Guild Wars 2

I am an oceanic player so I have experienced bag lag that you can never imagine. Therefore, I tried Battleping, a VPN service provider and my account got terminated a few hours ago.

I am not sure if it was simply a coincidence but since I can swear that I never use any botting or macros or buy any gold form those gold sellers, I can’t help but wonder that there is something to do with the VPN.

So, the simple question is that if using VPN is going to get me banned in the future, provided I can get my account back this time. Thank you.

VPN has nothing to do with you being banned because it does nothing but reroutes traffic via different hosts and a lot of other players using them without any consequences. Anyway you should file a ticket through support system and wait for their answer. Good luck.

I also play from across the Ocean and would appreciate an answer to this question.

I use Batlleping and that’s an excellent solution that optimizes access to game servers from afar. I couldn’t play a good chunk of the game without it. I didn’t get banned so far and I trust it won’t happen.

A VPN is different from services like Battleping as they minimize latency without the encryption methods of a VPN provider.

zbrkesbr.4173:

VPN has nothing to do with you being banned because it does nothing but reroutes traffic via different hosts and a lot of other players using them without any consequences. Anyway you should file a ticket through support system and wait for their answer. Good luck.

Thank you for the reply. So if using VPN itself is not against any game rule at all, maybe it is a good idea that I explain my situation to the customer service?

On the other hand, some other guy told me that if those bot/gold sellers are using the same VPN as mine, that will probably get me banned, too and it might very well be impossible to retrieve my account back. This just scare me to death. Does anybody have any idea about this?

You’ll be able to get your account back as long as you’re proven to be a legitimate user. I got perma banned once because a gold seller happened to be using the same IP range as me.

After contacting support and providing them with information I got my account back.

Amon.5042:

You’ll be able to get your account back as long as you’re proven to be a legitimate user. I got perma banned once because a gold seller happened to be using the same IP range as me.

After contacting support and providing them with information I got my account back.

Hi Amon, thanks for the reply. I would be very thankful if you can be more specific about what information you provided and your thoughts on explaining the VPN issue to the support team. Thank you.

As mentioned before, your problem might not be related with Battleping as many people use this solution with GW2 and many other MMOs.

As for what you should add to your ticket, the sticky already provides good information on what you need:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/How-to-Submit-a-Ticket-Account-Issues-2/first#post285416

You can expedite the help that you receive by providing certain details when you contact the team, such as the following:

Your GW2 Username
Your serial code
A character name, if any
A detailed description of the issue that you’re experiencing
Any error code that you are getting

Another thing to keep in mind is that the ban hammer is in full force for bots and gold sellers at the moment. You’re likely collateral damage. :/

I know how annoying it can be. Just be patient and answer whatever questions they may ask of you. Post your ticket here too so that Anet staff can take a look at it.

Good luck!

Gaile, it was impossible for me to play WvW or even PVE in high concurrency. I kept getting heavy lag and disconnects. Playing was starting to be an exercise in frustration. Playing GW2 was fine in the beginning but latency has sharply started to increase in more recent times.

Battleping made those problems disappear. That’s not an impression in improvement but a fact in my case. It certainly won’t help players who are already close but it can do a lot to those from far away. I’m in the Middle Kingdom and there are other cases, such as the following, which illustrates similar findings by oceanic players: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/57693-oceanicasian-players-reduce-your-latency-now/

Your statement seems to imply that this service is mostly an illusion and is in the same group as a fully-fledged VPN (though it shouldn’t be); and it’s not desirable because RMT companies use them too. All I can say is that I hope not to get penalized by using a service that has proven to be effective. I don’t want to go back to that feeling of pain rather than fun because of latency.

I would also like an answer if it is against the rules or bannable.
I use a VPN because my kitteny french isp limits my bandwith to foreign servers in the evening it’s the only way I can play.

For many korean MMOs having a low latency from the game servers to the VPN makes a huge different for the player. For these games it doesn’t matter if you still have a larger latency from your PC to the VPN because the game will run far more smoothly from the VPN being closer to the server.

But this is because those games have horrendous netcode.

