Blank Screen, won't load anything

[wankerman]

When I click Rolling Demo, nothing happens as well. I don't understand if it is the firewall, I use AVG freeantivirus which I don't even think has firewall options, and then just whatever firewall it is with Windows XP which should be off when I turn it off. And again I have done the port forwarding thing with ports 5008-5011, and it still doesn't work.

[trickser]

Then its probably something with network setup itself. I dont know much about it. Maybe try poking around the network device with the ip 127.0.0.1. And routing rules, like the dns server, the local domian and stuff.

[bert_the_turtle]

Can you paste the output of 'ipconfig' here? You need to:
open the start menu
select "Run..."
enter "cmd", press OK

That opens up a window with black background and grey text. There, enter
ipconfig

Furthermore, enter
hostname

and then,
ping -n 5 <the name hostname gave you>

After that command is done, right click into the window to open the context menu, select 'Select All' (which actually copies the whole window content into the clipboard) and paste the results here. Here's what I get:

Code: Select all

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

E:\Documents and Settings\Manuel>ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration


Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : momamo.de
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2

E:\Documents and Settings\Manuel>hostname
kermit

E:\Documents and Settings\Manuel>ping -n 5 kermit

Pinging kermit [192.168.0.1] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 192.168.0.1:
    Packets: Sent = 5, Received = 5, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

E:\Documents and Settings\Manuel>

[wankerman]

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Dave>ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration


Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : phub.net.cable.rogers.com
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

C:\Documents and Settings\Dave>hostname
Taylor

C:\Documents and Settings\Dave>ping -n 5 <Taylor>
The syntax of the command is incorrect.

C:\Documents and Settings\Dave>ping -n 5 Taylor

Pinging Taylor [192.168.1.100] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.100: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.100: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.100: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.100: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.100: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.100:
Packets: Sent = 5, Received = 5, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

C:\Documents and Settings\Dave>

Now should I get more screenshots, or are the three I previously posted pretty much summing up this weird issue? Thanks everyone, I am sorry for bothering everybody.

[Ace Rimmer]

This has gotten way beyond my limited knowledge, but I do know it's not a bother. We like to provide solutions to problems that prevent the enjoyment of IV's games.

[wankerman]

Ya I can see that. I guess no one from Introversion directly browses the boards? I feel cheated. That fifteen bucks coulda been good gas money instead. Greeeat. Thanks to everyone for their help anyways it is greatly appreciated.

[Ace Rimmer]

I wouldn't give up just yet, bert doesn't usually ask for information without a reason. I'm sure he's either looking at what you posted now/is going to as soon as he has free time.

As for IV, they're not large enough to be dedicated to the forums and Defcon is three years old.

[bert_the_turtle]

Well, that info so far shows no problems. What I was looking for is that the ping would go to a wrong IP; basically, you did manually what Defcon does for its internal communication, at least as far as I know. Anyway, that eliminates a borked DNS setup as the cause and brings us back to something blocking the communication. Unfortunately, I don't know how one can diagnose that, I'm more of a Unix guy. AVG free indeed comes without firewall, so it's not that. All I can advise you to do now is this: Look around your system for potential firewalls installed by the manufacturer or your ISP access software. And double check the Windows builtin firewall settings; you don't want to be accidentally blocking Defcon specifically. Also, run Defcon with admin rights at least once, and in windowed mode; the Windows Firewall tends to pop up unlocking prompts only in admin mode, and you only see them in windowed mode.

[wankerman]

Bert, thanks a lot for the tips. Just a few questions.

With Windows Firewall, I have Defcon unblocked, and then I always have the firewall just turned off in general? I have heard of issues where even if it is off, somehow Gates' bs program still blocks things, I am not smart like I once was at these issues. I am not sure how I would find a potential firewall put in by the manufacturer or how to access the ISP software, I truly have no idea.

I have run it in windowed mode and no prompts have come up when I do things, also how do I run it in admin mode I am not sure?

Other than that thanks so much everyone for your help, I wish IV actually had somebody to answer these questions, and other than that I guess I am screwed and can't enjoy this game. This is very ridiculous, I want my 15 bucks back for gas money heh.

[bert_the_turtle]

Regarding administrator mode, if you're not sure whether you're running with admin rights, you are running with admin rights. Without them, you can't install programs.

Regarding the Windows firewall, I haven't heard of any such problems. The way I experience it is the straightforward one, provided I run stuff with the admin account (I usually do whatever I can with a restricted account for extra protection against malware, there the experience is less smooth):
- I start a program
- as soon as that program opens a network port for listening, I get a popup window asking me whether it should be allowed to (just once or permanently)
- If I allow it permanently, the popup never returns, and the application can use networking just fine
And yes, disabling the Windows Firewall really disables it. While it's not the most sophisticated Firewall out there, it does its job as far as I know.

To search your computer for potential firewally software, look in those places:
- Start/Control Panel/"Add or Remove Programs" gives you a list of installed software.
- On your disk in C:\Program Files

[wankerman]

I for sure do not have another firewall type program on my computer or any other security deal, other than AVG. Thanks for taking the time to help Bert. I guess there is nothing left to do but uninstall it and be very disgruntled with Introversion.

[bert_the_turtle]

That, or test whether you can play online. Only the client bit of Defcon needs to work for that, and it's where the action is anyway.

[wankerman]

I can't do anything in Defcon, not start the tutorial, rolling demo, a new game or joining online games nothing works. Those screenshots I posted earlier in the thread is all the action I've been getting with the game.

[wankerman]

Does anyone know what else I can do? I repurchased a physical copy of the game, Version 1.3, and I am getting the exact same issues. With the authorization it just keeps saying it's checking. Also I had a problem with my cd rom drive. It would read the disc in my computer and I can access the files, but I can't RUN the files, so I copied everything into a folder on the harddrive, installed it from there, and it starts but im getting the same exact problem as before. Again I aded firewall exceptions, went on the linksys admin site to add port forwarding from 5008-5011 with both tdp and udp checked, and the click box is checked enable. What is the story.

[bert_the_turtle]

No, sorry, no further constructive ideas here.

With the authorization it just keeps saying it's checking.

Odd, in your screenshots, authentication status was already 'Accepted'. Sounds like you changed your firewall settings to the worse and now get ALL defcon related packets blocked.

It would read the disc in my computer and I can access the files, but I can't RUN the files, so I copied everything into a folder on the harddrive, installed it from there

That's also odd, I've never heard of Windows doing anything like it. Sounds like the works of an overzealous virus protection thing that considers files on CDs unsafe.

Now, if my system was in such a state, I'd take that as a cue to do a routine reinstallation.