HELP! Bizarre connection problems!

[MRSERIOUS 0]

Basically here's the timeline of events...

Brother gets a computer.

Already have one Steam account (this is the original account mentioned later).

Create another account.

We log onto both accounts at times on this computer.

He moves away and takes that computer.

I get a computer.

I install content needed for DayZ to work correctly.

I use both accounts for different games, though the original account only has ARMA2 ARMA2:OA & DayZ content.

My brother and I want to play DayZ together.

He buys ARMA2 Combined Operations for the other account.

It's already installed on his computer because it had already been installed on that computer from the original account.

He installs DayZ.

He can get into servers perfectly fine, but here's the catch...

If he's already on the server, I can't join and vice verse.

It doesn't matter if we're logged into seperate accounts because the problem still exists.

He's on the west coast, I'm on the east coast.

No shared IPs, shared wifi, etc....you get the point.

So, we both log on to these two accounts from our own computers every now and then.

He's installed ARMA2 and ARMA2 OA from one account, I've installed these two games from the other account.

Still....it doesn't work, we can't connect to the same server. We've tried many servers and it's always the same thing. If I'm in it he can't get in. If he's in it I can't join.

What is causing this problem????

Does this possibly have anything to do with the installation folders location under "common" for Steam? Should we move the files to the seperate account folders? Some games show up under common, others under the account named folder.

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

Edited January 4, 2013 by MRSERIOUS

[MRSERIOUS 0]

Well, I've tried many combinations of what my brother and I have going on regarding Steam when trying to join a server together and so far we've had no luck. I've begun to think the only way to get around this is to basically start from scratch regarding anything from Steam installed on our computers and have one of us only use one account, never logging into the other, and other of us only logging in to the account the other person is not, and never onto the account they're using. I say I feel this is the only option, but it's not an acceptable one at the moment so I'm not about to go to these lengths yet. Also, we have both played on the same server in other games before such as Garry's Mod. Never had a problem, though this may have something to do with Garry's Mod installing to the account name folder for Steam and not "common". I don't know. I have nothing to prove or disprove it.

Does anyone have any advice?

Edited January 4, 2013 by MRSERIOUS

[MRSERIOUS 0]

Just getting this bumped back up. I'm at a loss with this one.

[piemanpm 13]

Right. Tell him to uninstall ARMA 2 completely.

Whats happened is when you installed it on his computer on your account your serial will have been put in the registry. So when he's bought the game and gone to try and load in, it's your serial that is still in use and you can't connect to servers using the same serial.

So if you uninstall everything ARMA 2 and reinstall it, it should put his serial number into his registry. There's a way you can edit it using the registry editor, but I'm not 100% sure on how to do it and I think it's quite complicated. So doing it this was is much easier.