Are Halo 2 for Vista servers still available?

Has anyone been able to play Halo 2 for Vista online as of late?  I've been a religious player for the past 2+ years and as of mid-February of this year, I haven't been able to see any servers in the server browser, in fact I time out when looking for games.  I've attempted to uninstall and reinstall numerous times to no avail, and I've heard (from unofficial source) that MS took all of the Halo 2 PC servers down, much in the same way they did for the 360. I miss playing this game very much and I was wondering if there were any steps I could take that could remedy the situation, OR if the servers have in fact been taken down.  I've been asking this question on other forums and have written Xbox Live friends who also play Halo 2 PC, and as of yet I have had no response.  Can someone please answer my question and, if possible, steer me in the right direction?  THANK YOU!!

As far as I know, the servers are still up and running.

You could always check over at MonstrMoose to keep more up to date with all things Halo 2 for PC.

I will however check myself later this evening to see if there are any issues with server browsing.

However, in the meantime, are you experiencing any issues with any other PC LIVE enabled games?

If you are on a family subscription it will block you from Halo 2 Online.

Okay, I have checked, and all of the Halo 2 servers ARE indeed still up and running, many of them populated.

So if you are able to pull any error messages off of your logs, that will help narrow down the trouble.

ICptJackSparrow:

Trouble Shooting and Error Log Collection

And now, for people who are still not able to get through trouble shooting this, we would like to see some error logs, heres what we'd like to see:

• Any associated Errors.

• Event Viewer
  • Click "Start" > Search > Type without "quotes" > "eventvwr" > Press Enter
    Expand the "Windows Logs" Tree
  • Save the application file

• System information:
  • MSINFO32
    • Click "Start" > Search > Type without "quotes" > "msinfo32" > Press Enter
    • Click on the "FILE" Tab > Save
  • DXDIAG
    • Click "Start" > Search > Type without "quotes" > "dxdiag" > Press Enter
    • Click on "Save All Information'

• Please provide screen shots of any errors you experience, as pictures make things significantly easier to explain.

• download:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

  after it installs you will see a lot of info about the processes you are running, with this program open attempt to start the game, when error pops do the following:

  

  Hit Search, take a screen shot post it here.

  Results shown for functioning Halo 2 on Windows 7 64 bit look like this:

  

  (thanks to GFWMod for these)

Now, if you can post your results up, we can all have a look and see if we can't narrow down your problem.

I'm inclined to think a recent change to your system reset your firewall.  You may want to make sure the proper ports are forwarded on your firewall and router to be certain you are indeed connecting to LIVE.

ICptJackSparrow:

Make sure that you have the proper firewall and port settings to allow your game to access the internet:

Port listings for Games for Windows - LIVE

If you do not use the Windows Firewall program, you can still open the ports that are used by the game when you configure the network. To make sure that these ports are open, or to open these ports, contact the network administrator or the Internet service provider (ISP). If you are the administrator of the network, see the documentation that is provided with your networking software to determine how to open these ports. The following list explains the port configuration specifications for the game:

• Port forwarding must be enabled on the UDP port 80.
• Port forwarding must be enabled on the UDP port 3074.

More on this subject can be found HERE

Full list of other Ports that you may need to open:

TCP 80
UDP 88
TCP 3074
UDP 53
TCP 53
TCP 443

Other MULTIPLAYER PROBLEM information can be found HERE

Basically, let us know anything, big or small that might indicate why you are not able to connect to LIVE.

Oh, and Wendschlag is right, for some reason the family subscription to Xbox LIVE does mess up some things.  BUT if you were playing fine before, I'm still leaning towards something else having changed on your system.

Ahh, I am indeed on a Family Plan, and that's about the time I re-knewed it (mid-Frebruary).  I WILL indeed take the above steps though and see if I am able to fix anything.  If there's a known issue with family plans, I wonder why someone at MS doesn't take the time to patch the game in order to address this issue?  Oh well.

This does seem to be the problem.  All of the other Windows LIVE games that I own have no issue connecting (Dirt 2&3, Gears of War, Bulletstorm,Shadowrun etc.) and my XBox 360 also has no issue. I hate to come off like a unsettled or displeased customer, but I would be lying if I didn't say that I'm at least SOMEWHAT unhappy with the fact that I, as not only a paying customer but in fact a Gold Member, can't enjoy online play with my copy of Halo 2 for Windows Vista.  Anyhow, thank you for your time and clearing this issue up for me.

Yet they wonder why customers no longer want to do business with them? Then they blame the customer, because the dirty pirates don't pay for games. God for bid Microsoft create a software title that was worth the investment (alan wake pc), so they could reap the benefits of it regardless of piracy which is apart of every software release, and is actually incorporated into life cycle of said product. The reality is they aren't very good at what they do anymore, and just do a lot of finger pointing while never offering viable solution to the problems they create.

So if I buy Halo 2 PC I can access servers?

Yes You May still access the servers***

The only way around the family plan thing is to change the Maturity level of games* or your birthday* etc.... OR OR OR you can use a FREE/SILVER account to play Games on Windows LIVE. You do not need a Gold Account to play LIVE on Windows***

So yeah, it sucks that you cannot play with the family account*  but meh i wouldn't know, i have had my account since the xbox 1 days back when halo 2 came out :) hehe 

Yeah, I called a MS representative on the phone, and he so much as told me that the servers WERE down ... due to that I had given up.  However, today I decided to make a silver account just for hahas and whattaya know, I immediately saw 56 game servers in the lobby.  I don't understand how this Family Plan issue hasn't been addressed, I guess that just goes to show how much the PC game audience is valued.  Obviously I own an XBox 360, but if you ask me, I should be able to download Halo Reach and Gears of War 3 directly from Games For Windows Live, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that way.  Microsoft is losing out on thousands of potential customers by not releasing all 360 games on the PC platform .... I mean JEEZ, we're using their operating system and many of us own MS Office too.  I'd much rather play many of these games with my 6 core processor and graphics card that has 187.5 gbps bandwidth lol, instead of the X1950 or whatever outdated GPU that's in the 360. : )  As far as Halo 2, it'd be nice if I could play with my Gold account, I still need the Running Riot Acheivement.  Oh well. = /

BTW, that ^^^ was me. lol