[CS 1.6] Disconnected due to client answering challenge.

[idderf]

Client timed out while answering challenge.
---> Please make sure that you have opened the appropriate ports on any firewall you are connected behind.
---> See http://support.steampowered.com for help with firewall configuration.

This error seems to come out of nowhere, sometimes it randomly just disconnects from the server and gives this error message. Probably impossible to replicate, but it does this quiet often.

[johndrinkwater]

Is this a recent side‐effect of the latest update, or a general issue? Thanks!

[idderf]

General issue, has been around for god knows how long

[Nextra]

There are also the infamous svc_bad and AY&SY errors kicking a bunch of clients from servers. No idea how to reproduce that but they are long standing issues.

[idderf]

+1 for svc_bad

[idderf]

It seems this bug becomes more frequent after the updates, me and my friends are having trouble staying connected to servers. @alfred-valve any news?

[LevShisterov]

I have a friend that having that issue constantly. Client disconnects after 20-30 seconds of playing. Mod: adrenaline gamer.
Tried:
verifying game cache;
checked compatibility flag to be set off on hl.exe;
reinstall steam;
checked net settings - all seems ok, no router, tried firewall on/off;
disabled ipv6;
changed steam downloading location (from Russia-Central to Russia-Urals);
different combination of high/low priority on steam and HL processes.
Client still disconnects.

Windows 7, processor AMD, 2Gb or ram.

Can check any suggestion.
Help is appreciated.

[idderf]

From what I've researched about this it actually seems to be a VAC problem. I can replicate this error if I set steam to auto-start on my computer. Then steam will for some reason start in offline mode. When I then choose to go online, and connect to a games4u.se server with VAC enabled, I'll get kicked in a minute or two (client answering challenge). I can fix this by either joining a server without VAC, or by restarting steam (works sometimes).

[idderf]

And of course I have tried different things such as port forwarding, uninstalling firewall, etc. None of these solutions work.

[ghost]

I am not sure about others, but I think I've found the reason & I am able to work it around easily.
The thing is, when you open your game from its own shortcut, you will be kicked out very often.
If you open steam first & run the game from steam, you will not have any problems.

It works for me & I am able to reproduce the issue.