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bcam3601
Freshman

Can't Connect to Blizzard App

I guess I lost my connection when posting this the first time because I don't see the topic, so I will post it again...

 

I’m posting this mainly to figure out what might the problem be. Even just to brainstorm and to the extent that it can be done, to troubleshoot and learn. Because I can think of a few possibilities, but even though they are not impossible, they all seem unlikely. All the usual suspects seemingly have been checked out. Tech support seems to be stumped and can’t give an answer no matter who I am transferred to.

 

The first thing to consider is that I have no trouble with any other software and I have no trouble with any websites. Everything else connects.

 

The company is Blizzard, who, as far as I am aware, is the biggest and most successful online gaming creator. Some love them, some hate them, but either way, they are the best at what they do.

This is not the game specifically, but the application that manages several games the company owns. It checks for updates and you have to use it to launch one of their games. This is not a new app. This is something I have been connecting to for years with no problems until a bit over a week ago. The app doesn’t seem to even realize that I have the internet on at all because it gave an error basically saying that you can’t use the app without an internet connection and that I should make sure mine is active.

 

I mainly contacted Blizzard at first because I believe that the problem was with them. I ran through multiple troubleshooting steps. This included…

 

disabling various programs

 

disabling firewall, disabling anti-virus

 

stripping away various other protection that I have on the computer

 

restarting the computer in selective startup to make sure fewer programs that could interfere

 

running a trace route to check ping and showing it to their tech support

 

connecting directly instead of through a router

 

running virus scans

 

running other computer maintenance scans to fix any possible problems (including ones that make network and registry adjustments—and before it is mentioned, no, these did not cause the problem in the first place)

 

checked out my download and upload and latency speeds at testmynet.com, the site now being recommended by Hughesnet (my download speeds are actually faster than they have ever been, even after switching to Gen4 they were not quit this fast, and my latency is just as low as it ever has been and as low as I expect it ever will be using satellite; my upload is in line with the advertised plan—these specific aspects of my connection are not the issue)

 

not only did I try under a fresh Windows install, but I tried an upgrade from Window 7 to Windows 10 just in case updated Windows operating system and other software

 

uninstalled multiple programs

 

and, of course, I would restart the computer and the modem, which is pretty much the best advice I usually get from Hughesnet tech

 

Contacted Blizzard tech on 3 occasions, gave them extensive system info, ran trace routes, discussed the issue in detail, and they said the problem seemed to be with the ISP. Contacted Hughesnet and they say all is fine on their end, so it must be Blizzard.

 

Not a whole lot to do after all this, but I eventually ran across the fact that some people connect to vpns just to reduce their latency. I decided to try this and it worked no problem. I disconnected and tried normal connection and it failed.

 

With this, one might think that ok, so the vpn must have reduced your latency. So latency must have been your issue. I sincerely don’t think so and if you have read this far then you have already seen the answer why at the very beginning.

 

In addition to this, I happened to open Bittorrent so that I could check some downloads. I usually don’t open this software. Only when I have something to download and then I close it when it’s done. There is a torrent that was dead and had been for a month or more because it gave an error. When I connected to the vpn I happened to take a look at my torrents to compare the download speed through regular connection vs with a vpn connection, and saw that the torrent was downloading. So now and formerly dead torrent works perfectly and I am able to connect to a Blizzard app that has been denying me a connection for about a week straight.

 

I have heard plenty about how Hughesnet throttles traffic. Not the FAP, but things such as torrents and large downloads. I am a very heavy internet user. I have used the internet extensively for work and entertainment alike. My experience literally amounts to years actively in front of the computer screen, and I can definitely see this as being the case… Signing up to new plans where your speed is blazing and more than the advertised package, only to have them slowly decline over the first 3 months or so (this happening every time I have upgraded a plan or turn off service for a while and restarted it again), speeds being fast for large downloads, video watching, and torrents only to have them literally dropping to near nothing no matter what time of morning, noon, or night you try it and even during the FAP free hours. Aside from that I have literally gone about 4 or 5 months with dial-up speeds for seemingly no reason, but that’s another story entirely.

 

So, if I can’t connect to an app through my regular connection with Hughesnet, but I can when using a vpn, then what could possibly be the explanation? Again, this is not directly to any game (I didn’t really think to emphasize this properly to Hughesnet tech), this particular connection is through an app for update and manage and is used to launch their games. It’s an entirely different program that is located in its own folder. From what I understand, connecting to this should be no different that downloading files onto your computer or opening a webpage in your browser. With the point being that latency just doesn’t factor in as an excuse for not being able to connect no more than it would if I wanted to use Google Chrome to open up a Facebook page.

