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Inanna Eloah

Mildly Menacing Medic
Title.

I made an account here specifically because of this. I am a regular on several Skial servers, the one I go to most of the time being the Texas 24/7 2fort server with instant respawn. I can see the servers listed in the server list here on the site, but I cannot access any of them. In the TF2 server browser, entering Skial as a keyword and placing the search anywhere in the United States brings up an instant "no internet games responded to your query," and trying to access those servers from your website brings back a "server not responding" error in Steam.

Is this something on my end, or are all the Skial servers in the United States simply not working?
 

Sil

Uncharitable Spy
Contributor
The server shows up on my search. Granted you started this thread a few hours ago, possibly a potential error is resolved. Or, maybe you had a few characters typed in one of the boxes that limited your searches.

Edit: grammar, blah.
 

RMSniper

Legendary Skial King
Contributor
The server shows up on my search. Granted you started this thread a few hours ago, possibly a potential error is resolved. Or, maybe you had a few characters typed in one of the boxes that limited your searches.

Edit: grammar, blah.
I agree with this guy ^. Sometimes I leave my old searches in on accident. For instance, maybe I was searching for battle arena servers so I googled ba_ in the map area, then I forgot to take it out in the next search. Triple check that all your boxes are back to normal / clear! Then let us know if you still have an issue on your end.
 

Inanna Eloah

Mildly Menacing Medic
Thank you both for the replies.

I haven't misspelled anything. I put "skial" in the keywords section of the tab on the far left, which just shows all available servers, and if I add "US-West" or "US-East" to the search via the drop-down menu under "location," I get "no internet games responded to your query." I also have several Skial US servers in my favorites, as I said, and they also don't show up at all.

This has been going on all day today, I haven't been able to play on any of my favorite servers at all today because of this problem. It might be a problem on my end, or maybe with my ISP, I don't know. I mean, if you're able to see them in the search, then it's pretty obvious it's not Skial's problem.

My ISP uses a dynamic IP for all its residential customers, so maybe there's a conflict there?
 

Maddo

Gaben's Own Aimbot
Contributor
The ingame browser has always been buggy on searches.
I have noticed that the ping range filter can cause a problem when combined with a search term.
Don't forget that you are not pinging each server, the master server does that, (well actually, servers send a heartbeat to the master) so if the master server is under heavy load you may get no response.
If you get problems like this again, make sure the ping filter is unchecked.
 

Sil

Uncharitable Spy
Contributor
Inconvenient, I'm sorry to hear that.

I'm no pro, but I guess until a better solution presents itself and you want to play on the servers you can't find through the server browser, use this. Find the IP of the server, then type "connect [INSERT IP ADDRESS HERE]" into the console and you'll be off and running.

Edit: don't include the square brackets.
 

Inanna Eloah

Mildly Menacing Medic
I don't specify latency in my searches. Also, as I said in my original comment, I have already tried the list here on the site, and have been UNABLE to join the servers, because I get a "server is not responding" error through Steam.

And I've experienced bugginess in the past with the in-game browser, but this isn't your usual bugginess, this is basically singling Skial servers out specifically and acting like they don't exist. I can't even get my History to show the Skial servers I was most recently on. It's as if the in-game browser or maybe my Steam client is blocking Skial, but I've made no such changes to my computer or client, if it's even possible client-wise.
 

Inanna Eloah

Mildly Menacing Medic
Download this
https://www.skial.com/downloads/skialservers_windows_386.zip

It puts all of the skial servers in your favorites.


Thanks, I'll see if that helps.

EDIT:

It helped somewhat, though only 3 US servers showed up in my favorites. All three were NY servers: a trade server, a jailbreak server, and a Freak Fortress one. The ones I usually frequent are 24/7 instant respawn 2fort servers, and they just don't show up. I don't get it.

The only thing I can figure is that something has happened client-side to make it so that I can't join my Skial favorites. Also, like I said originally, I can access the list here on the site, but when I try to join a game that the site says is in-progress, I get a "server is not responding" error from Steam, and the game itself won't even launch. I just don't know what kind of thing would cause this, as I haven't changed my Steam client at all in several months.
 
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Inanna Eloah

Mildly Menacing Medic
I think I may have found the culprit. Strangely enough, I think it's my computer. I have another compy I use occasionally, an old laptop, and so I installed TF2 on it. Lo and behold, when I searched for community servers, all my normal favorites showed up on the other compy.

To make sure that this wasn't just some downtime that my client was experiencing I went back to my desktop and turned TF2 on, and again, as has been going on for a couple days, no Skial servers in the United States aside from the three New York ones that I listed above. So I guess it's time for me to reinstall Windows yet again, because apparently once every two weeks isn't enough.

Thank you all for the help.
 

Sil

Uncharitable Spy
Contributor
I think I may have found the culprit. Strangely enough, I think it's my computer. I have another compy I use occasionally, an old laptop, and so I installed TF2 on it. Lo and behold, when I searched for community servers, all my normal favorites showed up on the other compy.

To make sure that this wasn't just some downtime that my client was experiencing I went back to my desktop and turned TF2 on, and again, as has been going on for a couple days, no Skial servers in the United States aside from the three New York ones that I listed above. So I guess it's time for me to reinstall Windows yet again, because apparently once every two weeks isn't enough.

Thank you all for the help.

Glad to hear it, sorry I couldn't be of more help!
 

