Skipping the Auth

[Gamling]

In your windows/system32/drivers/etc folder there is a file called host. Open that file with notepad and at the bottom put these two lines of text:

0.0.0.0 nw2master.bioware.com
0.0.0.0 nwn2.master.gamespy.com
:

Exactly as written on separate lines at the bottom of the document. So far I know it works for Windows 7, Vista and XP. This will skip the annoying Auth time out.

[Nyssis]

Works like a charm. Thank you so much for this, though I might come to regret losing the time I otherwise spent getting a drink...

[Satoshi]

Herp derp. Derpa derp. Deeeeeeerp.

(Works great, thanks.)

[Shedboy]

you're a champion. cheers

[wangxiuming]

This is a godsend. Thanks!

[supersuperlative]

Sweet. Love your work.

[Fezzik]

* bump! * This is very helpful... had to change the file exension when I did it (from .txt to .file), but other than that, worked

[Rhifox]

This is awesome.

[thaelis]

It won't let me make any changes to that file (i.e. I can write those two lines in there but can't save). I also can't move or delete the file.

Can save it as .txt file, but then there are two files, the original and the .txt file which I'm assuming won't work?

[FoogooFish]

You'll need to act as an Administrator to save the changes. Sometimes it's as simple as right-clicking on the document and choosing to save that way. Other times you'll have to go through a few wonky steps to make yourself the Administrator and have your OS recognize the change. I've done both on two different computers, so good luck!

[Dragor]

UAC must die

[thaelis]

Weird...I am the administrator and always have been, at least according to the account control in Control panel. Still can't modify Windows files. Oh well, not a big deal.

[Catastrophe]

The easiest way is to right click on NotePad and pick the open as administrator then open the file from there and save.

[roguethree]

Search "cmd" (without the quotes). Right-click the icon and choose "Run as administrator."

Type the following:

net user administrator /active:yes

(The spaces between the words above are intentional and necessary.)

Log out, then log in as that spiffy new "Administrator" account you haven't seen before. Navigate to the host file, make the changes, save it, log out as administrator, log back in under your normal user profile. If you want that Administrator profile to go away, go back into your command prompt ("Run as administrator") and enter

net user administrator /active:no

That'll make it disappear from the log-in screen if you so desire.

[thaelis]

For anyone else having problems modifying their "hosts" file, check your Anti-virus software. Mine had a checkbox for "Protect Windows hosts files from changes"

When unticked, I had no problem changing the file! Awesome, thanks Gamling!