Extremely Slow "Logging in to game server"

Taydhian,

If you are having problems connecting to World of Warcraft, it can be caused by several different things.

Confirm your Internet Connection
Before attempting to connect to the World of Warcraft game servers, please confirm that your computer is able to connect to sites on the internet. One simple way to do this is to open a browser and try to connect to our World of Warcraft Website.

If you are unable to connect to any websites or other internet-based applications even though your modem is on and the cables are all connected correctly, then please contact your Internet Service Provider for further troubleshooting steps so that you can properly access the internet.

Power Cycle the Modem and Router

If the connection difficulties persist, please Power Cycle your modem and router to reset them and allow them to re-establish a connection to your ISP. Please follow these steps to completely power cycle the devices in your network connection:

- Shut down all computers connected to the modem/router.
- Power down/unplug the router if you use one.
- Power down/unplug the modem.
- Allow to sit for 60 seconds, unplugged.
- Turn on the modem, allow to completely boot up till the front panel connection lights show a steady connection.
- Turn on the router, if you have one, and allow to completely boot up as well.
- Start the computer(s) and allow to completely boot up.
- Once started up, please flush the DNS in the computer as outlined here: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=21226

Check the Realm Status

Please go to the World of Warcraft Realm Status Forum - http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=11113&sid=1 and http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/realmstatus/ to check the status of the game servers before continuing to more advanced troubleshooting steps. If the servers are indicated as being unavailable, please try your connection again at a later time. If the page indicates that the realms are available, or if you cannot reach the page to check the status, please continue on to the next step.

Check the Breaking News

Close World of Warcraft, and bring up the login screen once again. On the left hand side there may be a Breaking News entry. If it is present, please read that entirely, and see if there are any notes about all realms, your realm specifically, or connection issues in general. Sometimes, you may need to restart the computer and attempt to connect to the internet before launching the game before this comes up.

Configure your Firewall and/or Router

Firewalls and routers are designed specifically to control your computer's incoming and outgoing connections. You may need to set up these security features to allow access to the game servers. If these are not set up correctly, the firewall or router may prevent you from connecting to World of Warcraft. You may also want to try bypassing the router by connecting directly to your modem with an Ethernet or USB cable. This is only a troubleshooting step and may help isolate where the connection problem is occurring. If you have any firewall software please try uninstalling it temporarily. Please only do this if you have a backup copy available. This will let you know for certain if there is an issue with the firewall blocking the connection. Most firewalls when disabled will keep blocking information so the uninstallation is necessary for most types of firewall software. Some security programs, such as those made by Norton and McAfee, may even have a special uninstaller you will need to run if they were previously on the computer, and uninstalled without using the uninstaller available on their respective websites. For the Windows firewall, you will only need to disable it because you are unable to uninstall it. If the issue seems to be resolved by doing this the firewall was not properly configured.

Please see this page for port information and advice on setting up your firewall/router for World of Warcraft:
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/21015

Check for Updates

Out-of-date drivers or operating system files can cause connection issues. For more information on how to check your computer for operating system and driver updates, please check our support site here:
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/21229

Third party program conflicts.

Some third party programs can interfere with your connection. Programs such as Xfire, Teamspeak, and Port Magic have been reported as causing some issues. Please try closing all background applications as explained on our support site: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/21052

Custom UI mods can also cause connection issues. With the game closed please try moving or deleting your WTF, CACHE, and INTERFACE folders out of your World of Warcraft directory. These are temporary cache files that will be recreated by the game the next time you launch. Moving them to the desktop makes it easy to replace them if necessary. For a step by step guide for removing these folders for your operating system, please visit:
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=25390
Once these folders have been removed, try the game once again to see if this has helped.

Network card issues.

There are several drivers that, if out-of-date, could cause issues for broadband users. If you need more help in locating drivers for your hardware or finding the settings listed, please contact the hardware manufacturer or a qualified technician.

* If you access the internet through an external broadband modem, be sure you have the latest firmware and drivers available for your modem.
* If your computer connects to the modem via USB, be sure you have the latest drivers for your motherboard or your USB PCI card.
* If your computer connects to the modem via Ethernet, be sure that your network card has the latest drivers installed.
* Some network cards also have settings that when changed have corrected these types of issues. First, you need to navigate to your network card properties.

1. Click on Start.
2. Click on Control Panel.
3. Double click on the System icon (in Windows XP, you may need to click 'Switch to Classic View' on the left hand side of the screen).
4. Select the Hardware tab.
5. Click on Device Manager.
6. Expand the section labeled Network Adapters.
7. Right click on your network card and select properties.

* If you have a Power Management tab in your network card properties, click it and unselect the "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" if selected.
* On the Advanced tab, You can also try changing the Speed/Duplex to Force 100 Full Duplex. This has shown to fix these types of issues as well. If you have an older router or hub you may need to use base 10 full duplex.
* You may also have a Checksum Offload property on the Advanced tab. If so, try setting it to 'Disabled'.

Verify Game File Integrity

Open up your World of Warcraft folder, and the Data folder. Is there an enUS folder in there? If there is not, you may have installed a foreign version of WoW, and will need to uninstall it and install the North American version.

If you do see a folder called enUS, open it up and then open the realmlist.wtf using wordpad. It should say:

set realmlist us.logon.worldofwarcraft.com
set patchlist us.version.worldofwarcraft.com
set realmlistbn ""
set portal us

If it does not say this, type it in and save the file, then navigate to the WTF folder, and delete the Config.wtf file inside. Finally use WoW.exe file in the main World of Warcraft folder to start the game, and attempt to sign in.