Network | words

Steam Connection Error (“you must first connect to the Internet”)

I was able to download and install Valve’s Steam client on my Windows 7 64-bit machine, but when I tried to run the client I would instantly receive this error:

Steam.exe (main exception): To run Steam, you must first connect to the Internet

I tried changing port-forwarding rules in my router, and disabling the Windows firewall entirely. In the end, the problem turned out to be PeerBlock, which is used in P2P networking. PeerGuardian would cause the same problem, as would any software which performs network blocking functionality.

Rather than disable PeerBlock, I added Steam’s servers to PeerBlock’s allowed list. To do this, open PeerBlock and, as Valve servers appear on the list, right click them and select “Allow x.x.x.x permanently”:

Connections to Valve’s servers should appear in the TCP range of 27014 – 27050 and UDP 4380, and 27000 – 27030. It appears that their servers are identified as “VALVE CORPORATION” or “Limelight Networks”.

Publishing GPG Public Key in DNS Records

Publishing GPG/PGP keys to public keyservers has one glaring fault: once you commit something, you can never remove it. I made the mistake of adding my email address at an employer’s domain. Now it is permanently tied to my public key and email address.

Assuming that you own a domain, publishing keys in your DNS record gives you complete control over their content. Of course, there is nothing stopping someone from retrieving your public key from your DNS record and uploading it to a public keyserver!

Dan Mahoney wrote an excellent guide on publishing PGP keys in DNS TXT records.

This guide to GoDaddy DNS record configuration made it relatively easy to modify my TXT record.