How A Netgear Router (NOT Impulse) Ruined My Night...

Try emailing [email protected], if anyone can help you, it would be them. Just keep in mind that it's still the weekend and it will probably take a couple days for a response.

oh oh, this sounds bad...

Do other downloads work? LIke any file downloaded with your Browser?

I had this problem once, i could track it down to a false MTU value in my router... Someone (maybe even myself) changed it, i turned it back to the value my DSL provider needs, then everything was ok...

Just a thought ...

... So, I then tried to reinstall it from an installer downloaded directly from the Impulse site and that was considered "corrupt" and it asked me to find a new file.  I wanted to blame myself (virus?) but was suspicious b/c my puter is on lockdown...
Are all downloads, even those not completed through Impulse, becoming corrupted?  Have you tried downloading other files from other sites?

...It updated by itself to the most recent version of Impulse but then once again I got "download verification errors."...
Did you uninstall and delete all local content for Impulse and the games you have?  Uninstalling Impulse doesn't remove the games installed.

icen9ne,

Hi.  Most of the time when Impulse returns that type of error it is a fundamental (usually systemic) issue with some piece of your network equipment.  It could be any of the following, so I would try to isolate the issue by replacing these items (use another piece of hardware or work around them)

1) Network cable could be bad to your PC

2) Network card could be going bad in your PC

3) Slot the network card is in (if it is not on your motherboard) could be going bad

4) Router could be going bad (especially possible in my experience if it is a Netgear router)

For #1-3 you could simply try another PC.  For #4 you will need to plug a PC directly into your DSL/Cable Modem to be sure.  You won't want to do that for a long period of time, and you will want to make sure you have a software firewall running.

If you don't see the issue when you try these things, suspect hardware issues and replace equipment accordingly.

Please let us know how this goes.

Zargon

I know you're trying to be helpful and all, BUT:

Yeah, right! I've been all across the galaxy, and I've seen a lot of weird shit. And I also know that users sometimes do funny things. But a network cable doing bad things to your rig?! Puhleeeze..!

As if it's wired it with an unshielded cable that goes right through the middle of an mrt tube...

@Star Adder

If Zargon is trying to be helpful, then you certainly are not.

A cable can have one pin go bad, not prevent connection to be maintained, but directly impact packet transmission integrity. The affect seemed to be to software, not hardware (his rig).

In an effort to be helpful myself, I suggest, going into your Temp folder(s), after uninstalling Impulse again, and remove ALL files and Dir(s). Even hunt down the Windows/temp and clear that as well.

That's not what he said. He said the Cable could be "Bad" to the computer. Meaning the cable itself fails to work properly. And I've got a spare cable here in my office as a memory of such an event, that happened a few years ago. Because cable's can go back despite anyone thinking that they won't. 

i have the same problem but i was able to download a couple of things but sins and two other thing wont download for me what could that be from

'Download verification errors' = MD5 check errors.  The way our MD5 system works (and this is an over simplication, I'll grant you, but it works for our purposes), is similar to taking a sentence, assigning number values to each letter (a=1, b=2, etc), and adding up the corresponding numbers to get a sum.  That's your "MD5" (though the real MD5 creates a much more unique signature than that).  Then tell someone that sentence, and have them write it down.  If they misspell something, then when they add up the digits from their setnence, it will have a different sum.

There are several reasons they could have misspelled it.  Maybe they can't hear very well (bad network cable).  Maybe there is someone between you and the person that has to examine the sentence to make sure there isn't a curse word before they relay it to you, and they might mispronounce something (firewalls, security software).  Maybe the person has dyslexia (bad RAM).

Firewalls and security software are the most common, so start there.  Try adding exceptions for Impulse in them, or temporarily disabling them and see if that help.

Next up is bad system memory.  Try scanning with something like Memtest86+ and see if maybe there's a hardware problem.  You may need to run it for a few hours for it to make it through a full pass.

Next, try connecting your computer directly to your modem.  A lot of routers can cause problems, and doing this will at least let us know where the problem lies.

If all else fails, use the bat signal: [email protected]

I'll also add that bad network cables are definitely a reality.  They can cause a lot of downtime, especially since they tend to be intermittent problems, and hard to track in large systems.   

While it may not be the problem with your system, you shouldn't immediately jump all over people that have experience with that sort of problem.   

Hope you get it figured out.

Star Adder,

You say you have not had experience with a bad networking cable.  Having had experience with them (multiple times in my life) I can tell you it happens.  It is also not out of the question, especially if someone makes their own cables.  Also, when you have a bad cable, you can see intermittent network issues as Murteas above confirms.

Impulse has a very robust error/retry/restart mechanism.  The error he is seeing is often (in our experience) due to network issues similar to the ones I outlined above.  Also, it should not be difficult for him to try another computer (laptop possibly) on the same network to rule out the possibility.

Have you tried another PC on the same network?

Zargon

Thanks for all the info.  I'll see if anything works...

UPDATE:  It seems I was undone by the treachery of a lame Netgear router.  I plugged directly into the cable modem and no strange downloading issues.  Why are life's problems always solved by the simplest solution? 

What a great community to come to my rescue! 

Not quite always, I would say often.  Some solutions are more complex, because the world itself is complex.  But certainly it's good to try the simpler troubleshooting tricks first, before you move on to the more complicated ones.

Good to hear you have Elemental and Impulse working again! 

Best regards,
Steven.

icen9ne,

Being as I am one of those responsible for Impulse, I am glad to hear it worked out for you!  Maybe you could change the title of your post to how a Netgear router ruined my night?

Zargon

Fixed the title Zargon!  Haha.  Thanks again!  : )

icen9ne,

Thank you so much for your support.

Zargon