New install to Win 7; hangs on Updater

So I just installed the Architect Edition on a friend's desktop pc running Windows 7. He has an account set up and everything, having upgraded from the trial, BUT when he opens up the COH Updater, it shows a placeholder "x" icon instead of any pictures, and it fails to connect, cycling through "Connect. . . 1" and so on very slowly. We've tried following the instructions on one of the Support articles about adding one of two different port numbers to the end of the COH Updater command string. We've tried allowing City of Heroes to work with the Windows Firewall. We've tried turning off the firewalls on his computer. We've even tried a shut down and restart.

No progress.

Any suggestions?

Also, if you have any good links that might pertain to this, please let me know. I tried searching for stuff relating to this, and all I'm seeing that might be anything is Avatea's recent post regarding UDP ports, but that sounds more like an in-game thing than an Updater window thing?

Just off the top of my head.

Somewhere around here there's a listing of the servers/IPs, I believe. SEe if they an be pinged.

Temporarily disable UAC. (You should be getting a prompt anyway, unless it's already disabled.)

See if it works in Safe Mode with Networking.

See my Guides and Tutorials

Here's the list of IPs:

Updater
cohupdate.coh.com (216.107.250.194)
cohupdateeu.coh.com (206.127.145.195)
cohupdate.coh.com (216.107.254.201)
cohupdate.coh.com (216.107.254.198)
cohupdate.coh.com (216.107.254.194)
cohupdate.coh.com (216.107.254.195)
cohupdate.coh.com (216.107.254.197)
cohupdate.coh.com (216.107.254.200)
cohupdate.coh.com (216.107.250.195)
cohupdate.coh.com (216.107.254.196)
cohupdateeu.coh.com (206.127.145.194)

Game Client
Login: 216.107.249.131
Login (Europe): 206.127.144.229
West coast: 216.107.240.3
East coast: 216.107.248.3
Europe: 206.127.144.132

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

Ok. Thanks for the information, but from a less technical standpoint. . .

How do I USE any of this information? How could I ping the IP addresses, what is "UAC," why does it need to be disabled, and how could I do that?

I'm not trying to sound ungrateful. It's just that my friend and I are both largely clueless regarding any of this. =(

Thanks for the help so far, though! Please, keep it coming!

First an answer. If he has internet explorer disabled on his computer then all he will ever get in the updater window is a placeholder x. Those images and links that open in the updater are all through IE, it doesn't use whatever browser is the default one.

Questions

1. Is his internet access through satellite?

2: Was he originally able to run the trial version on his computer?

3: Is the game being run through Steam?

If the answer to 1 is yes then the multiple attempts to connect is not at all unusual. The updater has a very low timeout threshold. The solution to this is to open the updater, then when it starts trying to connect open up another copy of it and another and another and another and etc... One of them will eventually connect at which point you can close all the others and continue on to play the game. Afterwords create a shortcut to cityofheroes.exe NOTE: cityofheroes.exe, not cohupdater.exe and then tag -project coh to the end of it so it reads cityofheroes.exe" -project coh

This will skip the updater and connect directly to the game. He will only need to use the updater from then on whenever there is a new patch.



If the answer to 2 is yes then you didn't need to install anything. The trial game is the full game, it just has features disabled at the account level. All that needed to be done was to input the upgrade code. There is a chance that the edition you installed is corrupted somehow. Put cohupdater.exe on his desktop, delete the game directory, and reinstall the whole game.

If the answer to 3 is yes then stop running it through steam. Just run the game normally through cohupdater.

I'm not sure how he's accessing the Internet (satellite, etc.). I'll find out.

I do know that Firefox is his default browser. I believe that IE is installed, though.

Would making IE the default browser potentially fix the problem, or would it not matter? It sounds like you're saying that it would show the pictures, but it would still fail to connect?

Having Explorer disabled wouldn't stop him from connecting. The satellite provider though would give the exact symptoms you mentioned.

Ok. Thanks. Found out he's on HughesNet, which is a satellite hookup, and he's watching this thread from time to time. Any specifics you can give me/him regarding that much?

Latest info: he's also unplugged the router and is trying to run it straight with his modem with no change. Friend is also trying to reinstall the game as I type this.

By the way, thanks a million for your assistance so far, Mandu! You're the Man. . . du!

EDIT TO ADD: Reinstalling didn't help anything at this time.

He might just try calling up HughesNet tomorrow and asking them what's up.

Though I hate to say it, my friend's computer somehow just started working with COH. We don't know why. It just DID.

Oh well! At least he gets to play! =)