Modern Warfare 2
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#15013
Stuck at connecting to IWnet
This is what worked for me
I had this same problem. I was playing online just fine until I received a text message from another steam user. From that point forward the game would no longer connect to IWNet.
First let me say that I manage corporate networks for a living - this stuff is not new.
I'm running Vista Ultimate 64 and I have ZoneAlarm free installed. I did the usual stuff, opened/forwarded ports in the router and firewall, rebooted the computer and router - nothing worked. I even connected my computer to the internet directly (modem to computer) and turned off my firewall. I was completely "naked" on the internet and I still got "Connecting to IWNet..." when trying to play online.
Finally, I drilled down to the multiplayer exe file (c:\program files\steam\somewhere somewhere somewhere). I changed the extension of the multiplayer file to ".bak" instead of ".exe". I then opened steam, right clicked on call of duty multiplayer, selected properties, and did the verify file cache (sorry these instructions are not specific, I'm writing this from work and don't remember all the directories and button names). Of course this stated that there was 1 problem found and downloaded a new exe file for me.
Next time I opened up multiplayer it connected immediately and I was off and playing. I haven't had a problem since.
I hope this helps someone else out who is having the same problem.