CSGO - VAC Blocking Issue

[mloveless1227]

Good morning. I would like to detail, the best I can, an old issue that started again late last night.

Between 9-10pm EST last night (1/10/17), every CS:GO account I have that was running in Sandboxie simultaneously received the following VAC Blocking Error: http://imgur.com/a/fQkBu

I idle CS:GO and TF2 accounts on 3 different PC's with 3 different Sandboxie licenses. Have been doing this for years with little to no issue, especially over the past couple years. All 3 PC's received this error at the same time. I contacted a number of friends who do the same, every person I have spoken to so far had this issue starting around the same time. I personally run Windows 7, this problem has also been reported by friends of mine on Windows 8 and 10. It is only happening on CS:GO, not on TF2 or any other Source game I've tried that uses VAC.

Here are some thing I have tried to resolve the issue with no luck: Updated to the newest version of Sandboxie, Fresh Windows 7 install with only Steam/CSGO/Sandboxie installed, Verifying Integrity of Game Files, /repair on Steam.exe, connecting with my VPN, connecting with my regular Internet, using the newest Steam Beta Client (1/10/17 release), using the newest regular Steam Client.

Nothing has been done to my PC that would create a conflict. Microsoft Security Essentials is the only A/V being used, which is not a problem as it's always been running and I have not had this issue for years, pretty much since CS:GO was relatively new. To further confirm that nothing on my (or other people's PC) is causing this issue, I launched a bunch of my TF2 accounts. They have been running without issue for many hours now, as where my CS:GO accounts will disconnect with this error in 10 minutes or less.

One minor thing I figure I should include. If I launch a non-Sandboxed account and however many Sandboxed accounts and connect them to a server all at the same time, I can manage to keep 3 Sandboxed accounts from receiving this error indefinitely. I say indefinitely because I was able to run 3 sandboxed accounts overnight last night without this error. However, this morning when I attempted to do it again, those 3 accounts ran for about 1.5 hours before getting the error. All other accounts, including on other PC's with different licenses while also being connected to different VPN IP's, will not allow me to run ANY Sandboxed accounts for more than 5-10 minutes without this error.

I'm assuming something changed with VAC for CS:GO late last night to cause this. I have been using Sandboxie with CS:GO for years and TF2 even longer, I am very fluent in it's usage and how to work around many issues that I've faced over the years. I find it very hard to believe Valve is attempting to stop people from using Sandboxie with Steam since idling has been a thing for years and it's currently not affecting any other Valve/Source games using VAC other than CS:GO. There have been no CS:GO updates recently that would cause this. The only thing I can imagine Valve trying to stop is the idiots that use Sandboxie to connect to matchmaking to boost accounts, since they are flat out cheating a ranking system. However, this has been a thing for years as well and has not at all been addressed by Valve.

Edit - 1 thing I forgot to include but should, is that this VAC Blocking Error does NOT happen on non-Sandboxed accounts, so it is a problem directly tied to Sandboxie.

Edit #2 - Would also like to include that all of my Sandboxes are pretty much default. They always have been. The only thing that is not default in each Sandbox's settings is that they are all set to auto-delete upon termination. Just wanted to add this part as it may or may not be important.

[6321678206]

I noticed something today: http://forums.sandboxie.com/phpBB3/view ... 11&t=23871

[mloveless1227]

Yeah I seen your post but you're having an entirely different issue, that's why I made my own topic. An unreliable connection to matchmaking doesn't have anything to do with VAC, or this VAC blocking issue. Valve has made a statement some time ago on the /r/GlobalOffensive sub stating that the error you're receiving happens due to, exactly what it says, having an unreliable connection to their datacenters. Whether it be on your end or their end. VAC scans post-connection, and any VAC related errors happen post-connection unless you have an explicit ban of some kind on your account. It wouldn't have anything to do with why you can't initially connect to matchmaking servers. Valve has never just banned IPs/MAC addresses, as suggested in your post. This includes when they ban users for "illegal" server plugins. If you are banned in any way from VAC servers or Valve services, your account is explicitly marked with either a VAC ban, game ban, or trade ban.

[oztskaan]

i have the same problem but idont have this problem deatmatch servers 5 sandbox and csgo

[6321678206]

i have the same problem but idont have this problem deatmatch servers 5 sandbox and csgo

What error? does not have a reliable connection to matchmaking servers..?

[oztskaan]

i have the same problem but idont have this problem deatmatch servers 5 sandbox and csgo

What error? does not have a reliable connection to matchmaking servers..?

no ! i have a just vac error

[6321678206]

Yeah I seen your post but you're having an entirely different issue, that's why I made my own topic. An unreliable connection to matchmaking doesn't have anything to do with VAC, or this VAC blocking issue. Valve has made a statement some time ago on the /r/GlobalOffensive sub stating that the error you're receiving happens due to, exactly what it says, having an unreliable connection to their datacenters. Whether it be on your end or their end. VAC scans post-connection, and any VAC related errors happen post-connection unless you have an explicit ban of some kind on your account. It wouldn't have anything to do with why you can't initially connect to matchmaking servers. Valve has never just banned IPs/MAC addresses, as suggested in your post. This includes when they ban users for "illegal" server plugins. If you are banned in any way from VAC servers or Valve services, your account is explicitly marked with either a VAC ban, game ban, or trade ban.

Did you run CCleaner lately? I read something about it clearing USN journals.

