FAQ
Why am I only having connection problems with the Blizzard Application and Blizzard Games?
There are a lot of potential causes for this. Bad data in your game files can cause both connection problems and crashes. Certain programs may fight with the application for control of your network drivers, or eat up so much bandwidth that the connection to our servers may be slowed or disconnect.
To add to all of this, everything else that you connect to across the internet is in a different physical location. Even two different data centers in the same city may use different peering partners to connect. It’s very likely that you take a different path through the internet to connect to our servers, and so comparing two games or services is not relevant.
If there are any problems between your house and our servers, you’ll need to reach out to your ISP to get them resolved. Which is why connection tests are requested, when you’re having particularly stubborn connection issues.
There is always the possibility that there is a server issue, but we try to post about these problems on the Breaking News bar on the Blizzard Application, and update our BlizzardCS Twitter as soon as we can. If you suspect this is the issue, check those locations first before trying troubleshooting.
Why do you suggest that I disable security software like antiviruses and firewalls as a troubleshooting fix when they were working with the application previously?
This has to do with how often both our application and security programs are updated. We release lots of patches to fix bugs and add more content and functions for the application. Antiviruses and firewalls also like to release lots of definitions updates to keep your computer more secure from the latest threats.
The problem happens for one of two reasons.
- Our updates cause the security to mistakenly think our application or games are a threat.
- A particular build of our application will get mistakenly added to the security’s list of ‘bad’ programs.
This may mean that you just accidentally clicked ‘no’ to a security prompt to allow our application to connect, or that the antivirus just flagged our application incorrectly as a malicious program. Updating your security programs and disabling or uninstalling them when that fails can help rule this out as a possibility.
Why do I need to swap to Ethernet when my WiFi works for other things?
WiFi is by nature less stable than a wired Ethernet connection. Many things can interfere with WiFi, from physical barriers (walls, glass, etc) to other types of waves (microwaves, etc), to computer power issues.
WiFi and USB WiFi hardware are also more prone to failure over time than an Ethernet cable is in most cases. Unless you physically damage an Ethernet cable or Ethernet port, usually they will work well for the lifetime of your PC/Router.
A WiFi transmitter or receiver is more complex and may degrade over time. The easiest way to see if your WiFi devices are the problem is connecting directly to your modem or router via Ethernet.
If it resolves your issue, there are other troubleshooting steps you can try. Note that we do not directly support wireless connections, so you may want to ask the community at this forum for help optimizing a wireless connection if you find your WiFi is at fault.
Why is my entire internet crashing when I disconnect from the Blizzard Application?
This usually indicates a local network issue. When your internet goes down, it most frequently means that your network drivers or firmware crashed, or a piece of hardware was overloaded with information.
If you have this sort of problem, the things you want to focus on first are hardware related. These steps are covered in more detail on this post. You may need to contact your ISP for more help, if the problem continues.