BEFORE ALL THIS THESE THINGS ARE MADE FOR WINDOWS (ANY VERSION)

Hello, I made this file because I see some questions in the Q&A that sometimes are quiet hard to understand what the problem is or it requires some technical issues.
First of all I am 22 I work in the IT branch and there for I can say I know something about technical part of the PC however far from al.
This topic will not cover everything, and unfortunately since most the issues have multiple possible solutions and or problems try to refrain from thinking this is 100% the solution. See it more as a possibility.

I suggest you always check the fix at multiple sources. Since someone might be wrong and many times people disagree with a diagnosis from another person. Remember I must note that with anything terminating processes or checking your hardware or anything software related there is a chance you might go wrong and do something slightly different or do not fully understand it so be careful. Also feel free to point me if I miss something or see something wrong in your eyes.

As to point 3 In real life and in Q&A section I sometimes see somewhat hard to understand topics so I added some things that makes it easier to understand for the people on the other and makes it easier to help.

Index:
1. How to brutally kill your update using task manager.
2. Testing your connection using the tracert command.
3. Troubleshooting 101, making tickets and requesting help @ any source
4. HELP MY PC IS SLOW!

1. How to brutally kill your update using task manager.

Risk to inexperienced user: High
*this is assuming people go noop around with other things besides just that particular process*

Note [1]: I have no tried this at home since this is pretty solid even without testing.

Note [2]: I made this assuming its still downloading, in this stage it does not really matter if you do this. However if its already updating there is a good chance this will corrupt your wow though it’s worth the risk since when you update you have to reinstall anyway.

If your game updates and you cannot close the update box:

Opening task manager - Right click the clock, click task manager this should be third from bottom.
Locating the right process - Go to program's look if the update program is in the list. Right click it and click go to process.
Terminating the process - You are now looking at about every active process running on your system. Right click the process highlighted by the step you did before this. IT IS CRUCIAL YOU GET THIS PART RIGHT. you do not want to knock out system processes. Now click End Process Tree. Check if the update is still running. It shouldn’t be. IF the file locked itself and refuses to be terminated send me a pm and i will try to explain a "work around" that. Though that is kind of a trick people will stress out cause you basically need to mess around with windows.

2. Testing your connection using the tracert command:
As i already typed this and was typing task manager i just noticed Pwndbox also made this. Common idea ftw Check here

Note [1]: First of all I do not know where the realms are run, and don’t really want to know and or post it here since it opens up unpleasant DOS attacks. Your latency is indeed shown in your realm, but I am assuming the File servers of both “wow” and the “website” are located at the same location

Note [2]: This test is not definitive or 100% accurate since the “routing tables” might chance at any giving time due to load balancing on any connection point @ the connection line. Also i know how this command works on local networks and VPN based networks but i am not sure if it reacts 100% the same on the internet, yet the internet is 1 big network

My assumptions: Logon.warmane.com i assume that this engine (the one serving as wow server) has a redirection protocol that runs on website. This can be wrong like i said i haven’t asked anyone and i highly doubt he would give me any specifics due to security of the server.

Using tracert:
Open Run - Windows key + R
Open command line - Type "CMD"
type: Tracert www.warmane.com
Risk to inexperienced user: Low

You will now have to wait a few seconds as your computer makes contact with the entire route your PC takes to contact warmane server. Every connection is getting a Ping that shows you how long it takes to reach that point. This can be seen as running a marathon and the runner checks how long it takes to reach each checkpoint from start.

Now that you know this you can see where does connection go up. This can give you a solid view as to if the problem lies @ mwow server @ you or somewhere in between.

Example of a traceroute made by me to the warmane website.

As you can see the highest connection point for me is not me to my ISP or to mwow itself. Its somewhere in between [marked red]. Though this will not always affect my connection 100% it could at points generate small lagspikes.

1 41 ms 86 ms 99 ms dsldevice.lan [***.***.***.***] 2 20 ms 20 ms 21 ms [***.***.***.***]
3 20 ms 19 ms 19 ms nl-asd-dc2-isp-bb21.wxs.nl [***.***.***.***]
4 20 ms 19 ms 20 ms nl-asd-dc2-isp-bb21.wxs.nl [***.***.***.***]
5 20 ms 19 ms 19 ms nl-asd-dc2-ias-csg01.nl.kpn.net [***.***.***.***]
6 22 ms 25 ms 22 ms ams-ix.ae1.cr1.ams2.nl.nlayer.net [***.***.***.***]
7 20 ms 22 ms 20 ms ae3-60g.cr1.ams2.nl.nlayer.net [***.***.***.***]
8 43 ms 30 ms 27 ms xe-5-3-0.cr1.lhr1.uk.nlayer.net [***.***.***.***]
9 96 ms 101 ms 96 ms xe-11-3-1.cr1.nyc3.us.nlayer.net[***.***.***.***]
10 98 ms 115 ms 96 ms ae2-70g.cr1.ewr1.us.nlayer.net [***.***.***.***]
11 146 ms 120 ms 120 ms xe-5-0-0.cr1.ord1.us.nlayer.net [***.***.***.***]
12 116 ms 146 ms 116 ms ae0-40g.cr2.ord1.us.nlayer.net [***.***.***.***]
13 126 ms 123 ms 124 ms ae2-30g.ar1.ord1.us.nlayer.net [***.***.***.***]
14 140 ms 141 ms 141 ms as32181.xe-1-0-6-108.ar1.ord1.us.nlayer.net [***.***.***.***]
15 262 ms 202 ms 132 ms te9-4.csr2.Chi3.Servernap.net [***.***.***.***]
16 119 ms 116 ms 116 ms p104.ddr2.Chi3.Servernap.net [***.***.***.***]
17 117 ms 116 ms 117 ms warmane.com [***.***.***.***]

3. Troubleshooting 101, making tickets and requesting help @ any source.

First of all know that people who help you IRL or on forum Q&A and about everywhere aren’t psychic so it’s good to describe it. Especially if you are like me and are detail happy.

