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Whenever my friends are playing servers, and I try to join, it always says "server not responding." Also, there are very few servers on the list of online servers. This happens in every source game. My firewall is disabled. Any help? Even when I try direct connection, it still fails.

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Steam was acting weird for me too until very recently. This however is a question that is too localized to your time and place to be answered here. Ask on the Steam Support Forums, that is what they are designed to handle. – World Engineer Feb 7 '12 at 1:46

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I've had that problem several times and one of two fixes has always worked for me:

  1. Turn off your firewall (which you've already done). I've had the Windows 7 firewall turn itself back on without my intervention, however, so it can't hurt to double-check, if you haven't already.
  2. Delete the ClientRegistry.blob file in your Steam install folder. You'll need to exit Steam before doing so, and Steam will run its updater when you launch it again, but it should only take a minute.
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Still doesn't work. Re-disabled firewall, removed ClientRegistry.blob. – CommunistPancake Feb 7 '12 at 4:29
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And you're sure you router doesn't have a built in firewall? Or if you are running on a shared network that the ports. Otherwise you could just add forwards in the firewall, see Valve's guide here: support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8571-GLVN-8711 – Holger Feb 7 '12 at 8:44
@Holger — I've not had problems accessing servers through my router firewall; Steam seems to be quite tolerant to NAT. The problem with Windows Firewall is that it can block entire apps, irrespective of the ports being used. – Ben Blank Feb 8 '12 at 0:07
@BenBlank Yeah NAT alleviates most of the problems with connections, but I still think that connections coming from the internet can be blocked or not translated to your local IP. Eg portfowards could be needed. – Holger Feb 8 '12 at 9:22
This page has the full lowdown on Steam ports which have to be open: support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1456-EUDN-2493 – Jeroen Baert Apr 3 '12 at 13:36
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If this only happens after viewing the server browser -- that is, you can join a game just fine if you right click someone and click "Join", without browsing the server list -- you just need to turn the server ping rate down in Steam's settings.

It's in the same place as your download speed configuration in the Steam client.

You'll know you're having this problem if the internet in general starts acting odd for a few minutes after you try to view servers; it's because Steam is trying to fetch server information too fast and overloading your router. I had the same issue. (The fact that some servers is responding is what tipped me off; this problem will usually let a few show up but the majority will completely fail, and joining won't work at all for a few minutes)

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