8 REPLIES 8
C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor

@bcam3601

I assume you are using an HT1100, can you tell us what your "IP Gateway Association State"  (IPGW) is?  You can find that at http://192.168.0.1 and click on System Status.

It will be something like the following, "Associated (Data IPGW - BIL31HNSIGW52A001)"

If yours starts with BOI (and I think there are a few others...) then it's possible you are suffering from a similar issue in regards to an outage that had been impacting email clients for awhile now.  Yesterday @RogerHinton who had been having issues with email reported that he couldn't successfully connect to the Blizzard Launcher, but could after the issue was resolved.  @Liz or @Aedan may have to escalate this issue to engineering.

You might want to try and disable Web Acceleration found under the advanced menus, you can get to the advanced menu by clicking the "i" icon that's just barely visible at the top of the system control center for your modem.  This *might* help.

As of right now I can connect successfully to Battle.net using the Blizzard Launcher and updated Diablo III just yesterday on it.

Thanks for the reply. Your comment is already the most help I have gotten from Hughesnet.

 

You're correct, I have the HT1100. I already knew where to open control center, but for a while now I have been wondering where the more advanced settings went (I recall having access to them some years ago, a while before I ended up upgrading to Gen4) and how to reach them and how to make adjustments to the modem myself. 

 

The IPGW is BOI45HNSIGW74C001

C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor

@bcam3601

 

Yeah, it looks like @Liz will need to escalate your case to engineering, I suspect the issue is tied to what was happening with the Outlook/Gmail users this past week, as one of those users had the same issue with their Xbox connecting.

BTW, I don't represent Hughesnet, just another customer.  The Hughesnet employees are the ones that have a Moderator or Employee tag beside their name on here.

Thanks for the reply, CORROSIVE. I've looked at these boards before and thought you might not be a Hughesnet employee, but wasn't sure. I find it all the more strange though that I have gotten the most detailed response on the issue from another customer. 

 

Just want to say that first of all, what I am about to post next is not intended and shouldn't be interpreted even as a complaint, much less a rant. I already know that there has been enough complaining and ranting about Hughesnet services to where there isn't much benefit in doing so. My attitude now is that Hughesnet is not the best option, but it is the best one I have for now and so I wish the company nothing but the best and hope for continued improvement as that I have noticed they added many benefits over the years while I have been a customer.

 

However, there is plenty room for improvement, and I want to make this post as a permanent record of my experience just in case others might stumble upon it and be able to relate and so that maybe they can gain some perspective on their own situation when having problems and when needing to deal with the technical issues that often arise when using Hughesnet services.

 

First of all, with regard to these boards, I mentioned above that I must have lost my connection in my first attempt at making a post here. However, I already know that's not the case. I did make a post before this one and had viewed it several times waiting for a reply before I logged in again only to see that it was no longer present. Saying that I must have lost the post due to disconnection was my non-confrontational way of acknowledging the loss of the post so that I could make a new one, hopefully without it too disappearing.

 

After years of making online posts, I have learned that you never know when your browser is going to crash or when the switch on your surge protector will flip off and your whole computer will power off, or if when you click on the submit button that you won't be directed to some error page and loss every word that you have spent your time putting together, so especially when I make a long post, I tend to save a copy of it within a word doc.

 

That's the only reason I was able to make a new post in my original words. Otherwise, I would not have been willing to spend the time to put together another one that long and detailed. I don't know who deleted the original, nor do I know why (I got no warnings and no messages and no explaination and no indications at all), but I do still thank them for allowing this one to remain and I hope they continue to do so.

 

With regard to the technical issue, I am now able to connect to the Blizzard app. However, I still haven't been told what caused the issue, nor how it was fixed. One day it simply stopped working. The next day, it simply started working again. This is a satisfactory result, but it leaves some questions to be answered.

 

For the record, I kept getting replies from tech support about how satellite internet is not good for gaming and so that must be what the problem was. 

 

But again, it's not even the game that's the problem, but the app that connects to their servers to update and manage games. Initially, I don't blame the Techs. I understand that this is an out of the ordinary situation. Also, I'm sure their training has likely always been that satellite connections have high latency and therefore if someone contacts them with an issue that's even remotely related to some online game that the answer is simple and there is no other reason worth thinking about.

 

But I have worked tech support before. I know when a person is sincerely trying to help with the issue and I know when they are giving empty answers just to get you off the line. What I got were people who were perfectly helpful at first, but when the usual, simple answers didn’t get results, I got the empty answers.

 

But in the particular call I made to them after having connected with a vpn and knowing that something was not right and having a fairly good idea of what might be the problem, I got the empty answers, and when I wasn’t listening to the suggestions that I knew weren’t of any help at all, then I got the helpful tech support attitude again, then I got transferred to someone who was again helpful, then when nothing worked I got the empty answers again, then when I rejected the answers she blurted out that they weren’t even a part of Hughesnet but were some third party that did more involved tech support when the Hughesnet employees weren’t able to help.

