CS2 unable to establish connection problem may be caused by the connection between the game servers and our internet not being established for some reason. CS2 unable to establish connection problem can be caused by both Steam and our side. In this article I will show you how to fix CS2 unable to establish connection problem with three different methods.
Method 1: Resetting network & clearing CS2’s cache files
The two main sources of CS2 unable to establish connection problem are our internet and CS2’s cache files. The first step is to reset our internet. The reason why we are doing this is that the reason why the connection between the game servers and our internet cannot be established can be caused by our internet. We can fix this problem by resetting the internet. Here is what you need to do to do this:
- Go search and type CMD.
- After typing CMD right click on CMD and click on Run as administrator. There are three CMD codes that we need to in CMD. The codes we write will not cause any harm to our computer.
- Type ipconfig /flushdns and hit enter.
- Type netsh winsock reset and hit enter again.
- Finally type netsh int ip reset and hit enter.
The second step is to clear CS2’s cache files. Cache files are temporary files that contain information about CS2 that helps the game to open faster. However, sometimes these temporary files can cause problems such as CS2 unable to establish connection. Since these temporary files can cause problems, we need to delete them. Here is what you need to do to do this:
- Go search and type Run.
- After searching for Run, open it.
- After opening Run, type %localappdata% and click OK.
- Find the Temp folder in the opened folder.
- Double click on Temp folder.
- Select everything in the Temp folder by pressing Ctrl and A keys.
- Press Del or Delete key. If you encounter File In Use, tick Do this for all current items and click Skip. After deleting temp files close the windows.
- Open Steam.
- Click on Steam at the top left.
- Click on Settings among the other options.
- After opening Settings, click on Downloads under Steam Settings section.
- Scroll down and click on Clear Cache.
- Click on Confirm to continue. Clearing Download Cache may require you to log in to your account again.
- After logging in to your account restart your PC once to complete the network reset you did in the first step.
Method 2: Changing DNS address to fix CS2 unable to establish connection problem
The DNS address is the bridge between our internet and CS2’s servers. If CS2’s servers are not the cause of the connection problem, it could be our DNS server. In this case we will change our DNS address to solve the CS2 unable to establish connection problem. What you should not do to do this:
- Go to Search section and type Control Panel.
- After typing Control Panel, open it.
- After doing this click on Network and Internet among your other computer settings.
- Click on Network and Sharing Center.
- Click on your network.
- Click on Properties.
- Select Internet Protocol Version 4 from the This connection uses the following items list.
- Click on Properties.
- Tick Use the following DNS server addresses.
- Set Preferred DNS server to 8.8.8.8 and Alternate DNS server to 8.8.4.4. This DNS server is belongs to Google and is completely safe to use.
- After changing your DNS, click OK to close the tabs.
We changed our DNS server. Now you can check if CS2 unable to establish connection problem is solved or not.
Method 3: Reinstalling Steam without deleting any games
It is possible to reinstal Steam without deleting the games we have installed on Steam. The problem might be caused by Steam’s app. If this is the case, reinstalling Steam may fix CS2 unable to establish connection problem. Since reinstalling Steam will repair corrupt and missing files inside Steam, doing so may fix the CS2 unable to establish connection problem you are experiencing. What you need to do to do this:
- Open File Explorer.
- Click on This PC from the left.
- Double click on the disk where you install Steam.
- Find Steam folder. If you did not install Steam different location, the file location you need follow should be this: This PC > Local Disk (C:) > Program Files (x86) > Steam.
- After finding Steam folder, double click on it.
- Here you need to delete everything EXCEPT steamapps, userdata and steam.exe inside the Steam folder. BE CAREFUL WHILE DELETING.
- After deleting everything except steamapps, userdata and steam.exe, double click on steam.exe.
- After doing this, Steam will re-download the files we just deleted. This may take some time.
- Once the deleted files are finished re-downloading, log in to your Steam account again.
After logging into your account, you can check whether the problem is solved or not.
In this tutorial I showed you how to fix CS2 unable to establish connection problem with three different methods. I hope one of the methods solved your problem. Until next time take care.