Crossplay update soft region locked everyone

General Discussion
292

I did note the IP-address and followed the instructions, but it did not work. Maybe I did something wrong? I have a couple of questions:

I did not understand number 11. [enter both the beginning and end IP here, the ones you noted from before “From:” is the low number and “To:” is the high end]
What IP should I be entering? Because on the website ’ https://www.whois.com/whois/’ I did not find ‘NetRange’ anywhere. I copied the European IP-address and found this instead [% Information related to ‘5.42.160.0 - 5.42.175.255’]

Also, are you sure I should just ‘next 3x’ on number 7. ?
Shouldn’t I do ‘This programs path’ or just stay on ‘All programs’?
And shouldn’t I do “Block all programs” instead of “Allow the connection”?

You wrote “I normally connect to ORD1 (US-Central) but after blocking 24.105.0.0 - 24.105.63.255 (which is the entire North American block) I was routed to cdg1 in Paris.”
Which means I found the right (european) IP-address of ‘5.42.160.0 - 5.42.175.255’ to block, but I am still connecting to Europe.

Do you believe my Norton Anti Virus has something to do with it? In this Windows Firewall it said “These settings are being managed by vendor application Norton 360”
Thing is, I blocked my Norton firewall for 15 min and I was still connected to Europe

293

Hey there. Full disclosure, I am British, and have always played on NA servers as whenever I’ve played EU I’ve had a lot of problems both with toxicity and general problems of communication and understanding. My ping is actually fine on NA servers due to the quality of my connection (that and I don’t really play Doomfist or Tracer lol). The past few days of Overwatch since crossplay was introduced have generally been a very dispiriting experience, and as a result I’ve decided to no longer play the game until this change is resolved. If it isn’t… well, I guess I won’t be playing any more. I understand some people welcome the change, and good for them, but for people like me, it all but makes the game unplayable. Anyway, peace out and happy trails heroes. :slight_smile:

6 Likes
294

The idea is that the whois server can tell you about the entire block of addresses that a single address is part of. If you put in 5.42.160.70 (or anything else in that block), you should see the block information in the output. I see this line early on:

inetnum:        5.42.160.0 - 5.42.175.255

However, you may not need to do the research. These ranges worked for Yauria:

Hitting “next” 3 times should bring you to “Scope”. You can also just click on “Scope” in the left side panel. This is the window where you set IP addresses. Make sure you are setting the addresses in the bottom half, remote IP addresses. (Local IP address is your own computer’s address, so the default ‘any’ is fine).

I don’t understand this question, but let me summarize:

Select outgoing rules, and create a new rule.
Set the Rule Type (starting panel) to “Custom”.
Set the Scope (panel you reach after Next x3) to have the blocks of IP addresses you want to avoid as remote addresses.
Set the Name (last panel) to anything easy to remember.

You should be able to skip all other steps. In particular,
The “Program” panel default of “All programs” is fine, and the easiest thing to do. If your IP address blocks are correct, you are blocking only Blizzard servers so only Blizzard programs should be affected anyway.
The “Action” panel should already default to “Block the Connection” in a new rule, you should not have to set it.

Windows Firewall will not run if Norton’s Firewall is running. You can either disable the Norton Firewall while playing, or create the same rule in Norton Firewall. It should be a similar process, but of course, the interface is different.

Note that you need to exit completely from Overwatch while or after you set up the rule. It decides your region when the program starts, not when the match starts.

I didn’t write that, Eyevou did, but in any case, you may have blocked only Paris and not Amsterdam or Bahrain.

If when you connect to a test match, you find that CTRL-SHIFT-N shows you somewhere other than America (“ord1”), then you have to take a good look at where you are connecting.

If you are connecting to an address in the IP address blocks that should be rejected by the rule, then the rule isn’t right. If you’re connecting to another non-American IP address, then you’ll have to identify and add that block as well.
However, I think that blocking Paris, Amsterdam, and Bahrain blocks should be enough for anyone in Europe. Players in other parts of the world might need to block out more though.

1 Like
295

We have come to the point of ppl having to block IPs and use VPNs for a chance of circumventing a change, thats taking peoples liberty where they want to play away.

Let that sink in for a moment.

9 Likes
296

I am trying many different things and it will take some time before I figure out where it went wrong; since I have Norton and not just Windows firewall.
I just have one question if you know the answer: Do you know if I should go to ‘Using a range’ or ‘Using a network address’ when typing in the IP I want to block on Norton?