 

She offered her “assistance” in setting up a service where someone would remote connect to my computer and do tech work for me. She said the price was $99. I laughed, because at this point it really was funny, and said that I wouldn’t be able to do that. 

 

I was surprised at what I was hearing and had to ask her again what it was exactly that she was proposing. I then asked if her work would in  any way involve checking my modem or the network’s connection with my computer, but the lady seemed to think it a better idea that I pay $99 in order to have someone poke around on my computer. After seeing there was not point in staying on with the third party tech support and hanging up, I soon looked back at the Blizzard app and it was working with my regular connection.

 

What should be concluded by this, I hesitate to say, but, as stated nearer the begining of this post, maybe someone with similar issues can gain some perspective by reading about this experience. 

C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor


@bcam3601 wrote:

Thanks for the reply, CORROSIVE. I've looked at these boards before and thought you might not be a Hughesnet employee, but wasn't sure. I find it all the more strange though that I have gotten the most detailed response on the issue from another customer. 

 

 


It's not entirely strange that other customers will provide more detailed posts, as they aren't usually bound by company policies.  While Hughesnet is more transparent than most other companies, they still have to take on the whole, "what's too much or too little" role in PR.  There are a few that frequent this community and other online services where we are able to put 1 and 2 together and get an end result that the staff here wouldn't typically be able to state.  We also don't have to create case notes and follow a proper chain of policies, so our replies at times can be long and confusing.



@bcam3601 wrote:

 

 

First of all, with regard to these boards, I mentioned above that I must have lost my connection in my first attempt at making a post here. However, I already know that's not the case. I did make a post before this one and had viewed it several times waiting for a reply before I logged in again only to see that it was no longer present. Saying that I must have lost the post due to disconnection was my non-confrontational way of acknowledging the loss of the post so that I could make a new one, hopefully without it too disappearing.

 

After years of making online posts, I have learned that you never know when your browser is going to crash or when the switch on your surge protector will flip off and your whole computer will power off, or if when you click on the submit button that you won't be directed to some error page and loss every word that you have spent your time putting together, so especially when I make a long post, I tend to save a copy of it within a word doc. 



It's possible that you somehow triggered the anti-spam system that these boards use...  I along with several others when the new boards launched had seen several of our posts/topics mysteriously vanish and it took awhile for Liz to figure out what was happening.  It's possible there may still be some settings that could be triggering the anti-spam which doesn't exactly delete your post, but puts it into a "Waiting for Moderation" queue.



All of that aside, since it sounds like your client is working, then I guess the case can be closed?  Usually if the client can connect, your games should also be able to connect.  If you have any other concerns, please let the community know!

Hi bcam3601,

 

Thank you for letting me know you can connect again, that's great!

 

It's not out of the ordinary to have a fellow HughesNet subscriber hop in and help others out, this is a benefit of the community. We have long time subscribers with a wealth of expertise and experience who are gracious enough to assist and educate those looking for answers. Us mods are just here to help out and escalate if needed.

 

So about your original post not coming through, you're correct, it wasn't a connectivity issue that caused it to not post. Your post ended up in our spam quarantine; this happens sometimes when new community members post URLs. 

 

Thank you again for taking the time to share your experience here, please don't hesitate to drop by again!

 

If you have a tech or billing question and need help, please start a new thread in the appropriate board. Unsolicited Private Messages may not get replies.

Slow performance? Click me!

Liz
Moderator
Moderator

Good morning bcam3601,

 

Welcome and thank you for describing all your troubleshooting efforts so far. This is a good start, and as C0RR0SIVE mentioned, I'd like to escalate your case to our engineers if you are still unable to connect to Blizzard.

 

There are some more bits of info I'd like to get before escalating:

 

You can't connect to the Blizzard app, but you can still access Blizzard owned-sites? (us.battle.net playoverwatch.com worldofwarcraft.com)

 

Did you try disabling Web Acceleration to see if that made a difference? Did it?

 

Finally, please ensure the coaxial cable is tightly secured to the back of your HT1100, and let me know once you've secured it. I'd like to run new diagnostics on your site once you do.

 

Your cooperation, patience, and understanding are much appreciated.

 

 

 

If you have a tech or billing question and need help, please start a new thread in the appropriate board. Unsolicited Private Messages may not get replies.

Slow performance? Click me!

Thank you for the reply Liz. I made the above reply before seeing your reply, but you will see when reading there that I bring up some points, but the particular issue at hand is no longer a problem. Feel free though to let me know if you have any thoughts of the above post. Otherwise, I will soon mark this as solved. Thanks again.