I don’t think this is the case in GW2 because GW2 used client side prediction which removes the benefit for the VPN being close to the server.

Unless maybe your latency is so high that it’s causing you to disconnect.

Gaile Gray.6028:

Just talked to the Security Team coordinator. He said that the use of VPN may appear to give you better service, but you’re not seeing what goes on in the background. If you VPN into a proxy, and the proxy then connects with Guild Wars 2, you can see only the latency from the proxy to the game. That segment may appear to be a better connection, with reduced latency. What you are not seeing is the latency from your system to the VPN/Proxy location. Overall, your latency may not improve at all.

And as an additional note, connecting through routes that are known to be used by RMT companies isn’t a desirable thing.

Hi, Gaile, thanks for the reply. Due to the fact that many players use VPN and most of them do have better game experiences, would you please be more cautious when taking measures against those bots and reviewing the petitions or even make certain level of compromises temporarily for the reason that quite a few players might just be collateral damages.

Besides, if connecting through VPN is not desirable and might be charged as an action against user agreement or rule of conduct, you should send out a more sound and clear message. Thank you.

Gaile Gray.6028:

Just talked to the Security Team coordinator. He said that the use of VPN may appear to give you better service, but you’re not seeing what goes on in the background. If you VPN into a proxy, and the proxy then connects with Guild Wars 2, you can see only the latency from the proxy to the game. That segment may appear to be a better connection, with reduced latency. What you are not seeing is the latency from your system to the VPN/Proxy location. Overall, your latency may not improve at all.

And as an additional note, connecting through routes that are known to be used by RMT companies isn’t a desirable thing.

I started using Battleping because everyone said it is the most reliable VPN for gamers. My account was suspended yesterday “your Guild wars 2 account has been suspended for an account issue” Build 15977 Error code: 45:6:3:2114
I presume I’m not the only american living in China working as a teacher and doing business, I already submitted my ticket I gave all information. I just want to say 2 things:
1. if VPNs are not welcomed, then GW2 should mention it before you get to buy the game. VPNs does improve latency, simple test for that is to go to your task manager>performance>click “resource monitor” button> then check your latency shown up. I tried with my normal chinese connection and it shows more than 400 something, and when I use Batlleping it would be 200-299 max which is much better and I can asure, that I can feel the difference. Simple test, cast a skill… without VPN = 6 to 8 seconds to cast… then the same with VPN = cast the skill and u get the skill, sometimes for the worst would be just 1 sec.
2. Everyone uses VPNs and I know your point about someone using the same ip range for something else, but at least send an email, and if the email isn’t answered in 8 hours, then you suspend the account. My point is, please let us know about the suspension and at least warn us by email, same way u guys auto send email to allow an ip, so that we can provide information asap to avoid getting unfairly suspended.

I am about to go to visit my parents back to america (December). I only have November to play GW2 and relax a bit, once I’m visiting my parents, I will have 2 months without playing GW2. I paid for 1 month of service from Battleping…. time is ticking and every hour means money, so please I expect to have my account unblocked soon (as for now).

Hi, NeuroN, I read a post on Battleping forum that for oceanic players, it is recommended to connect to west coast servers despite that GW2’s servers are located in Texas, as far as I can remember. Just a little reminder.

Good luck to both of us.

Amon.5042:

Gaile, it was impossible for me to play WvW or even PVE in high concurrency. I kept getting heavy lag and disconnects. Playing was starting to be an exercise in frustration. Playing GW2 was fine in the beginning but latency has sharply started to increase in more recent times.

Battleping made those problems disappear. That’s not an impression in improvement but a fact in my case. It certainly won’t help players who are already close but it can do a lot to those from far away. I’m in the Middle Kingdom and there are other cases, such as the following, which illustrates similar findings by oceanic players: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/57693-oceanicasian-players-reduce-your-latency-now/

Your statement seems to imply that this service is mostly an illusion and is in the same group as a fully-fledged VPN (though it shouldn’t be); and it’s not desirable because RMT companies use them too. All I can say is that I hope not to get penalized by using a service that has proven to be effective. I don’t want to go back to that feeling of pain rather than fun because of latency.

