If you’re having problems with Ares connecting then rest assured: you’re not alone.

This problem is pretty common in older versions of Ares, especially Ares Galaxy.

The problem is not with the firewall or some network issues, at might first seem to be the case. Nor is the problem of Ares not connecting related to the Ares network itself – don’t worry, Ares as a concept still works just fine!. The problem is quite simply an internal one.

Ares needs to connect to other Ares users so that it can form the peer-to-peer network. If the software has problems connecting then you’re unlikely to have any working downloads. This is more than frustrating. To solve this when the software loads up it begins with Ares connecting to a list of last known ‘good’ nodes, called cnodes. The problem arises when Ares Galaxy doesn’t update these cnodes between restarts, so you’re left with old ‘bad’ nodes that probably aren’t active any more. Of course when this happens you’ll have the lovely feeling of Ares not connecting to the network.

This is easily solved: bail out from the aging Ares Galaxy and get something a little more up to date. Ares Ultimate and Are Vista are both up to the task, and you’ll not regret the move.