Lost Connection to Host - Possible Fix

[lawn boy]

I'm posting this here in case it is of use to anyone else suffering from this problem in the future. One of the updates a few months back broke my game after playing without issue for over a year. After 3-5 minutes on any server the game would, like clockwork, time out and give me the "Lost Connection to Host" error. Every. Single. Game. A minute before I'd get booted the player models would float around the screen and any audio would be stuck in a loop. After searching the web and trying any advice I could find I eventually gave up trying to fix it and hoped that future updates would solve the problem. They did not. The other day my months long withdrawal finally got to me. I caved and reformatted my computer. A fresh install, nothing but Windows 11 and Steam with HLL. It did not solve my problem.

Obviously it wasn't my PC. I didn't have any connectivity issues with other games and any potential conflicting software was gone after the reformat. So I turned to my router after finding a buried post with a user claiming the issue went away if they plugged their PC directly into their modem. This isn't a workable solution for me, but it gave me a clue to go on. So I focused on the next most likely candidate: my router, a Netgear R6230. After entering the router settings I realized my firmware was a little out of date. I updated it to the latest version and...it still happened. Lost Connection to Host after five minutes of shooting.

I was already frustrated with the state of the Netgear software. Not only does it hassle you to download a phone app instead of using the browser to change settings, it also makes you log into a Netgear account to even access the menu. This angers me. Screw your account and screw your bad software. I considered getting a new router to see if it helped. But I didn't want to brave the cold and besides, this router works perfectly well. So I decided to ditch the factory software and install different firmware entirely. I went out and downloaded openwrt and installed it on my router. Problem solved! Two full matches later and not a single issue. And I'm getting better ping to boot.

I don't know if this is specific to Netgear routers or if this is some broader issue with how the game interacts with certain router software from various manufacturers as few, if any, of the users reporting this issue on Steam/Reddit listed their hardware. All I know is this fixed the issue for me after many months of frustration that I couldn't play my favorite shooter. Hopefully it helps someone else too.

[Team17_Service]

Hey lawn boy,

Thanks for getting in touch with us!

We're really glad to see that this has resolved the Lost Connection to Host error message for you and really appreciate you taking the time to make this post for other users that may be experiencing the same issue :)

Please don't hesitate to reach out in the future should you have any further queries.

Regards,
Team17 Support

[DonWick]

Thank you! I have your exact same router (Netgear R6230) and had the same issue. I installed OpenWrt in about 10 minutes based on instructions in a YouTube video and the problem appears to be fixed.

I had the same version of Netgear firmware running on my router for several years without any connection issues in HLL. My "Lost Connection to Host" issue appeared around the same time that everyone else began posting about it which leads me to believe that something in one of the HLL updates caused the issue as my firmware hadn't changed at all.

Either way, I'm just glad that the problem is fixed. Thank you again lawn boy!

[randomtheguy]

Didnt start up this game for a year and now i had this problem and this fixed it.
Also had Netgear but R6220 model. OpenWRT seems to work great.
Thanks

[romatini]

This fixed the problem for me too. I believe Hell Let Loose has WAY too aggressive of a network timeout condition. They probably shortened it substantially in one of their patches along the way. That or their retry logic is borked and they haven't tested it.

[Kevinfromsales]

Originally posted by Team17_Service:

Hey lawn boy,

Thanks for getting in touch with us!

We're really glad to see that this has resolved the Lost Connection to Host error message for you and really appreciate you taking the time to make this post for other users that may be experiencing the same issue :)

Please don't hesitate to reach out in the future should you have any further queries.

Regards,
Team17 Support

broken since november. are you working on this.

[Team17_Help]

Hi there, everyone!

Thank you so much for letting us know the current status of the situation.

We are so glad that previous steps could help you all to solve this connection issue. Our team is hard at work investigating how we can prevent this sort of error in the future.

Your patience and cooperation in the meantime are highly appreciated.

If there are further questions or if there is anything else we can help you with, please do not hesitate in come back to us.

Best Regards,
Team17 Support

[Teabandit]

This worked for me!! Thanks!