I have to agree. I’ve had success using certain dedicated gaming proxy services which have reduced my in-game latency in other games from 400-500 ms to 200 ms ish (I live overseas).

Although GW2 has no latency meter atm, Smoothping, for example, has reduced the latency spikes as far as I can experience and I feel skills are more responsive (less time to activate). Without this service I get a lot of latency spikes, and sometimes skills take 1/2s to activate, which can be really noticeable with ground targeted skills.

I also have a general VPN which is not intended for gaming and actually increases latency if used for games. There is a difference between general VPNs and Gaming VPNs/ Proxies, at least in my experience.

What the Security Team Coordinator indicated to Gaile is correct when it comes to users already close to the datacenter. It’s also correct that a connection optimizer doesn’t always work for everyone from afar.

However, it’s rather dismissive to state that the “illusion” of improvement is an universal truth and that players who’ve seen an incredible improvement are therefore deluded. I’m sure that Mike Lewis is an awesome expert in game security and overall networking but with IT it’s not that simple to overlook empirical evidence from others if you never experienced it yourself.

If ArenaNet doesn’t like players to use a connection optimizer then that’s really a problem for people like me. I’ve done all I could on my end to optimize my connection but I eventually had to resort to this practice. Maybe ArenaNet should look into data from people who indicate that this service is helping so that they can make statements with solid evidence instead of an opinion.

Given the tremendous boost I’ve got, a connection optimizer is something that ArenaNet should really consider adding as a service. I don’t care who I should be paying 15 USD every 3 months as long as it works. And from other services I looked into, Battleping offers the best well-coded and user-friendly experience.

Anyway, I’ve opened a ticket with support about the use of third-party software such as this one [Incident: 121109-000129]. I’ve already been caught enough times as collateral damage in GW1 and wouldn’t like to repeat the cycle here.

ChungHan Ho.5837:

Hi, NeuroN, I read a post on Battleping forum that for oceanic players, it is recommended to connect to west coast servers despite that GW2’s servers are located in Texas, as far as I can remember. Just a little reminder.

Good luck to both of us.

Yeah, I kinda deduced it since they keep saying PDT, I usually use servers from west coast but yesterday I felt like trying another one (Chicago) to see if there was any difference… and BOOM, now I think they suspended my account because I used around 4 different servers available in Battleping… once they unblock my account I might just use one server T_T I learned the lesson.

How long have you been suspended by now? I’m frustrated already. Are you chinese? I learned chinese and I can understand most of it, but it is so hard to hand-write chinese, I preffer typing it haha.

NeuroN.1420:

ChungHan Ho.5837:

Hi, NeuroN, I read a post on Battleping forum that for oceanic players, it is recommended to connect to west coast servers despite that GW2’s servers are located in Texas, as far as I can remember. Just a little reminder.

Good luck to both of us.

How long have you been suspended by now? I’m frustrated already. Are you chinese? I learned chinese and I can understand most of it, but it is so hard to hand-write chinese, I preffer typing it haha.

Hi, it’s been almost two days but feels like two weeks No constructive responses yet, mainly requesting additional information.

By the way, I do speak chinese but I am from Taiwan

ChungHan Ho.5837:

NeuroN.1420:

ChungHan Ho.5837:

Hi, NeuroN, I read a post on Battleping forum that for oceanic players, it is recommended to connect to west coast servers despite that GW2’s servers are located in Texas, as far as I can remember. Just a little reminder.

Good luck to both of us.

How long have you been suspended by now? I’m frustrated already. Are you chinese? I learned chinese and I can understand most of it, but it is so hard to hand-write chinese, I preffer typing it haha.

Hi, it’s been almost two days but feels like two weeks No constructive responses yet, mainly requesting additional information.

By the way, I do speak chinese but I am from Taiwan

Cool ur from Taiwan, u have a good english btw. Well this is my first day by now, I was playing like crazy yesterday 3am, and then BANG my account got suspended. I already received one email saying that they are escalating my ticket to their Payment Review Team to research my issue and someone will contact me as soon as possible. I still don’t understand, I provided full info and screenshots, they shouldn’t take so long. anyways I really hope they get this fast, good luck on yours too. Were you using Battleping too?

