Cell phone networks blocking Steam?

[NimrodX]

I’ve got Visible Wireless and when I connect the Steam Deck via tethering (the “mobile hotspot”) it connects to the wifi AP on the phone but says it “can’t reach the Steam servers”.

I haven’t gotten around to spending much time troubleshooting since I don’t really need to connect via cell net that badly, but I’m wondering if it’s more likely to be visible’s fault or if something on my iPhone is to blame.

Anyone had similar problems with “mobile hotspot” (or any other cell tethering)?

[MancSoulja]

Your ISP probably has Steam blacklisted because downloading 100+GB games on your cell package almost certainly violates their fair use policy.

[RedBaronK™]

Originally posted by MancSoulja:

Your ISP probably has Steam blacklisted because downloading 100+GB games on your cell package almost certainly violates their fair use policy.

Probably this. I'm on Verizon and I can confirm they don't care.. Yet.

[sunspark]

Just don't use the cell phone provider's DNS.. if you're using Android for example, you can use private DNS which is in the connection settings.

[Kage Goomba]

Cell Networks don't give a damn until you blow your bandwidth plan out of the water - which generally involves you getting severely throttled.

Beyond that - can't say for sure. Could try a VPN or better yet - check to see if your cell IS using a VPN - turn it off to see if it helps.

VPN's on cell are kind of funny funny - its worth a shot at least.

[ReBoot]

Some cellular providers block (gaming) services, yes. I remember being unable to play Mass Effect on train because that god-♥♥♥♥♥♥♥-damned Origin required an internet connection and Telekom decided "nope, you ain't gonna connect to that". And yeah, I had problems (read: "doesn't work for ♥♥♥♥") using the Deck's online functionality on the same Telekom SIM at the same time.

As for troubleshooting, changing your DNS server would be a good first step. Pick 1.1.1.1, that's Cloudflare's public DNS server. Some people suggest 8.8.8.8 which is Google which had more than enough privacy scandals in the last couple years to avoid if possible.

[NimrodX]

Ok, yea familiar with the big DNS server anycast addresses. Just hadn't thought to try that yet but Visible are bastards about wanting some secret provisioning features on the phones enough that they cut people off for not having a phone "compatible" with their "new network" (new ways of blocking things on the phone itself so they can have "unlimited data" on the hotspot but do stuff like restrict it to one connected device and heck knows what else). They were very unreasonable about this and were violating every industry standard practice to kick people off, even if their phones were only 2-3 years old and supported the necessary cell radio protocols, if they didn't "upgrade" their phones.

It looked almost like a scam to sell phones, but I think they violated the usual backward compatibility standards for cell networks because they wanted to try out the latest provisioning features. They were super disorganized about it with their web site providing conflicting information about compatibility, and their dumb-looking marketing-parrot customer support knowing nothing technical about what was going on and being intentionally kept ignorant to protect their trade secret filtering/provisioning strategy. It was incompetent to an FCC complaint level. (I was not affected but my elderly mother was.)

Anyway, enough complaining about that. I'll try changing the DNS and try running some port scans if that doesn't work.

[NimrodX]

Ok, yea, changing the DNS servers worked. I probably didn't think to try it immediately because I was in a hurry and for some reason the normal steam app ui on the thing doesn't have any options for that stuff (you have to go into desktop mode to do it).

Anyway, after changing it suddenly no problem.

[deaddoof]

Originally posted by NimrodX:

Ok, yea, changing the DNS servers worked. I probably didn't think to try it immediately because I was in a hurry and for some reason the normal steam app ui on the thing doesn't have any options for that stuff (you have to go into desktop mode to do it).

Anyway, after changing it suddenly no problem.

Welcome to the struggles with life without net neutrality.

[NimrodX]

Originally posted by deaddoof:

Welcome to the struggles with life without net neutrality.

Actually Net "Neutrality" would have been a disaster. I wouldn't be able to just work around a DNS blackhole for Steam, but instead everything would be blocked with no workaround because I wouldn't even be able to get 5Mbps mobile tethering for $25-30/month all-inclusive. Everyone would be forced to pay maximum "premium data" price for any mobile tethering and I wouldn't be willing to do that for something I hardly ever use, especially since it would be congested and poor-quality service at "premium" prices.

