A few questions about Steam
 

I am really new to Steam (Only downloaded it last Wednesday), and like the title says, I have a few questions about Steam and I was hoping someone could help. Any help would be appreciated.
Anyway... Ive been reading on these forums about a programme called Steamwatch. Do I just download and run it and it than only downloads through Bigpond or is there another programe I should run aswell? See I am with Bigpond and some games will really hurt my usage cap.
And question number 3. My father inlaw just brought two retail CD games but didn't realise he needed Steam. Is there a way I could download them for him and burn the files to a DVD and put them on his computer. See he installed Steam and created an account, but when he went to install the games his net dropped out. Now he cant install from the CD's as Steam is trying to download the entire games, and he is on dial up speeds and is prepaid to boot.
Once again, if anyone could help I would appreciate it.

Steamwatch is Ok. I prefer to use Frey's Steam filter myself as sometimes steamwatch can fail.

But providing steamwatch is working correctly it will stop steam from grabbing game data from any other servers than the ISP you set it to, making the data unmetered. You only ever need to run one steam filter program at once.

By checking this page (link) you can see if the content you want is hosted by the servers you are using.


Get his login details login on your computer and download them there. Then either use the built in back up feature or simply copy the game files across to his pc.

To make a backup copy of a Steam game that you can burn to a CD or DVD do the following:

1. Right-click the installed game in your Steam Game library and choose "Backup game files".

2. You can then also tick any of your games that you want to back-up to the same folder/CD/DVD. (I usually only do one game at a time)

3. Choose where to save the game backup folder on your hard drive.

4. Then just burn the backup folder to a CD/DVD or just transfer it to the other computer using a portable hard drive.

5. To install the game in question just open the folder and double click on the "steambackup.exe" file. Steam will then open and install the game.

This was my discovery path for steamwatch...
http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/...info-here.html

I must say I prefer Frey's Steam filter over SteamWatch. It's very easy to use. Only thing to remember though is that uninstalling Frey's Steam filter will not disable the filter. You must disable the filter from within the software.

Thankyou very much King Rocket, PhatFreD and Redgum for your help and your quick replies. I think I'll give Frey's a shot.

i use steamwatch so not sure if this applies to freys, but be aware that when you go to download a game you purchased the filter may stop the process even starting off and the game may not even get into you steam downloads queue. if that happens i disbale steamwatch for a moment while i get the game into the queue and then start it back up.

and then sometime cry cause the bigpond content server does not have the files:(

He could possibly go to Library - Games in Steam and then right click on the games in question and select "Delete local content". This should delete the files it may have started to download, then allowing him to use the install CD's.

Note however that the games may have had post release patches that aren't included on the CD's, which steam will subsequently commence downloading. Considering the circumstances (dial-up), if you've got the bandwidth for the games / patches then following the above advice from King_Rocket/PhatFreD of:

1. logging into his steam account on your PC/connection,
2. install using the CD's (save majority of the bandwidth)
3. then allowing steam to patch if necessary,
4. may need to start the game up once to complete the install,
5. then backup and install on father's PC per Phatfred's instructions

Your father's PC will probably only need a brief connection to steam (depending upon the games) the first time he runs them, following which he can switch steam to offline mode (Steam --> Go Offline from the menu).

Thats good to know SJ777, something to be mindfull of, thanks for the heads up.

Thermal Ions, should I get him to delete local content before I copy in the game files for him?

P.S The games that we are talking about here(if it helps at all) are "Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 2" and "Sniper - Ghost Warrior".

Probably 6 of one, half dozen of the other - so long as you select to overwrite existing files within the steamapps directory (and subdirectories).

My suggestion for deleting local content was simply to get steam to recognise the games as not installed, thus hopefully allowing the installs from the CD's.