297

I don’t have Norton, but my guess would be “Using a range” ; that should ask you for a low and a high, like 5.42.160.0 and 5.42.175.255 ; “Using a network address” probably will take one address at a time (5.42.160.1, 5.42.160.2, 5.42.160.3 … ) which would be very tedious.

1 Like
298

the problem is, When it isnt peak time in NA, all NA players get put into EU servers. So u might just be stuck there alone or with other ppl that decided to block EU servers.
What i do is I play in groups exclusively, you pick ppl however you like, but it is time consuming for sure

300

I’ve never been put on an EU server even at 5am…
I’ve been put on LA instead of Chicago a few times, but I think only when grouped.

301

You should certainly test with custom games first and quickplay next before risking leaver penalties in competitive, but the alternative is a VPN which adds latency and costs money.

I think the choice is really up to the individual.

3 Likes
302

Anyone have a good VPN recommendation to bypass the server lock? Don’t care if it’s not free

304

Most EU t500 streamers are using exitlag.

3 Likes
305

Thanks I just tried ExpressVPN but doesn’t seem to work ;/

306

WM you got a way to direct link a thread to you, that I can report, for someone doing “bait”. (basically trolling to derail a thread?) Let me know. Thank you!

307

Maybe read your actual forums and see how many players are STILL having huge ping spikes. Many are having to use technical bypasses to get to regions they want to play in. Especially in the EU. You have basically put everyone in one group and they have massive language barriers which will undoubtedly lead to many many false reports. Perhaps even some unintended account actions.

You have basically tied your shoelaces together in a 20 mile marathon while being chased by hungry lions.

3 Likes
308

It works now. I just played on Americas, NA. I want to thank (by order): Squirrel, Negima,Blaisephemy, DreadPirate, Eyevou, Zenzai. Yauria & everybody else who helped.

Let me start explaining.
My thoughts on why it did not work before, although I am not sure, here’s what i believe: Norton Anti Virus was in control of my firewall so I had to write down all the IP’s in there too. I am not sure if I have to do it in both Windows firewall and Norton but I did it on both.
There’s also other Anti virus programs that could stand in the way but I do not know. I believe one could try to exit them and close them down in Task Manager to be sure they are closed.

There’s a lot of guides that I used and a lot of numbers that I wrote down. Negima, DreadPirate, Eyevou & Yauria’s combined guide should work perfectly. I do not know how to put all their texts here since this is my first time writing here, but if somebody could do it, that would be grand. I will try putting all their works in this thread; hope it works.
Anybody who wants to play on Americas, NA can do it, thanks to their guide.

I tried opening my other Anti virus programs to see if it was them too or only Norton; it seems as if it were only Norton I had to write down all the IP’s in and not the other anti virus programs.

I might edit this text later if I remember more stuff.

.

EDIT: I do not know how long this might work. Some changes or patches might break it, meaning it won’t work, or it might need an update. Or Blizzard will (I believe) most likely try to sabotage this for us so we cannot play where we want, but as of now (25/06/2021), it works for me.

1 Like
309

Congrats! Welcome to America!

1 Like
310

I just played on Americas, NA server thanks to these people and their combined information.
I will start by order: Negima

" At the risk of blizzard getting mad at me for this, I’m trying to help an EU friend (who is unavailable to be my guinea pig atm) get NA only games again. She’s currently stuck on ams1, but I’ve heard this process might work for other EU/etc. players who only want NA. It involves blocking the specific IP regions that blizzard uses, forcing you to (hopefully) only connect to the NA available servers.

I’m going to borrow someone elses guide for the most part, but make some small changes. Make sure you exit the battle.net application and close Overwatch before proceeding.