You can't just get everything for free, or for $25/month. There are tradeoffs enforced by the laws of physics. A bureaucratic policy can't make pi = 3, etc.

The problem isn't with rate-limiting bulk downloads or Steam in particular on such a service, it's that Visible either lacks the traffic policing features needed on the switches to do this properly or is not competent enough to know how to configure them.

[MancSoulja]

Originally posted by NimrodX:

Originally posted by deaddoof:

Welcome to the struggles with life without net neutrality.

Actually Net "Neutrality" would have been a disaster. I wouldn't be able to just work around a DNS blackhole for Steam, but instead everything would be blocked with no workaround because I wouldn't even be able to get 5Mbps mobile tethering for $25-30/month all-inclusive. Everyone would be forced to pay maximum "premium data" price for any mobile tethering and I wouldn't be willing to do that for something I hardly ever use, especially since it would be congested and poor-quality service at "premium" prices.

You can't just get everything for free, or for $25/month. There are tradeoffs enforced by the laws of physics. A bureaucratic policy can't make pi = 3, etc.

The problem isn't with rate-limiting bulk downloads or Steam in particular on such a service, it's that Visible either lacks the traffic policing features needed on the switches to do this properly or is not competent enough to know how to configure them.

It's mad how living in America has conditioned you to be a corporate punching bag.

I live in the UK, My cell network is 3, I pay £15 or $18 a month for unlimited calls, unlimited texts and unlimited 5G Data, and it is truly unlimited, there's no fair use policy, there's no blocked websites, there's no limit at all.

My home internet is Virgin media, I pay £30 a month for unlimited gigabit. Just like my cell network it comes with absolutely no limits.

We don't need laws to govern how ISPs behave, because we have competition in our utility services, if an ISP pulled some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ around fair use or blocked websites, we'd just take our money to another ISP.,

[PopinFRESH]

Originally posted by MancSoulja:

Originally posted by NimrodX:

Actually Net "Neutrality" would have been a disaster. I wouldn't be able to just work around a DNS blackhole for Steam, but instead everything would be blocked with no workaround because I wouldn't even be able to get 5Mbps mobile tethering for $25-30/month all-inclusive. Everyone would be forced to pay maximum "premium data" price for any mobile tethering and I wouldn't be willing to do that for something I hardly ever use, especially since it would be congested and poor-quality service at "premium" prices.

You can't just get everything for free, or for $25/month. There are tradeoffs enforced by the laws of physics. A bureaucratic policy can't make pi = 3, etc.

The problem isn't with rate-limiting bulk downloads or Steam in particular on such a service, it's that Visible either lacks the traffic policing features needed on the switches to do this properly or is not competent enough to know how to configure them.

It's mad how living in America has conditioned you to be a corporate punching bag.

I live in the UK, My cell network is 3, I pay £15 or $18 a month for unlimited calls, unlimited texts and unlimited 5G Data, and it is truly unlimited, there's no fair use policy, there's no blocked websites, there's no limit at all.

My home internet is Virgin media, I pay £30 a month for unlimited gigabit. Just like my cell network it comes with absolutely no limits.

We don't need laws to govern how ISPs work, because we have competition in our utility services, if an ISP pulled some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ around fair use or blocked websites, we'd just take our money to another ISP.,

What you are noting as a solution, is not an outcome of net neutrality; which I think is the point that NimrodX was making. Net neutrality does not solve for that issue; which is government bodies granting exclusive license for operation in some areas in order to get ISPs to buildout networks in "undesirable" areas where they are unlikely to recoup the cost of said network deployment.

If you think that in a world where net neutrality passed, that ISPs would just eat the costs for the benefit of some other corporate entity, such as netflix/disney/etc., and wouldn't just pass that on to all consumers with increased pricing... then you are delusional.

[NimrodX]

Originally posted by MancSoulja:

Originally posted by NimrodX:

We don't need laws to govern how ISPs behave, because we have competition in our utility services, if an ISP pulled some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ around fair use or blocked websites, we'd just take our money to another ISP.,

That would be good, but it doesn't mean that because someone names something "neutrality" that it's actually neutrality or will promote competition. Something can easily be a scam. The devil is in the details.

Also, people in the UK are also constantly imaging that a much larger country like the UK can just enact the policies of a much smaller country like the UK and get the same results. This is because people don't usually understand scale variance. What works ok on a small scale doesn't work on a larger one.