Got an answer from support about this via GM Xionaque.

“It is not against the rules to use a proxy server to connect to the game. But doing so is at your own risk. Team speak is also ok but we do not support it on any level. These rules could change at any time, depending on what the proxy server host does or what Team speak does. At this time it is ok to use them.”

I’m more relieved after getting this answer. The proxy server in question is a legally registered company from Australia. That was one of the reasons why I chose Battleping. It wouldn’t be in their interest to do anything that could damage their reputation with players, game companies, and aussie law.

I’d advise anyone to stay clear from a VPN since this kind of service uses strong encryption tools which makes the connection slower. It’s ideal to establish a safe connection for business or to circumvent censorship. But it’s really not recommended for a game because it slows down speed.

A proxy server like Battleping, and others like it, worries only about getting the best route to the game’s data centers and at the lowest latency possible. It’s not perfect. Nearly every day I have to check which server is offering me the lowest ping. That in turn activates the security authentication because I’m tunneling through a different server. From GM Xionaque’s statement, it doesn’t seem that ArenaNet will ban someone for doing this but I wouldn’t want to activate the security authentication too much in a single day since that could raise the alarm.

I hope this helps dispel concerns over the issue.

Amon.5042:

Got an answer from support about this via GM Xionaque.

“It is not against the rules to use a proxy server to connect to the game. But doing so is at your own risk. Team speak is also ok but we do not support it on any level. These rules could change at any time, depending on what the proxy server host does or what Team speak does. At this time it is ok to use them.”

I’m more relieved after getting this answer. The proxy server in question is a legally registered company from Australia. That was one of the reasons why I chose Battleping. It wouldn’t be in their interest to do anything that could damage their reputation with players, game companies, and aussie law.

I’d advise anyone to stay clear from a VPN since this kind of service uses strong encryption tools which makes the connection slower. It’s ideal to establish a safe connection for business or to circumvent censorship. But it’s really not recommended for a game because it slows down speed.

A proxy server like Battleping, and others like it, worries only about getting the best route to the game’s data centers and at the lowest latency possible. It’s not perfect. Nearly every day I have to check which server is offering me the lowest ping. That in turn activates the security authentication because I’m tunneling through a different server. From GM Xionaque’s statement, it doesn’t seem that ArenaNet will ban someone for doing this but I wouldn’t want to activate the security authentication too much in a single day since that could raise the alarm.

I hope this helps dispel concerns over the issue.

Amon really thanks a lot for your answer really makes me able to breath once again. I know I carelessly did what you just mentioned:
"Nearly every day I have to check which server is offering me the lowest ping. That in turn activates the security authentication because I’m tunneling through a different server. "
I was just worried about getting the best tunnel to get a fluent game, and I am 100% sure Battleping really helps with my connection because without it I noticed my skills being casted around 5 secs after I press a button, and with battleping is almost immediate casting.
Anyways, I will be careful next time to only choose one of the servers that Battleping provides in order to avoid triggering the security authentication alarm.
As I can see I was too greedy to just get to see my gaming 100% fluent, so that’s why I was choosing between 6 different servers every day, hehehe I think I should have been careful. I just thought the authorization emails were enough to avoid getting problems, but seems not. I’m also installing Google Authenticator in my cellphone, I read this one is better than email notifications and would also prevent for getting problems like the one we are having now T_T.

My account was restored about 9 hours ago. The whole process took 51 hours and honestly I am quite satisfied with the efficiency and very grateful for the efforts the support team made.

However, I still have one little complaint to make that the last mail from ANet didn’t tell me anything about why I got banned. While I did notice that the error message I got when logging in change from “terminated due to botting” to “accessed by an unauthorized individual” not long before my account was restored, they didn’t specify the reason I got banned. Despite that Amon is very kind to submit a ticket about proxy server and the answer from GM did clarify the issue a bit, I still have no idea that the reason I got banned was due to happening to use the same IP range as the bot did, unauthorized login attempt, being reported by the real bot, or something else. In other words, I am not sure and hence pretty worried that I might get banned again because now I don’t really know what I can or can’t do.

