Authentication: A Guide by Oldekamp
For Windows

[INFO]


Yesterday I have succesfully joined the private server, 'Warmane'. It stood on number one at the top list for World of Warcraft's private servers. Signed up, downloaded the client(s) and waited for the download to be finished. Absolutely glad that it wasn't another installing process. Hit the 'Wow.exe' file and started up the game. Logged in, but hey! By reading this you must've encountered the same problem, as I have. It got stuck at the 'Authenticating' part. You're not the only one, pal, and we're going to solve that problem right away. The biggest cause of it is the file 'realmlist.wtf', which some have no clue how to revert it back from .txt to .wtf, but do not worry, we're going to solve that.

These are just a bunch of steps, that helped me quite alot. I found it as an answer on a forum topic and I do not take credit for it, I am simply sharing this useful information. My deepest apologies, should this kind of guide already be on the forums, I wanted the other players to be able to play on Warmane as soon as possible, so that we all could enjoy the latter. These steps helped me and they will help you too. Let's start. :D


[STEPS]



[1.] First we're going to hit up the Control Panel, you can find this on the lower left side of your screen. Now the way I see the Control Panel, I think of it as your central hub for the business you do on your computer. Click on the Control Panel and we're already at step two.


[2.] We arrived at step two and we're going to head a little deeper into the Control Panel. Now that we have entered that place, we're going to head to System and Security. Now as you see, under 'System and Security we notice all sorts of different little branches that have to do with System and Security. We're going to click on Appearance and Personalization. That's right, click on it.


[3.] Now that we have entered that section, we notice a few more branches. If you look down, you will notice Folder Options. That's the key ingredient to this whole potion, so let's click on that aswell.


[4.] If I am right, a small screen should have popped up by now, called Folder Options which has three smaller sections. General, View and Search, and we're going to click on View


[5.] Once we've done that, we can see Advanced Settings and that part allows use to scroll down. In this bit of Folder Options, we notice a sub section with an folder icon, saying Hidden files and folders. We're getting really close now! If I am correct, you notice that Hide extensions for known file types is marked, and we'll have to unmark it to allow ourselves to put the .txt back to .wtf once again. Once you have unmarked it, make sure you APPLY, else the change won't have any effect. :cool:


[6.] Now click all of the things connected to the Control Panel and head back to the folder, which in my case, is called World of Warcraft 3.3.5a (no install) as I have just downloaded it. Now click on Data, because that, as we remember, holds our 'realmlist.wtf' file. Once we've entered Data, we click on enUS, or enGB, it depends entirely on what you have, so do not worry about it. We've arrived at the finale step! :P

[7.] Now we're heading back to 'realmlist.txtf' and we notice, at least as I had, that it has the icon of a notepad. Because that's why it was a '.txt' file. We're going to rename that sucker to 'realmlist.wtf'. It'll ask a question about it being unstable, bla bla, ignore that and press OK. It should have the normal white icon just like the patches. WE DID IT! :)


[SHORT STEPS]

1. Go to Control Panel
2. Go to System and Security
3. Go to Appearance and Personalization
4. Go to Folder Options
5. Click on View
6. Unmark 'Hide extensions for known file types'
7. Press APPLY
8. Head back to your WoW Folder - Data - enUS/enGB
9. Rename 'realmlist.txt' to 'realmlist.wtf' and press OK when it asks you to.
10. Log in into the game and enjoy Warmane.


[FINAL]


By having read this, I hope this guide was useful to you and that you are now able to log into the game and enjoy Warmane like the rest of us. Please, if there are any questions, ask them to the amazing GameMasters (GM's) and they will help you with any other trouble you may encounter. Would you wish to ad d me in-game, send me a personal message and I'll provide you with that info. If there are any questions, please drop them below and I will answer them as soon as possible.

That said, have a wonderful, sunny and very healthy day. :D

~Oldekamp