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So I thought I would give NWN1 a turn again. I installed it perfectly from my CDs (I know I'm old-fashioned ). The next thing to do was to update it to version 1.69.

Lo and behold, the auto-update doesn't work anymore because Bioware, in their wisdom, have deleted the patch! This is what I get:

Bioware wrote:Your game version is: 1.63.8048 English

Pinging: nwpatch.bioware.com
Retrieving autopatcher version information
Connecting...nwpatch.bioware.com
Downloading nwn_pc_autopatch.txt
Retrieving game patch information
Connecting...nwpatch.bioware.com
Downloading nwn_x12_english.txt
Connecting...nwpatch.bioware.com
Downloading nwn_x12_english_from1638048_to1698109.md5
Latest Game Version Available: 1.69.8109
Connecting...files.bioware.com
Locate patch file nwn_x12_english_from1638048_to1698109.zip
Can not find patch file: nwn_x12_english_from1638048_to1698109.zip
Get the critical rebuild.
http://nwn.bioware.com/support/patch_en ... .html#crit
The patch has been aborted

No worries - I have google-fu. I googled for the patch - the name of the file is NWNEnglish1.69HotUUpdate.exe - but whenever I found it (including on bioware's own website), my download would begin and then, after a few megabytes, fail and not tell me why.

I finally found a file called NWNEnglish1.69HotUUpdate.zip at Gamer Shell - the direct link is http://www.gamershell.com/download_2887 ... l?02:51:06 . I downloaded the file (even if it's a zip file and not an exe file), and it downloaded fine. However, when I tested it for viruses, my anti-virus (Avast) told me that this file had a W32 virus! (Sorry, not sure which virus... I asked Avast to fix this before I thought of taking notes - my mistake).

At any rate, Avast fixed the file but did not delete it - and when I scanned the file again, Avast told me it was clean. But now I am worried., and I haven't run the file yet. If this file had a virus before, could it still have a virus now?

Any ideas? Can I run this file, or is it safer not to?

Thanks!

I have a copy of the file and sent you a PM.

Replied to your PM, notbob... thank you, but unfortunately, I couldn't download the file for some reason.

Not sure if the one from Gamers Hell is safe to use, since I got mine from IGN, when they still had mods available to download for NwN1 & NwN2. You could check out http://neverwintervault.org/ if you still need the patch, or need another patch/mod.

Unless you are not looking for additional tweaks & fixes for the game, it might be worth checking out the community patch.

Gamers Hell (not Gamer Shell) isn't the most reliable of sources. Viruses in files that you'd think would be clean -- and might otherwise be so -- aren't on that site, at least partially due to the fact anyone can upload anything. So maybe a file was originally fine, but someone decided to insert a virus into it and re-upload it.

I know from experience because years ago I downloaded a demo of Crysis, which turned out to harbor a particularly nasty virus that wouldn't go away no matter what I did, so I was forced to wipe my machine. Needless to say, I don't trust GH at all, or at least, I don't trust their extremely lax uploading policies.

I'd go with Luinath's suggestion or perhaps check the NWN boards on GOG. I'm sure they have links to reputable download sites.

I have a copy of the 1.69 update and uploaded it to Dropbox. Here is the link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1bzpdi87tj0ha ... e.exe?dl=0

Rath told me that he still had trouble downloading it. I was able to download it just fine. Could some check to see if there is a problem with the link or offer other suggestions where this file could be hosted?

I wasn't sure if posting this violates forum rules or not. Please let me know and I will take the link down.

notbobsmith wrote:I wasn't sure if posting this violates forum rules or not. Please let me know and I will take the link down.

Not at all, about the only rules are to be civil and to post help questions in the right forum. Other than that, no links to abandonware. However, I suspect that the reason that Rath is having trouble is overly aggressive malware software.

Sigh... I tried the link again, and again the download started just fine. However, it reached 38.9 Mb out of 310 Mb, and then the download failed - and wouldn't tell me why.

Collector, what do you mean by "overly aggressive malware software"? I'm running Malwarebytes to control malware; are you suggesting that I should turn it off? It's not terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) in any case.

I'm also running Avast anti-virus and Comodo firewall, both of which are TSR. Should I turn these off, perhaps? Obviously, I know that turning off your firewall/anti-virus is very unusual and shouldn't be done. But maybe they're interfering in some way?

Thanks...

Rath, try this link: http://neverwintervault.org/patch/nwn1/ ... n-sou-hotu

If it doesn't work, try this one: http://nwn.wikia.com/wiki/Patch#External_resources

Ignore the first link that says "Bioware patches and updates," but all the links below that work.

Maybe you need a download manager.

Ugh. *bangs head on keyboard*

Thanks for the links, DPX... but both downloads started fine, and then around the 39 Mb mark, they failed for no reason. When I tried to start the download again, I got this error:

The connection was reset

The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.

The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few moments.
If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network connection.
If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.

I also tried right-clicking and saving - got this error:

The download cannot be saved because an unknown error occurred.

Please try again.

Ugh...

Collector, what do you mean by a download manager? Are you talking about Torrent sites or somesuch?

A download manager is a program that was fairly common back in the dialup days. It allowed you to resume a download where it left off if your connection was lost before it had finished. Also, check your security software. Its settings may be too strict. Try turning your firewall and AV off. If this works you need to change its settings or replace it with something more reasonable.

1. Try different browsers.
2. Clear cache.
3. Disable firewalls/antivirus.

I am pretty sure I have the patch somewhere as well that I could upload.

Thank you all!

I tried disabling my firewall's "security levels" - one by one, to test which one was blocking the file - and none of them made any difference. Then I tried disabling the anti-viruses "shields", and right away, the download from notbobsmith's dropbox webpage worked!

I've re-enabled my firewall and anti-virus, of course. I'm just confused that an anti-virus should block a download... I've never heard of such a thing before. Any ideas?

Oh well. Thanks again!

***EDIT***
Now this is weird... after downloading the file, I tried to make it read-only and hidden - and for some reason, it disappeared! But I've set (in file manager) to still see hidden files... so where did it go? I've looked in the Recycle Bin, and (of course) it isn't there. I guess I'll have to download it again... Dratted Windows!

***2nd EDIT***

Well, this is definitely weird. I've downloaded the file again and ran it through my anti-virus, as I do for all downloaded files. Much to my chagrin, it reports that the file is infected. Here are the results:

Threat Detected!

Severity: High

Threat: Win32:Malware-gen

My anti-virus doesn't tell me what the virus actually is. It just says "Win32:Malware-gen".

When I try the "repair" option, nothing happens - my anti-virus freezes until I close it. But when I try the "Fix automatically" option, the anti-virus deletes the file! The "Fix automatically" option tries to:

1. repair the file; OR
2. move it to the "Chest" of infected files; OR
3. delete the file.

This is (obviously) the most drastic thing it can do. However, Malwarebytes (my anti-malware software) reported that the file is clean. When I tried googling for "Win32:Malware-gen" to see what I could find, I found that Avast might be reporting a false positive. Here. I'm not sure if this is the case this time, but you never know. Maybe I should download the file from the NWN Vault and try again.

In the meantime... notbobsmith, I would suggest you scan your computer for viruses...? Just to make sure? I'm no expert on these matters, but that would seem logical to me. What do the rest of you think?

Avast is notorious for false positives. The problem is on your end, which is why you could not download it from anywhere without turning off the AV that was throwing the false positive.