How do you play on the Internet? How do you connect Steam and SHiFT?

[hodgepodge]

I can't figure out how to connect Steam and SHiFT and have no idea what the problem could be.

When I try to play Borderlands 3, the Pre-Sequel, or Tiny Tina's Wonderlands the games all start-up in "offline mode" and I have no idea why.

When I go to change the game mode from offline or LAN only to online, I get the following message in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands:

"Network error: this feature requires all active players to be connected to Gearbox Software SHiFT"

When I go to the Social tab in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, I see the following error message:

"Offline connection: your current connection status is offline. Your online connection is preventing the use of the features of this screen. Tiny Tina's Wonderlands' recommended play experience is with other players. Get online now."

In Borderlands 3:

"Network error: this feature requires all active players to be connected to Gearbox Software SHiFT"

In Borderlands: the Pre-Sequel:

The game hangs forever on "Updating session: please wait" after changing the network mode from "Offline" to "Online Friends Only" or "Online Invite Only".

I have no idea why this isn't working, and what I did to enable multiplayer support when I first started playing a few years ago.

So far, I've:
- Repeatedly re-linked my Steam and SHiFT accounts through https://shift.gearboxsoftware.com/account
- Tried switching the network mode from offline or LAN to online in all of these games
- Allowed lsass.exe through the firewall
- Completely disabled the Windows firewall
- Put my computer in the DMZ of my home network
- Restarted my computer
- Restarted my router
- Switched from a wireless connection to a wired connection
- Forwarded ports 5795-5847 (TCP/UDP) in my router to my PC
- Followed all of the advice here except for calling my ISP to ask them what my DNS settings should be: https://support.gearboxsoftware.com/hc/en-us/articles/360033290092-General-Network-Troubleshooting
- Set my primary DNS to 1.1.1.1 and secondary DNS to 8.8.8.8
- Running Steam as Administrator
- Adding the -tcp flag to the startup options for all games
- Opened a support ticket with Gearbox
- Asked questions in the Borderlands 3, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, and Borderlands: the Pre-Sequel forums of steamcommunity.com

I'm "online" in Steam as far as I know, and when I go to the Steam menu, I see "Go offline" as an option.

Does anyone know what the problem might be?

I've played for hundreds of hours but forget if I had to edit the Windows Registry or anything to get this game to work over the Internet.

I'm trying to get any of these games to work online with Windows 11, and don't know if Windows 11 is supported.

[Diogenes49]

did you try going to gaming platorms and selecting link under the steam icon?

[hodgepodge]

Yeah, I've repeatedly re-liked Steam and SHiFT through https://shift.gearboxsoftware.com/account

[hodgepodge]

I've now updated my DNS settings to 1.1.1.1 and 8.8.8.8 and it's still not working.

I have no idea why this doesn't work since lots of people are seemingly able to play this game on rare, esoteric operating systems like Windows 11.

[Junipercat]

Windows 11 is not rare. Sure not all of us have updated to it yet, but many have. Plus new computes come with it already installed. Support for Windows 10 is ending in 2025, though should still continue to work for some time to come until it is dropped completely (like Steam just did for Windows 7).

[hodgepodge]

Yeah, Windows 11 isn't rare

Does anyone know how to get SHiFT to work? I might have time to write a tool to figure out if anything is blocking it in a few days, but, I'm out of ideas for now.

[Crypt_Peeper]

this is gonna sound stupid but try running like a basic ass free vpn specifically when you run the borderlands games

[foopod]

Did you ever find a solution for this?