Windows XP is experiencing issues connecting to the servers.

As a workaround hold down SHIFT when clicking on the login button and the game world will appear and play normally.

It seems after a recent update Norton Anti Virus has blocked Stronghold Kingdoms and therefore stops players from login or from showing the news in the client.

To resolve this, add an exception in Norton Anti Virus to Allow Stronghold Kingdoms and this should resolve the issue.

Many problems may occur because of a slow, or a poor quality connection to the game servers or by specific restrictions on your local internet connection.  

This may also be caused by internet security or anti-virus software installed on your local machine which is monitoring or restricting internet traffic.  Please try turning off any programs which may be restricting your connectivity and be sure you are running Stronghold Kingdoms as an Administrator.  


Connection trouble can be caused by many different sources.
• Dial-up, Satellite, Cellular, Air Cards (EVDO/LTE/4G) or other non-broadband internet connections can cause connectivity issue or cause frequent disconnections. We do not recommend using any of these types of connections to play the game.
• Connecting through a wireless router may also cause issues. Wireless connections are slower than physical connections and are prone to interference. You can try connecting directly using a physical cable to see if that solves the issue.
• Faulty or incorrectly setup computer and networking hardware can also cause issues. If you suspect this might be the source of your problem, you will need to contact the manufacturer of that hardware or a computer repair professional for further assistance.

This may also be a result of an old DNS cache.  Information on flushing your DNS cache can be found here: http://www.whatsmydns.net/flush-dns.html  You may also wish to try using a different DNS server.  Information on changing your DNS server can be found here: https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using

Windows has a built in program that can give you a report of what is happening when you try and communicate with a site or service on the internet. Below are instructions on using this command.
      1. Press the "Start" button on your Windows task bar and then select "Run".
      2. Type cmd and then hit "Enter"
      3. This should open a command prompt.
      4. Type tracert login.strongholdkingdoms.com and then hit "Enter".

The numbers represent the number of milliseconds it takes to talk to our servers. All of your times should be below 250ms and the total number of lines should be less than twenty. An asterisk (*) is a bad sign as it means that some of the information you sent did not arrive. If the numbers are over 300ms this means your connection to our servers is slow. If you perform a tracert and you do not get any reply, or it fails altogether then it is a problem with your computer or network. If it fails on the first few lines likely it is a problem within your Internet Service Provider (ISP). If it gets out of your ISP's severs and starts failing then it may be a routing issue.

Unfortunately, Stronghold Kingdoms Support is unable to assist with connectivity problems and we advise you to speak with your network administrator or internet service provider.

Many players using either Norton or Symantec security software have reported issues logging in or running the game client.  This appears to be the result of a detection error by these products.  For detailed assistance on correcting these issues, please contact the products' Support. 

Information on reporting these false positives can be found here:  http://community.norton.com/t5/Announcements/How-to-report-false-positives/m-p/225309#M19