Meowcenary

Gaben's Own Aimbot
Contributor
Might have something to do with your router/modem

For the hell of it have you tried restarting them?
 

Inanna Eloah

Mildly Menacing Medic
Might have something to do with your router/modem

For the hell of it have you tried restarting them?

Yeah, I've done that. I have a single modem and no router to speak of, and the modem is wired only. If I want to hook the laptop up to it, I simply take the Ethernet cord out of the desktop and plug it into the laptop. Like I said, when I access TF2 on the laptop, using the same account and modem as I use with the desktop, I can access all the servers just fine. This problem only affects my desktop, which is the machine I do all my gaming on.

One thing I haven't tried yet, because quite frankly I dread having to do it, is reinstalling Windows *using the Windows disc.* I've already tried reinstalling using a disk image from last week, and still no joy. A possibility I've been pondering lately is that the backup images I've been making might have some stuff installed on them already (I make the backups using Macrium Reflect Free Edition) that are causing conflicts of some kind or another, so maybe the disc install will help?

Or maybe I'm just grasping at straws trying to find anything that will make this problem go away.
 

Meowcenary

Gaben's Own Aimbot
Contributor
Yeah, I've done that. I have a single modem and no router to speak of, and the modem is wired only. If I want to hook the laptop up to it, I simply take the Ethernet cord out of the desktop and plug it into the laptop. Like I said, when I access TF2 on the laptop, using the same account and modem as I use with the desktop, I can access all the servers just fine. This problem only affects my desktop, which is the machine I do all my gaming on.

One thing I haven't tried yet, because quite frankly I dread having to do it, is reinstalling Windows *using the Windows disc.* I've already tried reinstalling using a disk image from last week, and still no joy. A possibility I've been pondering lately is that the backup images I've been making might have some stuff installed on them already (I make the backups using Macrium Reflect Free Edition) that are causing conflicts of some kind or another, so maybe the disc install will help?

Or maybe I'm just grasping at straws trying to find anything that will make this problem go away.

I doubt reflect/back ups would cause any issues.

I'm no expert but I'm suspecting its something with your firewall

Did you see if TF2/steam is being blocked at all by your firewall?
 

Luke

Legendary Skial King
Contributor
I'm no expert
Ditto this.

Try pinging each of the server IPs to see which you get a response from.
This should show if the problem is with your TF2 or your computer/network.

If you don't know how to ping, hold the Windows Key and press R, in the box that pops up type "cmd"
Once the command prompt window opens type, "ping <ip address here>".
 
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Inanna Eloah

Mildly Menacing Medic
Try pinging each of the server IPs to see which you get a response from.
This should show if the problem is with your TF2 or your computer/network.

If you don't know how to ping, hold the Windows Key and press R, in the box that pops up type "cmd"
Once the command prompt window opens type, "ping <ip address here>".

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll see what happens.

EDIT: Alright, I just tried a few of them. I ran the ping command like you suggested, and every single one came back with an error, including the EU ones.

BUT, I also checked to see if I could join any games using the same page and any EU server I clicked on, the game immediately started up and I joined with no problem. If the server was based in the United States, though, I got the same old "server not responding" error that I've been getting for the last couple days.
 
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Inanna Eloah

Mildly Menacing Medic
And a quick reminder to everyone here: I CAN go to these servers on my laptop, which is hooked up to *EXACTLY* the same hardware as the desktop. The laptop, however, is an old refurbished business lappy that was not made for gaming. It is ONLY on my gaming desktop that Steam won't acknowledge the existence of the US based Skial servers. I've reinstalled Steam once, reinstalled Windows twice, and nothing. But I know it's not my modem or my ISP because I can access them all using my laptop. I just can't access them using my gaming rig.

It's like the servers don't exist at all when I'm on my desktop. It's only when I'm on my laptop that the servers appear or respond.
 

Meowcenary

Gaben's Own Aimbot
Contributor
And a quick reminder to everyone here: I CAN go to these servers on my laptop, which is hooked up to *EXACTLY* the same hardware as the desktop. The laptop, however, is an old refurbished business lappy that was not made for gaming. It is ONLY on my gaming desktop that Steam won't acknowledge the existence of the US based Skial servers. I've reinstalled Steam once, reinstalled Windows twice, and nothing. But I know it's not my modem or my ISP because I can access them all using my laptop. I just can't access them using my gaming rig.

It's like the servers don't exist at all when I'm on my desktop. It's only when I'm on my laptop that the servers appear or respond.

I don't think I can figure out your problem but I think I can help point you in the right direction where you might get some better responses. What you're best off doing is posting a thread here: https://www.skial.com/forums/technology.46/

And put a 'help me' tag on it and explain your issue.

There's some people that occasionally check that section who know a lot more about computers than I do. I can't guarantee any of them are around right now or will respond but its worth a shot. I can also see if a forum mod would be willing to move this thread there if you don't want to make a new thread

Another thing you could try is making a account and posting a thread here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum-13.html

Tom's Hardware is a rather popular computer help forum with some knowledgeable people. Someone there might be able to help you figure out your problem
 
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Inanna Eloah

Mildly Menacing Medic
I don't think I can figure out your problem but I think I can help point you in the right direction where you might get some better responses. What you're best off doing is posting a thread here: https://www.skial.com/forums/technology.46/

And put a 'help me' tag on it and explain your issue.

I'll try that. Thank you.

Funny, I hadn't thought about Tomshardware. I lurk on that site all the time. Thanks for the suggestion.