PC Tools I.S. and STEAM

[sulliman24]

Alright I am sad to say that once again I am being disconnected from servers when playing games through STEAM and running a PC Tools product. This was happening to me when I was just using Spyware Doctor and now it is happening in the I.S. product as well. I have disabled the On-Guard protection and even manually added all instances of HL2.exe. I even added GameOverlayUI.exe to the firewall list. There is something in the PC Tools products that don't play nice with STEAM.

I know you will probably tell me it is the firewall but it is not. This same instance was occurring when I had just Spyware Doctor installed. Obviously I have uninstalled SD because I am now using the I.S. Suite. I am begging beyond belief for PC Tools to make this product compatible with STEAM. Until I know this problem is fixed I refuse to pay any more money. The products are great, don't get me wrong, but if they aren't compatible with STEAM then I am forced to shut it down when my computer starts up and then restart in order to play on STEAM. This is very frustrating. I am willing to tweak the firewall more and I will tweak with the settings more, but I am telling you guys it is more then just tweaking. There is something weird going on here and I can't quite point it out.

I am running on Windows XP Pro SP2. I have a Pentium M processor at 1.73 GHz. I have 1 GB of system RAM. I am running on a laptop obviously.

EDIT: There is a chance that this is happening because my network drivers are somewhat out of date. However, when this problem first occurred it was before I reformatted my computer and had the most recent drivers. I will update my drivers ASAP, but if PC tools has any information as to why this is happening then please let me know.

[sulliman24]

I just realized that another person responded to my last thread in the Spyware Doctor forum when I was having this problem.

http://www.pctools.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49059

While using Spyware Doctor I had the kernel compatibility option checked in which this might be the cause of why I am being disconnected from STEAM. As soon as I installed PC Tools I.S. I immediately checked the kernel compatibility option just for the heck of it and restarted my computer. Then I tried using STEAM and this is when I got disconnected from servers. So, I un-checked the kernel compatibility mode and restarted not too long ago. Then I just played for 15 minutes on STEAM and so far so good. I also added all instances of HL2.exe and other STEAM related files to the global action list and have them set to always allow. I am going to play a little more on STEAM and see what happens. The only thing I do have disabled is the On-Guard only because that uses my system RAM. I don't want to be bogged down while in game.

I will report back soon:)

EDIT: Nope I played for about 30 minutes just now and got booted. The only thing disabled is On-Guard and the kernel compatibility is still unchecked. I have yet to update my network driver. I am going to take care of that now. Then I will play again under those same circumstances. If I get booted again then I will try disabling the firewall, anti-spyware, and anti-virus and see if that helps.

[sulliman24]

I hate to be a pest but I feel like I am talking to myself in this thread. Nobody has bothered to answer any of my questions or at least give out some tips or possible reasons as to why my problem is occurring.

[AChen]

Hi Sulliman24,

I didn't see that you edited your post ;) You mentioned that it was working for 15 minutes without any problems with kernel compatibility mode disabled previously and that you would post back. So the problem still exists. I'll pass this information onto the developers and see what they think could be the likely cause of this issue and I'll get back to you shortly.

[sulliman24]

Thank you for the response Achen. I previously had Kaspersky Internet Security installed. I deleted this using Kaspersky's removal tool and made sure it was gone before installing PC Tools I.S. I even checked the registry and got rid of one entry. There were times however where I uninstalled Kaspersky I.S. and just ran Spyware Doctor version 5 and got this problem.

If PC Tools I.S. or Spyware Doctor are not causing this problem then I am led to believe that there is still a trace of Kaspersky I.S. left on my computer. According to STEAM any Kaspersky product conflicts with STEAM operations.

I hate to have to blame PC Tools for this problem because I love their products so much. If it is not PC Tools causing this problem then I do apologize. Over this past summer I ran Norton 360 and Spyware Doctor 5.0 side by side with STEAM running and never had any problems. I don't know what update may be causing this conflict, but something sure is. Whenver I now disable PC Tools I.S. STEAM operations and connections are fine and I have no problems. So, naturally I am saying that PC Tools is causing the problem.

I will try and do a thorough search for any possible traces of Kaspersky Internet Security.

