How to connect - setting your realmlist, step by step

This is the one thing that stops most people, and it is not your fault. The
game does not tell you it is looking in the wrong place. Here is the whole
job.

WHAT YOU NEED

A World of Warcraft 3.3.5a client, build 12340. That is Wrath of the Lich
King. A retail client will not work, and neither will Classic from Blizzard.
If you are not sure what you have, say so in a reply and somebody will tell
you how to check.

STEP 1 - FIND realmlist.wtf

Look in your main WoW folder. There is a file called realmlist.wtf.

Now here is the part that catches people out. MOST 3.3.5a CLIENTS HAVE TWO
COPIES OF THIS FILE. The second one is inside the Data folder, in a
subfolder named for your game language - Data\enUS, or Data\enGB, or
Data\esES, whichever matches the language your game is in.

If you have both, you must change BOTH. Changing only one is the single most
common reason someone tells us "I did it and it still will not connect".

STEP 2 - EDIT IT

Open realmlist.wtf in Notepad. Delete everything that is in there. Put in
this one line, exactly, and nothing else:

set realmlist irongatewow.com
Then Save
STEP 3 - IF IT STILL WILL NOT CONNECT

Two traps, both of them Windows being unhelpful rather than you doing
anything wrong.

In Notepad, use File then Save. Do NOT use Save As. Save As will quietly
add .txt on the end of the filename, so you end up with realmlist.wtf.txt,
and the game ignores it completely. The file looks right in the folder and
it is not.

If Windows refuses to let you save at all, close Notepad, right-click
realmlist.wtf, choose Properties, and untick Read-only. Then try again.

STEP 4 - LOG IN

Start the game. Type your account name and password - the same ones you
registered with on the website. Your account name is not your email address.

At the character screen you will see two realms, Iron Gate and Iron Gate
Classic. The same account works on both. There is a separate thread
explaining the difference.

STILL STUCK?

Reply here. Tell us what happens exactly - does it sit on "Connecting", does
it say the account does not exist, does it kick you back to the login box.
Each of those means something different and points at a different fix.
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