Need help with servers

[old.ultraviolet]

I know this might seem like a stupid question to all of you who are able to simply able to go into the server browser in counter-strike and double click on a server and connect up to it,my question is how do you do it?Whenever I try it generally connects to the server provided it isn't full or locked with a password,it then goes on to start precaching the resources,then it says its done precaching them and then it disconnects just before it should say that it's initalising and downloading.So far I've only sucessfully connected twice.The first time I floated around waiting for the next round to start and when it did I got disconnected. The second time it seemed to work properly but I seemed to be the only one on the level.I just want to know if there's something I have to do before I can connect to servers,like for instance doe most servers require you to register with them before hand?I know I might sound like an idiot but will someone please help or I'll have to resort to going back to Team Fortress.Anyway any help would be appreciated.

 

[Vroomparrot]

This seems to a problem that alot of people seem to be coming across lately - try reinstalling cs/hl/windows etc. If that dont work I really havn't a clue.

 

[Perplex]

ok, first step...don't use the built-in CS server browser.

Go to http://www.fileplanet.com/index.asp?section=513&file=30657 and get gamespy.

Then go to http://www.fileplanet.com/index.asp?section=517&file=50114 and get the gamespy Counterstrike filter.

Use this to connect to CS games, and let us know if it allows you to connect to more servers. As for the disconnections midgame...I'm not really sure. a) go and get the **latest** drivers for your graphics card. b) if you are on iSDN, get the latest version of the Terminal Adapter drivers. c) pray d)if you are using Direct3D mode in CS, change to OpenGL, and vica versa e) pray

 

[Ch3tan]

Ultraviolet, first of all ignore (sorry Persplex) persplex. You do not want to get gamespy or pingtool if u can avoid their use. The in game cs browser is much more reliable.
I and many others have had the problem u described, and using gamespy did not fix it. The only way i could is to reinstall half life from scratch and CS as well, and from the full upgrade files, no the small step upgrades. dont know why but it works.

 

[stu]

the in game browser is utter lameness, and if you use it you're clearly a nugget

 

[*Kornholio*]

Yeah, gamespy certainly is a very usefull program

 

[old.Anatoly]

If you look on the counter-strike.net forums you will find loads of people with similar problems.
Basically it seems to be that it takes so long for people to load CS that by the time it is all done, they have timed out from the server.
So you need to make sure your system is up to scratch, kill all background processes (esp virus protection ) defrag HD and reboot just before you want to play. You could also try running MemTurbo before you run it although this is probably overkill.
You are better off using gamespy, because if you dont connect first time you wont be booted back to the menu, you will stay in the console and can just type retry which should let you connect (works for me anyways)
Some people have also found that using software mode solves the problem, seems to not take anywhere near as long to load (although it does look crap)

 

[Ch3tan]

Yes gamespy is good, but it is no better than having a favourites list in the ingame browser, also i find the ingame browser more reliable than gamespy, u should avoid gamespy whnever u can, i only use it to find other clan m8s.

 

[old.ultraviolet]

Thanks for the info,I think I've finally found out what the problem is.It's quite simple really,my computer is a pile of old toss.Basically it's a P166,32 megs of RAM with MMX (Hey it was really good when I got it four years ago).Now as much of a pile of toss as it is it is better than the minimuim requirements of Counter-Strike.So what's the problem? Well when I connect up to a server using Gamespy it gives me an error messsage that the in game browser hides for some reason,it says something like "try_alloc:failed" and it says that it requires another 1712363 (I assume it means bytes of RAM).I used to get a very similar message saying "hunk_alloc:failed on 12391 bytes".This was because even though Counter-Stike says the minimuim it needs is 24 mb of RAM the reality is it needs 32 mb of RAM.Even though I have 32 I still got the hunk_alloc error for some reason.I fixed it by changing the command line for Counter-Strike from "D:\SIERRA\Half-Life\hl.exe -console -game cstrike" to "D:\SIERRA\Half-Life\hl.exe -game cstrike -heapsize 32000".
This seemed to work because I was able to play Counter-Strike with 9 computer bots,so I assumed it would follow that if I could play it with a bunch of bots then I could play it over the net but it now seems that that isn't the case.So as far as I can see I have 3 choices: wait to get a new PC,upgrade the RAM on my old one and still get a new PC in a few months or give in to the voices in my head and burn the house down along with the PC and everything else in it.I think I'll upgrade the RAM but if anyone has any suggestions on how to resolve this without having to upgrade the RAM or burn the house down then I would really appreciate them.Anyway thanks to everyone for all the info.
Later
Ultraviolet

 

[Perplex]

jesus....CS, and 9 bots on a p166? my god intel rocks ))

 

[old.ultraviolet]

Yeah I know,one time by accident I actually filled the screen with bots,the radar literally was covered in purple indicators.The action slowed down to a crawl but at the same time it was amazing to see all those bots on screen at once on a computer that's as ass-sucking as mine.

 

[*Kornholio*]

Originally posted by ultraviolet
or give in to the voices in my head and burn the house down along with the PC and everything else in it.

I think that's about your best option m8

 

[old.ultraviolet]

I beginning to think you may just be right.Lets burn them, burn them all

 

[*Kornholio*]

As Bloodhound Gang put it : We don't need no water, let the motherf#&ker burn, burn motherf#&ker, BURN !!!