Steam online workaround

Is there a way to play games that require steam when I don't have access to the internet? I miss DoW II on long trips

 

Yeah you can set steam to offline mode.

 

if you try to log on w/o connection, it will ask you if you want to go into offline mode..

 

I never got asked that...odd...

 

If it doesnt detect an internet connection it will prompt you if you want to go to offline mode

To manually do it, click on File > Go Offline

I think you have to keep your user name and password saved/remembered

 

Make sure you activate that computer while on the internet,

After that, it will ask you to go into offline mode when no connection is present.

 

You have to set it to online mode before you go offline, otherwise it doesnt work, it didnt for me anyways.

Pretty dumb, if you have no net connection and it wasnt set to offline mode before hand your SOL.

 

I dont have to do that. Mine can go offline mode anytime. I always play games on the train.

But yes its best to set it offline before you leave home just to be safe

 

That's because you set it earlier flipfire.

There's always a first time you have to do it. I came upon this too on my two week trip to Kazakhstan.

Let's just say I was hooked on (fonix) Medieval II Total War and Civilization IV.

 

You don't have to set it to Offline mode while you're online. If you start Steam without a connection, it will attempt to connect/update for a few minutes (pretty long time), but it will eventually say it can't connect and ask if you want to start in Offline mode.

 

You got to make sure everything (that is installed) is 100% updated.

 

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3160-AGCB-2555

 

QUOTE from steam:
Using Offline Mode

Please follow the instructions below to configure Offline Mode on your machine:

1. Start Steam online

lol

PS: but yeah it's just a one-time thing I know, still funny.

 

You may want to make a backup of your .blob file as well. This spring, we did a 20 player LAN in a cabin in the woods without internet access and fired up TF2. Everyone had done the update and steam offline thing right before they shut down so we assumed all was well before driving up to the woods. But when a few tried to join the game the next day without interweb, it was throwing validation errors while everyone else was working fine. Turns out Steam will sometimes delete/overwrite your credentials/updates log from your machine (no idea why), specifically your .blob (or .glob, I don't remember which name it was)file. So before you go into offline mode, find and make a copy of that .glob file on your desktop, then if you get any errors when connecting, you can drop the file back in and your account will be authenticated again.

It is easier than driving an hour to the nearest house with internet to get authenticated again I can tell you that We do it every time we LAN now and have never had an issue of the backup not working.