NWN Server Ping Fix

Those who’ve installed Bioware’s next gen RPG Neverwinter Nights will already be aware the game pings the master server online at Bioware anytime the game is installed, run, or patched, and probably regularly during gameplay as well. If that isn’t bad enough, if the game cannot find the server it will not allow LAN players to set up an offline multiplayer game - an incomprehensible feature for a game specifically designed for LAN play. Luckily there is an easy fix; you just have to remember to reverse the change when you want to play over the internet.

Go into your /windows/system32/drivers/etc folder, there should be a file called hosts (with no file extension). Add 127.0.0.1 nwmaster.bioware.com to the file and save. This will stop NWN from finding the nwmaster server.

For example:

127.0.0.1 localhost #localhost
127.0.0.1 nwmaster.bioware.com #nwn master server

posted by monty · at 3:14 pm · filed under News

 

5 Comments (RSS)

 Technomancer 6 years, 6 months ago

Don’t mean to be pedantic but … to be precise the addition of the entry into the hosts file will cause the name nwmaster.bioware.com to resolve to your local machine address (127.0.01) not stop it from finding the server as stated :-)

 booker 6 years, 6 months ago

“From a certain point of view…”

If you consider nwnmaster.bioware.com the server then you’re right. But it’s really just an alias for the real server at some IP address. So by re aliasing it to 127.0.0.1 you are stopping nwn from contacting the real server. It hits the dead end at 127.0.0.1 thinks the server is down or unreachable and moves on.

Point being, it stops contact with bioware during normal play.

You wont be able to play online though, until you allow them to validate your purchased copy of the game (I assume).

 Technomancer 6 years, 6 months ago

Okay I see what your getting at, just one question though if NWN can’t ping nwmaster.bioware.com wouldn’t that cause it to think the server is down anyway?

I wonder why when using NWN in LAN mode that the program tries to ping an internet address anyway … maybe its some sort of licence checking mechanism ?

 booker 6 years, 6 months ago

I’m sure it’s a license checking mechanism, and that’s probably all it does… ie send your license key in for verification.

But the security conscious don’t like programs calling home whenever they feel like it. :D

 monty 6 years, 6 months ago

… and requires a private LAN to be connected to the internet. Crazy.

Related Posts

BigKid is now offering user logins for anyone who'd like to post news or make comments. Register & login now!

Feeds: 0.92 · 2.0 · Atom

Levelling
BigKid is powered by WordPress 1.5, best experienced with Firefox