Please let me know if the developers have any comments or know of why this might be occurring.

[sulliman24]

Sorry to dig up this old topic, but I feel it is necessary. I am currently using Norton Internet Security 2008 and Spyware Doctor version 4.1. The only reason for this is because the gaming application STEAM and Spyware Doctor 5.0 +/Internet Security Suite cause connection problems when in a server.

If you read my posts from October you will understand the situation. Truthfully there may never be a fix at all. There might in fact be nothing that PC Tools can do because it might be on STEAM's end. There is something in the PC Tools drivers that are used with Spyware Doctor 5.0 + and the Internet Security Suite that STEAM does not like. It causes me to lose connection from a server and gets quite annoying. So, for the last few months I have been using Norton Internet Security 2008 and reverted to Spyware Doctor 4.1 because of this.

I don't feel like uninstalling what I have and re-installing the I.S. Suite just to try it again. It is too much of a hassle unless I know it is fixed. I am simply looking to see if this problem has been resolved or even looked into. I am obviously not going to pay for the I.S. Suite unless I know this problem is fixed.

EDIT: I uninstalled all traces of Norton Internet Security 2008 and Spyware Doctor 4.1 and installed PC Tools I.S. I also installed Threatfire as well. I disabled the four components of PC Tools I.S. and entered a server in STEAM. I was disconnected after 10 minutes multiple times. Like I have said before it has something to do with the drivers that this I.S. is using. It annoys me mostly because I want superior protection without having to have such hassles with STEAM. I unfortunately have to go back to Norton just so I can play on STEAM. I could simply disable PC Tools I.S. completely and make it not start at startup, but that would mean restarting the computer every time I want to play on STEAM. Then when I am done I would have to re-enable it and then if I want to play on STEAM an hour later I must go through the same exact thing. It is clear that disabling all components of PC Tools I.S. and the On-Guard does nothing at all to help my problem.

What annoys me the most is that no other STEAM user is having this problem or is even acknowledging it. I truly can't be the only one that is having this problem. And unless more people speak up nothing is going to be done to fix this or even have it looked into. If PC Tools can pinpoint the problem I would be more then happy to talk with STEAM and see if they can do anything to fix this problem.

[sulliman24]

I shouldn't have to keep bumping this thread to get an answer of some sort.

[AChen]

Hi sulliman24,

Sorry :o I've seen this thread and have already passed it onto the developers. I'll send a PM to you.

[Reodor]

Somehow I have the feeling this is related to my post: Blocked from the net.
From time to time, without specific reason, it all gets blocked in the middle of surfing. Only way to get back on is to shut down and restart PCTIS.

[swannie]

Well my current problem is that Firefox seems to suddenly freeze and say 'stopped' I have turned off 'Site Guard' to see what happens and so far everything suddenly started working again but I want to have 'Site Guard' as it's an important part of the suite. Anyone else facing this problem?

[sulliman24]

Check your PM's Achen.

[sulliman24]

Check your PM's again Achen.

I tried doing your suggestion of renaming the klg.dat file to kg.dat and then shut down PC Tools I.S. Then I restarted my computer and then manually started PC Tools I.S. up. Then I proceeded to play STEAM with the firewall disabled (simply to prevent any lag) and I also disabled the anti-spyware part. I even disabled on-guard. I still keep getting booted from servers. I have Threatfire running along with it as well.

There is another file named KLGuard.SDP. Is this something else I need to change? If STEAM is seeing klg.dat as a false positive then how exactly do they recognize the file when scanning? Have they blacklisted the file klg.dat or something? I just feel that this is not the complete fix. I say this because Spyware Doctor version 4.1 has the file klg.dat as well and I don't remember getting kicked from servers with it running.

Are there any other suggestions as to what could be causing this or maybe I didn't do it correctly.

[AChen]

Replied to you're PM :)

[sulliman24]

Check your PM's Achen.

As I mentioned in my PM everything seems fine on the new computer. Please also look into the other account related problem:)

[AChen]

Check your PM's Achen.

As I mentioned in my PM everything seems fine on the new computer. Please also look into the other account related problem:)

Replied to and the other issue has also been sorted :)