SteamWatch info for Big Pond Steam users

[NackaJeem]

Information for all Big Pond Steam and/or SteamWatch users.

Warning: This is a bit involved but it might save you from going over your monthly limit and getting capped. Here goes

I was tooling around with my internet connection, trying to work out how I used 7GBs of my 12GB downloading the Witcher earlier this month when I found a third Big Pond GameArena Steam content server.

OK, so what?

For SteamWatch 3 users, the app only comes pre-configured for TWO Big Pond Steam servers:

203.46.104.7 and
203.46.104.8

The third server's IP address is:

203.39.198.167

I reverse-pinged the IP address and it resolved to this hostname:

Pinging ga2.gamearena.com.au [203.39.198.167] with 32 bytes of data:

That looks like a GameArena server to me.

This third content server has content that isn't on the other two. I know this because after adding the server's address to the 'Whitelist' section of my SteamWatch settings file, I downloaded the remaining 3Gig of The Witcher without incurring any additional cost to my monthly download, therefore the content must have been on the third server.

So. How to add the server to your SteamWatch Whitelist or list of IP addresses to allow?

Go into your Start Menu and make sure you have the SteamWatch Tray app running. Once you see it in your System Tray, just right-click and select 'Edit SteamWatchSettings.xml'. This should open up Notepad so you can make changes to the settings.

Down the bottom of the file, under the heading:
<!--List of IP addresses to allow-->
<whiteList>
you'll see these two IP addresses:

<address>203.46.104.7</address>
<address>203.46.104.8</address>

Just add this line anywhere between
<whiteList>

and

</whiteList>

Mine looks like this:

<whiteList>
<address>203.46.104.7</address>
<address>203.46.104.8</address>
<address>203.39.198.167</address>
</whiteList>



Hope this helps someone.


SteamWatch Software Informer: version 3.0 information

[MadMax]

From another website it says the following are now the content servers:

<whiteList>
<address>203.39.198.167</address>
<address>203.39.198.168</address>
</whiteList>

Checking your 2 server IP addresses and the above shows:


Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6002]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Users\User>nslookup 203.46.104.7
Server: home
Address: 10.0.0.138
*** home can't find 203.46.104.7: Non-existent domain
C:\Users\User>nslookup 203.46.104.8
Server: home
Address: 10.0.0.138
*** home can't find 203.46.104.8: Non-existent domain


C:\Users\User>nslookup 203.39.198.167
Server: home
Address: 10.0.0.138
Name: ga2.gamearena.com.au
Address: 203.39.198.167

C:\Users\User>nslookup 203.39.198.168
Server: home
Address: 10.0.0.138
Name: ga17.gamearena.com.au
Address: 203.39.198.168

C:\Users\User>

[NackaJeem]

Awesome. Thanks Max, you're absolutely right

Those 203.46.104.7 and .8 servers don't respond.
Should've pinged them I suppose

SteamWatch settings updated.

Cheers.

Edit: Those addresses are at odds with what I've been able to download from GameArena content servers over the past 12 months or so ie. I've been running SteamWatch to only allow those old IP addresses and it's been giving me content that hasn't used any of my monthly download except for my 7GBs of The Witcher (which only came down because I'd stopped SteamWatch). Weird.

[MadMax]

Strangely I'm having problems with downloading content via steamwatch in the last few days myself with my settings and had to turn off steamwatch to make it work...fortunately I only needed to update a couple of small games, but shortly will need to download BF: Bad Company 2 so I hope it works on that!

I had steamwatch running, and TCPView listing what servers it was trying and it NEVER tried GA servers, so never updated. As soon as I turned off steamwatch and restarted steam it would update on a non-GA server.

[NackaJeem]

If it was the little games that updated from the non-GA servers, that might mean that particular content wasn't hosted on the GA servers.

Reckon, BF:BC2 is going to be the real test. I have 500Mbs until Feb 3rd so I won't be turning off SteamWatch!

[NackaJeem]

OK, I'm downloading BF:BC2 beta through Steam. With 123MBs left until March 3rd, I'm a bit scared. SteamWatch is running and configured to allow the PC to download from the GA servers only. Doing a netstat brings up a disturbing entry though:
209.197.1.26:27030 ESTABLISHED

Resolving the hostname gives me this:

Pinging unknown.hwng.net [209.197.1.26] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 209.197.1.26: bytes=32 time=217ms TTL=115
Reply from 209.197.1.26: bytes=32 time=206ms TTL=115
Reply from 209.197.1.26: bytes=32 time=225ms TTL=115
Reply from 209.197.1.26: bytes=32 time=240ms TTL=115

Who the hell's unknown.hwng.net? With a response of around 220ms it's odd that my PC had established a TCP connection to that host. Regardless, I created a rule in my advanced firewall settings specifically blocking this IP address on port 27030.

Just checked my Steam download again, it's downloaded over 1GB now so I'm relatively confident I haven't hit my cap. Time will tell though, it may take a couple of hours for Big Pond to realise and throttle my bandwidth. Fingers crossed!

[MadMax]

Started my beta download as I left for work, fingers crossed.


With regard to that unknown server:
The following link is a thorough test of what a standard steam install does to a system.
yoo.dk | McAfee SiteAdvisor Software ? Website Safety Ratings and Secure Search

Under "network activity" it has a list of servers contacted as part of steam, and the unknown.hwng.net server is amongst it, so I'm guessing it's nothing rogue or out of the ordinary.

Cheeers,
Max

[NackaJeem]

Thanks for that Max.

Yep, that's right. The title says it all.

I started downloading the BF:BC2 beta and promptly smashed my remaining 250MBs to smithereens. It went approximately 650MBs over the cap before getting throttled.

I was impressed with that

I didn't check to see that SteamWatch was running did I?

Sigh. Have now started the process to move to an ADSL2+ connection that'll give me 90GBs to play with as opposed to my current 12GBs

[MadMax]

CHeers.

Mine downloaded fine and unmetered ready when I got home.

As for the game itself I'm a bit disappointed so far.