Don’t want to sound ungrateful, in fact I am, but we need a more clear message about the proxy server policy and what you mean by “at your own risk”, especially when bot/RMT is involved, since the proxy server does improve the connection quality pretty much for us oceanic players.

Anyway, thank you, support team, Amon, and NeuroN, for the help you provide and good luck to those who is still waiting.

Glad you got your account back!

“At your own risk” is just a way for them to protect themselves in case the player has problems with the third-party program they’re using. If GW2 crashes because of the third-party software or if your game account got hacked by using a third-party software, they can’t be held responsible.

I got pleasantly surprised with the GM response since it’s not usually that simple for them to give us a straight answer. Just don’t keep changing proxy servers too quickly and you should be ok.

ChungHan Ho.5837:

My account was restored about 9 hours ago. The whole process took 51 hours and honestly I am quite satisfied with the efficiency and very grateful for the efforts the support team made.

However, I still have one little complaint to make that the last mail from ANet didn’t tell me anything about why I got banned. While I did notice that the error message I got when logging in change from “terminated due to botting” to “accessed by an unauthorized individual” not long before my account was restored, they didn’t specify the reason I got banned. Despite that Amon is very kind to submit a ticket about proxy server and the answer from GM did clarify the issue a bit, I still have no idea that the reason I got banned was due to happening to use the same IP range as the bot did, unauthorized login attempt, being reported by the real bot, or something else. In other words, I am not sure and hence pretty worried that I might get banned again because now I don’t really know what I can or can’t do.

Don’t want to sound ungrateful, in fact I am, but we need a more clear message about the proxy server policy and what you mean by “at your own risk”, especially when bot/RMT is involved, since the proxy server does improve the connection quality pretty much for us oceanic players.

Anyway, thank you, support team, Amon, and NeuroN, for the help you provide and good luck to those who is still waiting.

I’m so glad for you that you got this lucky, Right now I’m around 40 hours by now waiting. I hope I get as lucky as you, and get back to play. I actually swallowed my desperation and my unhappyness, and decided to update my ticket by providing full… full… full information, of all the ips that i’ve used from Battleping, the locations, my own DNS ip my information, details of my account, and details hours, timings, mailing, etc everything very detailed, cuz I thought… instead of raging I might better provide more information to be useful and help support team to solve my problem. I started to imagine how many raging message would they receive and also imagine how fast would I work solving a problem if the clients would instead provide full detailed information so to process everything faster and make things easier for them.
Still I agree with you and with Amon and with some others, we should be informed a little bit more, not just for what we did wrong, because I’m pretty sure that everything I did wasn’t bad, but for, “what would be things we should avoid doing, in order to avoid getting automatically suspended” because know that I get to understand a little more, in my case, using 5 different server locations + my own DNS ip, it might have probably triggered the alarm and auto suspend my account.
I also checked something VERY interesting:

At 3:40 am (I know I was on a full night of playing haha) I received an email saying that I should authenticate an ip… and guess what, it was my own DNS ip. It seems my Battleping got disconected for just a little bit, and that caused to get into my own DNS connection automatically. You can imagine, playing with an USA ip and then all of the sudden switch to a Chinese IP, and just that moment, exactly that time, I got suspended. I just noticed that just now that I was checking all my emails from Arenanet. It seems I ran out of the time to authenticate, because I was playing, or probably just because it switched and they might have thought my account was hacked. Anyways this teaches me to only use two… or maybe just one server from Battleping, after I get suspended. We all learn from mistakes.

As someone else pointed in this post, I think it is a great idea for Arenanet to provide their own VPN for Guild wars 2 and Guild Wars 1, they might even do a nice profit, and ask for the same payment Battleping has, around 15 dollars for 3 months. I would be glad to use their service.

Anyways greetings to you ChungHan Ho, if you happen to be in Sorrow’s furnace we could say hi to each other in Chinese hehehe