Half-Life 2 & Firewall

[FordPrefect]

Hello!

OK, here it goes. I recently bought Half-Life 2 ( yes, when this game was released and I read about Steam and DRM I said myself that I will never buy such crap. But then I played the demo and was lost...).
However, I have Kerio Personal Firewall installed and all external ( Internet ) incoming connections are blocked and I never allowed any incoming connections for Steam or HL 2 but nevertheless I can play online? Am I missing something? Or is my system compromised? Any ideas?

Thanks

F.P.

[Goenk]

Ford
I also use the Kerio Firewall. For Steam and HL2 I allow outgoing connections to the internet and block incoming connections. In our LAN (trusted zone) I allow both incoming and outgoing. It jsut works fine.

What problem do you actually occur?

[FordPrefect]

I thought that I must allow incoming connections on certain ports in order to play? How else would it be possible to receive game data during online play? Or am I totally wrong?
I have no LAN, my PC ist connected directly to the Internet.

[Goenk]

Hi

The option alow outgoing or incoming traffic is linked to location where this was initiated.

Outgoing Traffic
If you start HL2 on your PC then your PC tries to contact a server somewhere on the internet, this means the connection is iniated from your PC. You can now exchange data with the distant pc on the internet.

Incoming Traffic
This is linked to a connection which was initiated from a program on a distant computer.

So the incoming / outgoing connection is only reffered to which computer initiates the data exchange.

Hope this helps you

[FordPrefect]

Thanks, that answers my question.

[FordPrefect]

So, I was just thinking about this whole Steam-DRM crap as it comes to my mind that I posted something about it here on the forum. Well this is the thread.
There is only left to say that I never ever again will buy a game via Steam or any other DRM-involving distribution form.
In my opinion this is absolutely the wrong way to go.
Just my two cents.

Edit: Changed "In my eyes" to "In my opinion". In my eyes was a false translation of the german phrase "in meinen Augen"...

[Elandril]

Yes, one can unfortunately see what can happen with such distribution systems when the provider goes bankrupt (like it just happened with "Triton"). At the moment none of their customers can play any of their bought games, because the service is down and legal issues must be resolved before an offline patch can be provided.

IMO once you buy something you should have the right to do with it as you please without needing any outside interaction.

[Jito463]

Well, Steam is a little different. If the Steam app can't contact the servers, it just goes into offline mode. That means you can't play online, but you can still play your games. Personally, I think Valve is one of the few who got online distribution right with Steam. It's not 100% perfect, and it's had to go through some changes since it was introduced, but I still think it's the best option to date.

Aside from a Direct2Drive purchase of Chaos Theory (in the vain hope it wouldn't use StarForce...), Steam is the only other place I've purchased games digitally. And I have no hesitation in purchasing more from them. In fact, I'm probably going to buy Dark Messiah through there. That's my 2 cents worth.

[Kitna]

I'm with Jito463 here.
I have had no issues with Steam and think it is an excellent example of online distribution done well.
I have bought many titles through them (Defcon being the latest).
Valve have also stated that if they ever go bust they will remove the online auth component of their titles which will allow them to run normally anyway.

[estimablesir]

Steam is pretty neat, but I still prefer the standalone product. I have to admit though, it was fun staying up until 3AM waiting for half-life 2 to decrypt the moment it was released. I can't wait for episode 2 and team fortress 2.