[Guide] You want to change your SERVER without using a VPN?

Competitive Discussion
1

I posted this in the general forum but it can be useful here as well.

Hello everyone. I’ve been told that people don’t like to play in certain regions and that blizzard has removed the easy way to swap where you want to go… here’s how to block specific servers and choose where you play. It’s not foolproof but here ya go:

First you need to find the IP address of the server/region you want to block:

Enter a game and press CTRL+Shift+N, note down the IP address at the very top, finish playing the game you’re currently in of course, then take that IP address and go here: https://www.whois.com/whois/, on the first line you’ll see “NetRange” make a note of the whole thing for later.

Block those IP Addresses in Windows Firewall:

  1. Close your Overwatch Client
  2. Double-click Security in the task bar (for windows 10)
  3. Go to Firewall & network protection
  4. Advanced Settings (A new window will open up)
  5. Outbound Rules (on the left)
  6. New Rule (on the right)
  7. Custom Rule (radio button)
  8. Next x3
  9. “These IP Addresses:” (Radio button, second box) >
  10. Add…
  11. “This IP Address Range” (Radio button)
  12. [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]
  13. OK
  14. