Steam is a wonderful place to play games with your friends. Despite having many competitors such as Origin, Battle.net and Epic Store, people still prefer Steam due to its comprehensive library of games with multi-platform Linux and MacOS support. Due to immense load on Valve’s gaming platform, there often comes a time when Steam fails to Login/connect despite a working internet connection.
The example of an error is:
Connection Error
Could not connect to the Steam Network.
Steam is having trouble connecting to Steam Servers
Either check your connection and cick ‘Retry’, or start Steam in ‘Offline Mode’
The connection error in client can appear due to many reasons. In the list below, I have shared common fixes that will make Steam Connection Error go away. These steps will also help you fix An error occurred while updating Dota 2, An error occurred while installing CS: GO.
How to Fix Could Not Connect To The Steam Network
Run Steam Client as Administrator
Before diving into the pool of solutions below, try running as administrator. Right-click the Steam shortcut on Desktop and click “Run as Administrator” to see if it works.
Change DNS of your Network Adapter / Modem / Router
Every internet connection uses DNS server IP addresses to translate Domain Names (.COM) into IPV4 or IPV6 addresses. By default, your PC and Internet Router is configured to use DNS servers provided by your ISP. Sometimes, then DNS servers are misconfigured and they start blocking apps such as Steam, P2P file transfer and so on. Changing the DNS server will resolve most of the connection issues with Steam and your game updates will be smooth as well.
You can switch to any public DNS server you want. But I would suggest you to use Cloudflare or Google DNS, as generally they are quick and have low latency to most users around the world.
How to change DNS in Windows 10:
Open Start Menu > Settings App
Then open Network and Internet then click Change Adapter Settings
Right-click the Gigabit Internet Connection or WiFi Adapter you are primarily using and open its properties
Now on the properties page, select Internet Protocol Version 4 and then click Properties.
From the properties page, select the Use the following DNS server addresses radio button.
Type the following addresses:
Google DNS servers
For Preferred DNS: 8.8.8.8
For Alternate DNS 8.8.4.4CloudFlare DNS servers:
Preferred: 1.1.1.1
Alternate: 1.0.0.1
Then click OK and close the Network Adapter Properties and restart your PC.
Flush DNS Cache of Windows
Windows 10 automatically creates cache of every DNS request your Computer makes to every Domain. This speeds up your internet browsing when repetitive requests are made. But sometimes, wrong requests are cached or the destination server changes its IP addresses, Steam CDN in this case. This could also fix the game updates that are failing to download.
How to clear DNS cache in Windows 10
Right click the Start Menu and Open Command Prompt (Admin)
Type the command mentioned below and hit enter key.
ipconfig /flushdns
Reset Windows Firewall Settings
Even though built-in firewall in Windows does not create any major problems. It is still a good idea to reset the firewall configuration/rules. Once you reset the firewall policy, Windows will re-prompt you to whether allow or disallow the applications connecting to the internet. Make sure you close and re-open Steam client after that.
How to reset Windows 10 Firewall
- Right-click Start Menu, go to Settings > Network & Internet
- Click Windows Firewall link from the bottom and then Advanced Settings from the same location. The UAC will prompt for administrator permissions, click Yes.
- Now click “Restore Default Policy” from the right-sidebar. Optionally you can backup the current policy as well if you want.
Connect through a VPN
Using a VPN is not a permanent solution but it will help you diagnose if your Internet provider is blocking request to Steam servers. Use a PPTP/LT2P/OpenVPN connection and then try logging-in Steam. If it works then it means your ISP or Network administrator is blocking access.
Force Steam Client to use TCP
Steam has been programmed to use UDP protocol for data transmission but it can be forced to run through TCP protcol which is a bit slower but more reliable. In some cases, it can also bypass internet restrictions imposed by your School, College or Employer.
- Right-click the Steam shortcut on your PC’s Desktop and click Properties
- In the Target text field, add “-tcp” at the end of the target path, don’t delete anything. Then click OK.
- Now Start Steam and Log-in your account.
The above mentioned steps also work for the following Steam Errors:
- No Steam content servers are currently configured to deliver content for this game
- The Steam Servers are currently unavailable. Please try again later.
- The Steam Servers are too busy
