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Program like Xfire?
bored247b
Member Posts: 7
I'm really interested in the Xfire program but I can't get it to work on my computer. It runs for a while and then says "Error reading from server" then dies. So does anyone know of a program that does the same things as Xfire?
Comments
It seems to be a problem hopefully this will help you. I quote:
The error reading from server, and it's sister error, error talking to server are both related to your internet connectivity. Xfire uses something called a 'heartbeat' to know if you're still connected to the server. On a regular cycle, we send this 'heartbeat' to the server and then the message is received.
If you can't send the message to the server, you get an error talking to it. If you get an error reading from server, you didn't receive the heartbeat back from the server.
The most likely culprit to cause this is an aggressive firewall, router or NAT device. Firewalls and NAT's have functions that will close down unused ports when they are not used for a certain period of time. This is done to protect you from open ports being hacked.
Most good firewalls/NAT's will have an adjustment or timer that you can tweak to adjust how often this happens. Older products came with a default timer of 10 minutes, but newere ones seem to be set to 5 minutes.
If you have a 5 minute timer, or do not have any clue what you have or how to adjust it, you can adjust Xfire instead. First, completely exit Xfire, it cannot be running while you make changes. Once Xfire is not running, you can edit your Xfire.ini file. You can use the "search" feature on your start menu to find it, or you can located it manually (default location is c:program filesxfire).
Once you locate the Xfire.ini file, double click it to open it in notepad or wordpad. You should see something that looks like this:
[Conure]
Build=11782
[Toucan]
Build=11782
[Xfire]
Version=35
[I18N]
LanguageMajor=us
[Skin]
SkinName=Xfire
[DNS Cache]
cs.xfire.com=216.136.177.199
You will need to add a new line that says:
PingInterval=180
You will need to add this under the [xfire] section. After you've done this, your Xfire.ini file should look like this:
[Conure]
Build=11782
[Toucan]
Build=11782
[Xfire]
PingInterval=180
Version=35
[I18N]
LanguageMajor=us
[Skin]
SkinName=Xfire
[DNS Cache]
cs.xfire.com=216.136.177.199
Save the file, and restart your Xfire client. You will now have a 3 minute 'heartbeat' time, which will be below the more modern 5 minute firewall timers. If you still have problems, you can lower the PingInterval to 120 or 2 minutes, but that's the lowest it can be adjusted.
Now if you're only getting disconnected while you're playing games, the problem may not be a port closing up. To send and receive the heartbeat to the server, Xfire requires some cpu time and bandwidth. If you computer is slightly below spec and playing a newer game, you may not have the cpu time available and therefor the above suggestion might not help.
Lastly, all ISP's experience hiccups once in a while. If this happens at the right moment, Xfire will not send or receive the 'heartbeat' and you'll get disconnected. The PingInterval solution is something geared towards the user who gets disconnected many times per day or session, and not just once every few days.