I phone tether to get the internet / could not connect to steam network

[gb.thor]

Hello. First time in this forum. But have been playing and loving Hl2. I have not play in a few years, and decided to revisit it. I get the error message when I try to connect to steam "could not connect to steam network". It seems like this has been discussed countless times in this forum. I just did not see anyone with my internet setup. I tether my smart phone to my PC to get an internet connection. No problems until I try to reconnect with steam. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Satoru]

Many phone networks block steam due to its massive bandwidth usage

Unless you're on a 'normal' ISP any conectivithy issue you have are likely due to you being tethered.

[gb.thor]

Kinda figured it would be something like that. Hopefully I can find some other work-around. Thank you so much for your reply.

[Satoru]

Mobile networks employ lots of sneaky ways of throtling/blocking/shaping/etc. I know in the UK almost all mobile providers outright block Steam.

I realize that for some people normal 'wired' ISPs in their areas might be somewhere between a hamster on a wheel, and a chicken with its head cut off horrible. Tethering on 4G seems like an awesome idea because their normal ISPs are garbage. I get it. I sympathize that maybe you don't really have a lot of options other than tethering.

You 'might' try to use a VPN connection to hide the Steam authenication part from your ISP. THat might allow you to bypass the blocks from your mobile provider. Note that if you do, dont use the VPN connection to buy anything on Steam as doing tah is a violation of the SSA.

[fray_bentos]

Here is the fix for tethering to an Android device: Forcing the phone to use IPv4 fixes this. If you are using Android 13, the steps are as follows:

On Android device:
Settings/Mobile Networks/Access Point Names/

Select your "internet" option (or something similarly named) and take screenshots of all settings (power button + volume down on some phones). Your probably cannot edit those pre-entered settings from your phone network, so you will need to make a new access point using the screenshotted details. You will need to look up the password for your phone network provider online, as this will be blocked out by ***** on the phone. On the phone go back to the previous screen under access point names, and click on "Add" in the top right of the screen and re-enter all of the settings that you took screenshots of (plus the password that you looked up online) Once added, make sure to select the "InternetIPv4" APN setting that you just configured. Your phone should temporarily lose internet connection and rapidly reconnect. Check that you can browse the internet from your phone. Then tether your device to your phone and check that you can browse the internet from your tethered device. Now open Steam and login as normal from your tethered device (hopefully).