In Case You're Unable to Play...

[Sam-I-am]

Your client might crash sometimes, and you might get an error message whenever you try to host/join a game.
It happened to me, so I figured out a way to fix it, and I thought it may help you as well, in case you experience the same thing.

Just go to "RA2\Client" (where your game is installed) and delete these files:
"friend_list", "ignore_list", "recent_list" (the client would create new ones).

They could get messed up, which would prevent you from playing.

If you really care about these lists, you can copy them to another location.
Deleting only one or two of them might solve the issue, so you can try that (Quit, delete, restart and test, one by one), but for a guaranteed quick fix, delete them all at once.

That would wipe out your lists.
To restore them, you can either edit them the old-fashioned way (copying info from the old files to the new empty ones), or make new lists from within the client, as you'd do normally.

Good luck! ?

Edited January 5, 2022 by Sam-I-am

[Devo1929]

Fwiw, there was a bug with the "recent_list" file. That's been resolved and will be in the 8.10 update.

[Sam-I-am]

Good to know.
Thanks