A connection to the server could not be reached *I searched*

[Derision]

[loginserver]
host=eqemulator.net:5998

[LoginServer]
Host=xp-smitchell:7308
Host1=

That bit in red should not be there. It typically gets put there by the client if you have trailing spaces at the end of the [loginserver] or host=eqemulator.net:5998 lines. Open your eqhost.txt in notepad, delete all but the first two lines, then move the cursor to each of the first two lines and press the End key and backspace to delete any trailing spaces.

[chamberdown]

first off, thanks so much for lending a hand! =). I made sure the file had no trailing spaces and deleted all that content you said to delete. there were absolutely no trailing spaces. but when i try to login it still says the error in the title and when I open up my eqhost file, it puts the information in red back in, are there any other reasons it would add that line of info?

[lerxst2112]

If the client is writing that information to the file it means that it isn't reading the file properly.

Open your file, delete everything, and paste only this into it.

[LoginServer]
Host=eqemulator.net:5998

Notice the difference in case. I don't know if it is important or not, but it is inconsistent with what is in all of my host files. Make sure there is a carriage return after the last line.

[Derision]

lexrxst2112 beat me to it. The case indeed is important, I was just testing and if [LoginServer] is not capitalised correctly, the client will write the xpmitchell stuff to eqhost.txt. If Host is not capitalised, the connection will fail with 'a timeout occurred'.

[chamberdown]

haha, wow, that did it. im now connected. I really appreciate the help guys. I guess I didn't realize it could be so simple. thanks again!

[chamberdown]

well, turns out that I couldn't connect still due to a non-related issue regarding a "referenced memory could not be read" error. so i left it alone for the night, the next day, i tried to get on again to see if the error still existed, and it gave me the same connection problem in the title!!! i immediatly checked the eqhost file and it was fine. no added lines. So now im lost again..

EQhost.txt file is
[LoginServer]
Host=eqemulator.net:5998

the shortcut has patchme after it.

My router has the port 5998 traffic allowed through

I'm a bit lost now. I tried doing the ping on www.eqemulator.net -->

C:\Users\mainPC>ping www.eqemulator.net -l 1400 -t

Pinging www.eqemulator.net [67.23.190.71] with 1400 bytes of data:
Reply from 67.23.190.71: bytes=1400 time=227ms TTL=55
Reply from 67.23.190.71: bytes=1400 time=227ms TTL=55
Reply from 67.23.190.71: bytes=1400 time=226ms TTL=55
Reply from 67.23.190.71: bytes=1400 time=229ms TTL=55
Reply from 67.23.190.71: bytes=1400 time=226ms TTL=55
Reply from 67.23.190.71: bytes=1400 time=227ms TTL=55
Reply from 67.23.190.71: bytes=1400 time=227ms TTL=55
Reply from 67.23.190.71: bytes=1400 time=226ms TTL=55
Reply from 67.23.190.71: bytes=1400 time=227ms TTL=55
Reply from 67.23.190.71: bytes=1400 time=227ms TTL=55
Reply from 67.23.190.71: bytes=1400 time=227ms TTL=55
Reply from 67.23.190.71: bytes=1400 time=226ms TTL=55
Reply from 67.23.190.71: bytes=1400 time=227ms TTL=55
Reply from 67.23.190.71: bytes=1400 time=226ms TTL=55
Reply from 67.23.190.71: bytes=1400 time=232ms TTL=55
Reply from 67.23.190.71: bytes=1400 time=227ms TTL=55
Reply from 67.23.190.71: bytes=1400 time=227ms TTL=55
Reply from 67.23.190.71: bytes=1400 time=227ms TTL=55
Reply from 67.23.190.71: bytes=1400 time=227ms TTL=55
Reply from 67.23.190.71: bytes=1400 time=227ms TTL=55

Ping statistics for 67.23.190.71:
Packets: Sent = 20, Received = 20, Lost = 0 (0% loss)

am I missing something? I don't think anything changed from yesterday until today. thanks again for any help, thought I had it, but apparently not