Potential solution for 10002018 Steam AppID error

[yaji]

Hi,

I noticed lots of people, me included, were suffering from infamous 10002018 error "team AppID is invalid or not allowed". I thing I found solution for the issue. First, check how your hosts file looks like:

C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

Buy default, there is almost nothing there. But in my case, I had never ending list of blocked web pages in it. It seems my firewall (TinyWall) added all that stuff. After I removed third party FireWall, and restoring original hosts file, the game started with no issues.

Try it, maybe it will help.

[CatTank]

But what did you add? IP? host programs? it's kind of vague...

[yaji]

Nothing. My hosts file is empty at the moment.

[Bakamyon]

I use tinywall, as far as I know it won't add anything or change the hosts file, instead it preventing any apps from changing it.

[yaji]

Yup, it protects it, but it also has this feature:

Integrated port and domain blocklists

The domain blocklist is basically host file taken from here:

http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

So, if you enable domain based protection, you may ned with troubles. Anyway, I had no 10002018 error since I removed TinyWall. Maybe it would be enough to turn off domain based protection, and I overreacted, who knows.

From TinyWall FAQ:

Domain-based blocklist is implemented as a custom hosts file and blocks specific remote hosts irrespective of the port number. Its goal is to block certain hosts no matter what application tries to communicate with them, and in addition to malware it will also block some forms of internet advertising. It is recommended to turn the domain-based blocklist on.