Cannot contact the Steam network, please try later

[cb750k7]

I've just installed HL2 and when I try to run it, Steam prints the following error and exits...

Steam - Updating
Cannot contact the Steam network, please try later

I looked at my router log table and can see that steam is trying to connect to 207.173.177.130 port 27038. When I try to ping or tracert to this IP address, I get a "destination net unreachable" reply from a Valve gateway (gw-cust-VALVESOFTWARE-COM.bllv.eli.net). See tracert output below. Is anyone else having this same problem? Maybe this is normal and the gw isn't letting ICMP packets through. Is there a way to specify a different server for steam to connect to? Any advice would be appreciated!!!


C:\>tracert 207.173.177.130

Tracing route to steam13.steampowered.com [207.173.177.130]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms 192.168.1.1
2 16 ms 14 ms 13 ms 10.181.192.1
3 12 ms 15 ms 16 ms 12.244.113.65
4 21 ms 15 ms 15 ms 12.244.69.73
5 22 ms 19 ms 19 ms 12.119.124.17
6 24 ms 21 ms 21 ms gbr2-p50.dlstx.ip.att.net [12.123.16.238]
7 18 ms 17 ms 17 ms tbr2-p012701.dlstx.ip.att.net [12.122.12.81]
8 31 ms 31 ms 29 ms tbr2-cl6.sl9mo.ip.att.net [12.122.10.89]
9 37 ms 38 ms 38 ms tbr2-cl7.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.122.10.45]
10 36 ms 38 ms 37 ms gar1-p390.chail.ip.att.net [12.123.216.217]
11 38 ms 36 ms 37 ms 12.119.137.46
12 105 ms 39 ms 35 ms ge-4-1-0--0.cr01.chcg.eli.net [207.173.115.137]
13 44 ms 44 ms 45 ms so-1-0-0--0.cr02.mpls.eli.net [207.173.115.117]
14 51 ms 46 ms 50 ms ge-1-3-0--0.cr01.mpls.eli.net [207.173.115.81]
15 73 ms 78 ms 73 ms p11-1.cr02****wl.eli.net [207.173.115.114]
16 81 ms 82 ms 85 ms p6-0-0.gw02.bllv.eli.net [207.173.115.90]
17 81 ms 82 ms 81 ms gw-cust-VALVESOFTWARE-COM.bllv.eli.net [207.173.69.238]
18 gw-cust-VALVESOFTWARE-COM.bllv.eli.net [207.173.69.238] reports: Destination net unreachable.

Trace complete.


thanks,
cb

 

[cb750k7]

Problem fixed

I found out what my problem was. I had a really old version of Steam installed. I uninstalled it and installed the latest version from www.steampowered.com and now HL2 is working fine.

 

[Carmack]

I'm having this problem now, I installed the new steam and it always occurs.

 

[coltscroft]

I recently upgraded to Vista Business only to discover that Steam would not work unless reinstalled. I have just reinstalled from the Steam website and I am now receiving the same error as the previous Users: "Cannot contact the Steam network, please try later". I have tried disabling both my antivirus and firewall programmes (!Avast and Comodo) and it still does not work! Interestingly, these programmes caused no problems with XP Professional at any service pack level. Any ideas?

 

[AciD]

Here, take a look at this FAQ:
Troubleshooting Network Connectivity