[Barb@Invincea]

All,

This doesn't seem to be a Sandboxie issue. If Valve is blocking connections, you should check online for the latest updates made to the game/ VAC system and see what changed.

Sandboxie was not designed to bypass software restrictions.

Regards,
Barb.

[mloveless1227]

Negative, I rarely run CCleaner and when I do, I always exclude anything related to Sandboxie or Steam. But I haven't ran it in weeks.

Something I noticed is that every time I get this VAC blocking error, then run Validation on my CS:GO install, it always "re-acquires" 1 or 2 files.

Also, a friend who also operates servers appears to be getting disconnected with this error on some of his servers, while on some of his other servers he is not getting disconnected/receiving this error at all and has been idling fine for 12+ hours. All of those servers are idle servers. I built a new server from scratch with a new GSLT to test on and all my Sandboxed accounts were error'd within minutes of connection. Based on all the friends I've spoken with, as well as the testing I've done and they've reported doing, it seems that this error is somewhat inconsistent. A few weeks ago this error happened to me on all of my accounts for about an hour then resolved itself with nothing special done. Based on my experience with Source games and Sandboxie over the past few years, I feel like this isn't intentional.

But I think it's important we look into it the best we can as this has been a working combination for a long time, has many people deeply invested, and is actually not violating any of the Steam Subscriber Agreement. I went over it pretty thoroughly this morning and nothing stands out as a violation. Plus, this tool brings a lot to Steam's market. They've never shown any signs of wanting to combat it.

[mloveless1227]

All,

This doesn't seem to be a Sandboxie issue. If Valve is blocking connections, you should check online for the latest updates made to the game/ VAC system and see what changed.

Sandboxie was not designed to bypass software restrictions.

Regards,
Barb.

Could you please clarify what you've tested so far and what makes you believe this statement. I very often see you folks at Invincea quickly pass off Steam problems as "non Sandboxie issues" but there were NO game updates and haven't been in almost a month ( http://blog.counter-strike.net/index.ph ... y/updates/ ), and this does NOT happen in a non-Sandboxie environment. Meaning, when running the Steam client and CS:GO as normal, this error does not happen. It ONLY happens in Sandboxie. Therefore, it's impossible to not be a Sandboxie issue. Please try to be more transparent and helpful. Many of us are long time subscribers and dedicated users. I have spent many hours this morning troubleshooting YOUR software and following up in as much detail as my experience and ability allows, which allows you to provide your paying customers with a better experience, and you pass the buck on an entire topic being reported by multiple people with proof in 2 short sentences. You are better than that, I gotta believe.

Edit - I would like to include that there never have been software restrictions and this has not been used to bypass any. You cannot act like Steam+Sandboxie hasn't been a thing for years, working just fine with absolutely NO sign that Valve wishes to combat it. If they did, it would be outright restricted. Valve does not care about us or our feelings, they put their policy right in front of us. There is not 1 single thing in the Steam Subscriber Agreement that states you cannot run multiple instances of your purchased games at once. You simply cannot do it from 1 single account. I would be willing to bet a good chunk of your yearly subscriptions come from Steam users. Please don't pass us off so quickly and easily.

[Curt@invincea]

Does this problem occur when running 1 instance of CSGO in Sbie?

[Barb@Invincea]

Hello mloveless1227 and all,

According to the original post, this issue started "Between 9-10pm EST last night (1/10/17)" for them.
The last update to Sandboxie was made on: 12/16/16 (http://forums.sandboxie.com/phpBB3/view ... =2&t=23772) and we have not seen many CSGO issues until now. This leads us to believe that the changes were made on their end, since our program hasn't been modified since.

There is also a related thread that was previously mentioned above. For this user, the issue started this morning:
http://forums.sandboxie.com/phpBB3/view ... 11&t=23871

Something you could try is testing different servers to see if they are all presenting the same behavior, that might help us figuring this out. (Both Sandboxed and non- sandboxed, one instance at a time).

We will continue testing/monitoring. So far, launching one instance of CSGO does not seem problematic (I am testing on Win 10 x64 +SBie16 and joining some games as spectator). If somebody could please test if this happens when you only have 1 instance running in Sandboxie, that would be helpful.

Regards,
Barb.-

[6321678206]

Hi all,

I think this problem is region specific to certain valve servers because I know some players in Turkey (EU East) who have no issues whereas one guy in Poland is having the same problem as me (EU West).

I really don't know, must be something at valve's end...

[Curt@invincea]

Has anyone reported these problems to Steam? What is their response?

[mloveless1227]

Yes, of course it's something on Valve's end specifically related to VAC in CS:GO since this is not happening in TF2, Insurgency (not Valve but uses VAC), nor L4D2, but it's directly affecting something that Sandboxie does, which is the point of making the thread. Finding out what exactly it's conflicting with in Sandboxie so that in a future version, maybe it's something that can be adjusted on Sandboxie's end. Or maybe there already exists a fix that is being overlooked.

I don't believe it's region specific because I'm in the United States having the issue, I've spoken to friends from the UK, Sweden, Germany, Russia, Romania, and France...all of which are experiencing the issue inconsistently. I've connected my VPN to 15 different countries, was given the same error on all.

The thing that strikes me the most is the fact it only happens in CS:GO, despite no client update. Which means VAC is the only thing that could have updated since it's not something that's included in the game client, instead is a service the client connects to.