp

After that, nothing happens.

I would Try finding the silentpatcher.exe file in the HZ dir and renaming it or moving it, and seeing what happens.. the image that comes up is from that file running, but I wonder if something in it is corrupt from the DL.

[Seikojin]

:o I had the new patcher run once for me. Then when I go to log in it doesn't launch it anymore... Even if I use the link to use it...

[Tympest]

So... Is there help for the point that I'm at? Where do I go from here?

Nope, the new patcher does not work on Win98 machines. You will have to use the old patcher until they fix it.