that link dosnt work...problem after problem lol

It's not a link, it's what you put in to do a route trace (usually with the good old "tracert" program in a MS-DOS prompt). Here's mine:

C:\WINDOWS>tracert majikthise.guildsoftware.com

Tracing route to majikthise.guildsoftware.com [207.67.118.130]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 * * * Request timed out.
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.

Trace complete.

As you can see, Something Is Wrong™. I forgot to do something important before running it, and I haven't a clue what it is. *scratches head* Oh well, if it works as it ought to, you should get a nice massively over-complex series of nearly indecipherable web addresses which are so much greek to most people, but quite helpful to network programmers when it comes to finding problems.

And having turned off my firewall for a few seconds to let the program do its job...

C:\WINDOWS>tracert majikthise.guildsoftware.com

Tracing route to majikthise.guildsoftware.com [207.67.118.130]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 8 ms 8 ms 8 ms (CENSORED)
2 8 ms 10 ms 6 ms (CENSORED)
3 8 ms 10 ms 8 ms (CENSORED)
4 13 ms 9 ms 8 ms (CENSORED)
5 13 ms 19 ms 13 ms (CENSORED)
6 16 ms 14 ms 15 ms tbr1-p012201.attga.ip.att.net [12.123.21.138]
7 29 ms 29 ms 27 ms tbr2-cl1.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.122.10.69]
8 29 ms 27 ms 28 ms ggr1-p370.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.123.9.53]
9 29 ms 30 ms 29 ms 66.192.252.197
10 27 ms 28 ms 29 ms 66.192.255.230
11 47 ms 47 ms 47 ms core-01-ge-0-2-1-1.chcg.twtelecom.net [66.192.255.65]
12 49 ms 49 ms 50 ms dist-02-so-0-0-0-0.milw.twtelecom.net [66.192.244.103]
13 51 ms 51 ms 49 ms hagg-01-ge-1-3-0-0.milw.twtelecom.net [64.132.81.182]
14 50 ms 50 ms 50 ms 207.250.123.102
15 50 ms 50 ms 51 ms majikthise.guildsoftware.com [207.67.118.130]

Trace complete.

THAT is what would be useful. Give it a try, and if any of those lines have those * symbols (astrisks), then that's going to be a source of problems.

did that seems to be no prob their

Tex, would you mind posting your results as IRS did (after stripping out any personal info)?

Another thought: is it possible that you have both the XP "built-in" firewall AND a 3rd party firewall going? Perhaps you've shut down one but not the other.

Some routers/modems have firewalls built in, maybe hes behind a router with a firewall in it?

That was my problem with Warcraft III, It was blocking the ports.

That's also a good thought. We haven't heard from Tex in awhile, so either he's in or he's given up.

Hi,

I've been having the problem all day - I installed the (OS X) client this morning and have been having trouble. I get the 'could not connect to update server, rerun the app" error message. When the client does manage to connect, it takes another number of tries to login. I've been disconnected once while playing so far.

I've traced the server a number of times, and I usually get unknown host errors. No other problems with any other games or network apps at all.

I can post my traceroute results when they work if that helps. They get far, up to 207.250.123.102, but stop there.

Argh.