Unable to access Nexon's site or any of its games.

Title sums it up.

I'm on a desktop running Windows Vista 64-bit. I have internet connection and am able to play other MMORPGs, but for some reason MapleStory and other Nexon games do not work. I get the "server check" error when I try.

I cannot load the site, either. I have tried all internet browsers and none of them seem able to connect to nexon. I know it is not my internet, since I have a Windows XP laptop which connects perfectly fine. Therefore the problem lies in the computer or the OS itself.

Does anyone here know how to solve this issue? I can't seem to find the solution anywhere. I have deleted/disabled the Loopback Adapter to no avail. I heard about editing something in cmd.exe but I can't remember the exact details, and I heard that editing the hosts file is an option, but I do not know what to edit.

I would appreciate any help you guys might have. Thanks.

What error does the site give you when you try to load it? Have you tried to ping it using a command prompt? (ping nexon.net) You could also try a trace-route to see where along the way the issue is happening. Open a command prompt and type 'tracert nexon.net'. See where it times out and if it times out before nexon.net then it's likely a broken node. I had the same issue for a few weeks with unreliability and found out a node from my ISP was down due to storms halfway across the country. Post the results of those and we'll go from there. I'd also recommend trying a bunch of random sites to see if there are more sites than nexon.net being broken.

What error does the site give you when you try to load it? Have you tried to ping it using a command prompt? (ping nexon.net) You could also try a trace-route to see where along the way the issue is happening. Open a command prompt and type 'tracert nexon.net'. See where it times out and if it times out before nexon.net then it's likely a broken node. I had the same issue for a few weeks with unreliability and found out a node from my ISP was down due to storms halfway across the country. Post the results of those and we'll go from there. I'd also recommend trying a bunch of random sites to see if there are more sites than nexon.net being broken.

I'm using Google Chrome right now, the error is the "Oops! The webpage could not be found" or "Could not be accessed" or "Could not connect to nexon.net" or something to that extent. As far as I'm concerned, it's only been Nexon America and its related sites. I haven't tried trace-routing (haha, barely even know what it is) and I haven't tried using cmd, but I'll do it now, for both the ping and the trace-route.

My results are:
"Pinging nexon.net [xx.xxx.xxx.xxx] with 32 bytes of data
Request from xx.xxx.xxx.xxx: Destination host unreachable.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for [xx.xxx.xxx.xxx]
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 1, Lost = 3 (75% Loss)".

"Tracing route to nexon.net[xx.xxx.xxx.xxx]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1. PC [xx.xxx.xxx.xxx] reports : Destination host unreachable".

There is an actual IP address in place of the x's, but I'm not sure if it is mine or Nexon's, so I'll keep it as x for now. If it's needed, tell me and I'll post it here.

As far as I know, I've had this problem for over a year now, but since MapleStory worked on my laptop I didn't give it too much thought. However now with Dragon Nest coming out I'm getting a little annoyed. How would you check for a broken node?

Thanks in advance.

Are you behind a router? The fact that you are getting host unreachable at the first hop tells me that you aren't able to lookup the ip properly. It could be your router settings or it could be a firewall or dns issue. When you do the ping, what's the address of nexon.net in parentheses? Mine is 63.251.217.189, so yours should be fairly similar. Probably either the same or off by the last few digits.

Check your hosts file for any entries that mention nexon. It's in C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc
Open it with notepad and copy any lines that mention nexon (if they exist) here. Don't change that file until someone ok's it though because you can cause problems. Let me know these details and we'll go from there.

Are you behind a router? The fact that you are getting host unreachable at the first hop tells me that you aren't able to lookup the ip properly. It could be your router settings or it could be a firewall or dns issue. When you do the ping, what's the address of nexon.net in parentheses? Mine is 63.251.217.189, so yours should be fairly similar. Probably either the same or off by the last few digits.

Check your hosts file for any entries that mention nexon. It's in C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc
Open it with notepad and copy any lines that mention nexon (if they exist) here. Don't change that file until someone ok's it though because you can cause problems. Let me know these details and we'll go from there.

What do you mean behind a router? I'm connected to one directly, if that's your question. How would I check and/or change router settings? I do not believe it is a firewall issue (I believe my AV is turned off at the moment as well), and as for DNS I don't know (so far, everything I've seen on my computer about DNS has been auto-locate or some sort of automatic option). My IP for nexon.net is 63.251.217.189, same as yours.

My hosts file has this address.
127.0.0 guard.nexon.net

I checked the hosts file nearly a year ago, and this address wasn't there, but the game still didn't work anyways.

Hmm. By behind a router i meant connected to one. I'd delete that line from your hosts, as it's redirecting nexon traffic to localhost, which will never let you load their pages. It may fix it, it may not, but it's definitely not supposed to be there. Let me know what happens after that. You'll need to remove the line, save it, and then restart your computer. The next step if it doesn't work is to bypass the router and plug directly into the modem to see if you still can't access the sites.

Remove any reference to any part of Nexon.net from your hosts file.

That looks like an attempt at bypassing hackshield/gameguard and can only hinder you trying to legitimately play a Nexon game.

You'll have to fully reboot after changing it to be sure the new settings take.

That makes me wonder if you played private servers or something that can mess up your legit nexon connections.

I have deleted the entry from my hosts file, but it doesn't seem to have changed anything.

Yes, I have played private servers; however, not on the computer I am currently using. On a separate computer, I am able to still play other servers and the official at the same time.

As a last resort, I was thinking I may have to reformat my computer and either upgrade to Windows 7 or downgrade to stable XP, but that would mean having to back up my files (and with nearly 400GB to back up, it's not a plan I want to put to action any time soon.)

I have deleted the entry from my hosts file, but it doesn't seem to have changed anything.

Did you do a full hard reboot after editing the hosts file (not just a log off, not a switch user, not a stand by, not a hibernate)?

Pretty sure a "shut down" counts as a reboot, so I would say yes.

While surfing the web earlier, I came across a website whose URL was an IP address or something similar to that. My desktop was unable to reach it, but my laptop was.

I think maybe a reformat might be my best option.

Pretty sure a "shut down" counts as a reboot, so I would say yes.

The sarcasm there would only be witty and biting if you'd ever mentioned having done so.

It sounds like you've done something your machine that exceeds the degree of technical help anyone here will be able to offer you with the limited information available.

Sorry, I didn't mean any sarcasm.

Alright, well I do appreciate all the help you've given me. I think I will reformat my computer in the coming weeks.

If I were to reformat my computer, would it solve my problems in this matter, or would it possibly be a hardware problem?

It's unlikely to be hardware, it's too specific.
The only hardware that could be causing it would be a router with MAC specific rules (or IP specific if your internal network uses static IPs instead of assigning via DHCP but that's really unlikely) for that machine to block traffic to/from specific locations.

If you're certain the router isn't configured to block you it's almost certainly software and would be fixed by a reformat.

Thank you very much for your help, Eos. And steve as well.

I think I will begin backing up my data onto an external hard drive and begin reformatting in the coming weeks.

However, if you manage to find a solution or manage to at least pinpoint a related problem, I would appreciate the information in case this sort of problem happens to arise again.