The easiest way to load the firewall controls is the following:

  1. Use Windows-R to bring up the run box of the operating system.
  2. Type WF.msc and hit the enter key.

Once you have opened the firewall controls

  1. Click on Inbound Rules on the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security window.
  2. Select New Rule under Inbound Rules on the right.
  3. Select Custom rule on the next screen and click on next.
  4. Select “This program path:” and navigate to your overwatch install location. (You can find this using the bnet app, go to settings > Game Settings > Install Location and you’ll see where it’s installed to.) You MUST select Overwatch.exe and NOT the launcher. This is important. The exe you want is under /Overwatch/retail/
  5. Leave everything as is on the ports and protocols screen and click next.
  6. Select “These IP addresses” under both “Which local/remote IP addresses does this rule apply to”,click add, and enter the scope using these values
    Add these ranges:

From: 157.175.0.0
To: 157.175.255.255

From: 15.185.0.0
To: 15.185.255.255

From: 5.42.160.0
To: 5.42.175.255

From: 211.234.96.0
To: 211.234.127.255

From: 54.144.0.0
To: 54.221.255.255

  1. Click ok, the IP range should now be listed under these IP addresses. Click next.
  2. Select block the connection on the next screen. This blocks those IP addresses so that connections cannot be established anymore.
  3. Leave everything as is on the next screen and click next.
  4. Name the new rule and add a description to it if you want.
  5. The new rule appears in the inbound rules list now.
  6. Now do the same to the outbound rules list.

This should block the majority of servers that aren’t US. I’m sure there’s some sneaky data center somewhere, but we can figure that out in the next step.

Now go ahead and launch the bnet app again, and load up Overwatch. Join a QP or vs. AI game, and once inside press CTRL+SHIFT+N and you’ll get a screen full of data. Check the upper left corner, and see what server you’re connected to. If you see ord1 or lax1, congrats. You’re in NA. If not, you’re still connected to the wrong server.

If any non NA players are willing to give this a shot, I’d love to hear your results. The solution used to be to apply this to all programs, not just the overwatch.exe, but apparently somewhere along the line blizz made a firewall exception when using the launcher, and this is supposedly the bypass."

“You made both an inbound and outbound rule, right? For the correct exe? Also make sure you don’t have a secondary firewall from an antivirus or anything that might try and override the windows firewall.”

.
.

DreadPirate:

  • https ://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/crossplay-update-soft-region-locked-everyone/618837/289
    I put space after ‘https’ because I cannot link more than two links. [“Sorry, new users can only put 2 links in a post.”] So you’ll have to remove the space to get to the website.

“In this topic, we got it working for Kyzio,”

  • https ://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/sooo-i-need-a-vpn-now/619485
    I put space after ‘https’ because I cannot link more than two links. [“Sorry, new users can only put 2 links in a post.”] So you’ll have to remove the space to get to the website.

“In this topic, Eyevou put the steps into an organized guide,”

  • https ://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/guide-you-want-to-change-your-server-without-using-a-vpn/619508
    I put space after ‘https’ because I cannot link more than two links. [“Sorry, new users can only put 2 links in a post.”] So you’ll have to remove the space to get to the website.

  • https ://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/crossplay-update-soft-region-locked-everyone/618837/294
    I put space after ‘https’ because I cannot link more than two links. [“Sorry, new users can only put 2 links in a post.”] So you’ll have to remove the space to get to the website.

"The idea is that the whois server can tell you about the entire block of addresses that a single address is part of. If you put in 5.42.160.70 (or anything else in that block), you should see the block information in the output. I see this line early on:

inetnum: 5.42.160.0 - 5.42.175.255

However, you may not need to do the research. These ranges worked for Yauria:"

  • https ://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/guide-you-want-to-change-your-server-without-using-a-vpn/619508/5
    I put space after ‘https’ because I cannot link more than two links. [“Sorry, new users can only put 2 links in a post.”] So you’ll have to remove the space to get to the website.

“you may have blocked only Paris and not Amsterdam or Bahrain.”
This means that you should be sure that if you get into Europe when you want Americas, that you continue to block the IP’s of Europe if they place you in it.

.
.

And I shall end with something I found funny and true, by: BallAirlines
" We have come to the point of ppl having to block IPs and use VPNs for a chance of circumventing a change, thats taking peoples liberty where they want to play away.

Let that sink in for a moment."

5 Likes
311

Thank you very much!

312

Just an update on this -

I did in fact get it to work. I updated my original post to reflect the changes that need to be made for a successful block. tl;dr - we only need an outbound rule for all programs on those specific remote IPs. I was able to successfully block myself from all regions except for KR, and only got KR games. Was able to block KR afterwards, unblock NA, and only got NA games. Repeated the process for one of the SEA servers, only got those as well. So it does actually work.

4 Likes
313

Thanks!
(“Post must be at least 20 characters”)