1. Explain what goes wrong. Even if you know very little about what is going on you should still give as much detail as you can.
Do: I cannot enter stormwind, because every time i enter the city i crash and it only happens here.
Don't: Help i keep crashing!
See though you have not told much more, you already added the location. And you said it only happens here. Now the gm can if he/she wants check the location and see if it happens to him/herself or if its you. And if he/she is ok they can rule out its a glitch on the server. And so already ruled out 50% of the problem. As you can see the more info the better.

2. Examples of important info.
Time of event
People involved
Does it happen to me or can you confirm people exsperience exact same problem
What is the point where im 100% sure it goes wrong, are there any earlier symptoms things are going wrong (not these as a geus that these things are involved)
Retrace your actions as detailed as you can and tell any relevant information.
With connection issues that you still cant fix tell them at what point during the process it breaks. (Example: After the box of handshaking it disconnects)
When you ask for hardware support note everything that you notice (example: The pc is hot, fans are not spinning, i get these error messages, I hear noice and it seem to come from this spot etc....)

4. HELP MY PC IS SLOW!

That my friend is a good posibility.

Virusses;
These days they are common many ways a virus can enter your system. Even through adds from a website you trust. Its essential that you have a good working protection. You might not even know it and you have a virus. They can be on your PC, Phone, usb stick everywhere because there are so many people that do not realize how sneaky these things are.

Some common reasons for this:

You dont have a legit windows or a bad cracked;
Risk to unexsperienced user: N/A
Many people think their cracked windows is just as good as the legit one. You are sadly mistaken. Windows regularly updated their own software and for example windows XP has more then 100-150 windows updates that prevents system from being hijacked.

You dont run a good legit virus scanner;
Risk to unexsperienced user: N/A
A virus scanner is a program that protects you from trojans, virusses, mallware etc. If you do not run a legit virus scanner your virus definitions will NOT be updated. This WILL cause your pc to be infected and become without you knowing it part of some one else’s botnet. Granting them your computers power for their control. There is SEVERAL terabytes worth of virus definitions that every virus scanner has. Since you can not affort that amount definitions on your pc the creator of that software oftenly gives you updates to huge threats. Every day like 100 new versions of virusses are launched. So yeah....

You run two virus scanners;
Risk to inexperienced user: Moderate
Virus scanners are basically a big pile of codes belonging to virusses. If you have two one virus scanner will detect the other and the other one will go in lock down because it thinks it’s being attacked by a virus. You can see where it goes from there.
Read up if both virus scanners have counter measures against this if not delete one of them.

You have no/bad/outdated drivers for your hardware:
Risk to inexperienced user: Low
Your hardware will still run without drivers, however it will not reach its potential by far. Always update your drivers from an official website.

Fragmented hard disk:
Risk to inexperienced user: Moderate
Your hard disk assuming you are still using a good old platter hard disk reads its data from a reading eye that to move over a rotating disk. Standardly new created files are put in a location but if you later edit your file it will look something like this:
[file 1][file 2][file 3][extended information of file 1]
As you can see the data is fragmented and it takes the reading eye longer to read your data. There for windows has a defragmentation option. There is very little to no risk involved as long as dont interrupt the process. Though this opinion comes from own experience. Since i am not the best in explaining i let Microsoft do it

Overheating system:
Risk to inexperienced user: Extreme
Computers are run on electricity, and create static energy. Dust is attracted by that and by the air flow so over time dust will settle into your pc. When it does things that generate heat, like video card, cpu and power supply will start to have trouble. This is all because dust seals in the heat and fans will have more trouble spinning. The build in protection of your pc will "clock down" your hardware so it generates less heat. This is basically the opposite of Overclocking now i do not want people who do not know hardware principles go noop around in their system because touching the wrong thing will bust the system.
NEVER EVER: Touch it with your hands, go in your pc case without decharging your static electricity, use a standard air pressure in your case, use a vacuum cleaner. This is all REALLY bad bad bad bad bad, in this case it is better to read up on how TO do it good. Or let someone who has experience do it. Since I dont even know where to start on explaining this.

Old os:
Risk to unexsperienced user: Low (if you have common sense, its low since you should know rather or not you could remove ur old OS)
Computers that run for a long time and especially not managed over time run ALLOT of programs without you knowing it. These processes basicly make your system slow. I dont want to give advise on how to fix it since i dont know what processes you want to keep and dont want to keep but its vital to know what you want to remove and know what everything does. If you do not have vital information/data on your system it might be good to just start over fresh.