FIX for Hackshield Update Error

I have been having trouble with the Hackshield issue for a very long time. I finally found a solution.
Follow these steps carefully.
Disclaimer: If you do not follow these steps carefully, you may mess something up. As long as you do follow the directions, you will fix the problem and have no other problems.

Step 1: Navigate to C:/Windows/System32/Drivers/etc/Hosts
Step 2: Right click on it and open it with Notepad
Step 3: Look for a line in that file that says: 127.0.0.1 guard.nexon.net
Note: Now, the key to this file is that a pound sign, #, makes a comment for the line. This means that it is not considered in the file as actual code. It is disregarded.
Step 4: Put a # in front of the line that you found above. It should look like:
#127.0.0.1 guard.nexon.net

Now I know that this works because I just did it and it solved my problem entirely. When you run Maplestory, the Hackshield in the bottom right of the screen may look like it stopped, but then the patcher window will come up and you will be able to play the game.

Tested, it works.
Good luck.

It worked! Thank you very much!

Im still confused why you would put a # to leave it as a comment. Why not just delete the whole line? .__.

I'm puzzled as to why you would have that line in your HOSTS file to begin with.

127.0.0.1 is your computer. Having a line with that address and some host name causes your computer to never access that host but instead check locally for whatever it needed that other host for (usually failing). People do it for example to block ad sites.
Why did you try to block guard.nexon.net? Guessing you did not do it manually, the installation for something shady (private server? hack?) did it for you...

I'm puzzled as to why you would have that line in your HOSTS file to begin with.

127.0.0.1 is your computer. Having a line with that address and some host name causes your computer to never access that host but instead check locally for whatever it needed that other host for (usually failing). People do it for example to block ad sites.
Why did you try to block guard.nexon.net? Guessing you did not do it manually, the installation for something shady (private server? hack?) did it for you...

It's not really 127.0.0.1. It's some other IP. I guess he didn't feel like typing it out.

It's not really 127.0.0.1. It's some other IP. I guess he didn't feel like typing it out.

There shouldn't be any line at all. It should be normal DNS lookup. Anything about it in the hosts file, whether blocking by 127.0.0.1 or forcibly redirecting to a fixed IP (what you seem to have), is shady.

It actually was 127.0.0.1 in my HOST file. I really don't know. Some installation of something else must have put it there for some reason. All I know is that it works. As for commenting it out instead of deleting the whole line, I find it best to comment things out just in case they end up being useful in the future. I have never heard of guard.nexon.net, so I thought maybe it was just blocking the HSUpdate but then it might be necessary to run the game. I don't know. All I know is that commenting it out works so people should do that instead of deleting something from their highly important HOST file.

It's caused by using malware that falls into the lines of hacks, meso generators, item duplicators, DLL injectors, etc.

There is only ONE program that should ever alter the HOSTS file and that's programs like Spybot Search and Destroy that use the HOSTS file to protect your PC from accessing websites that could cause harm.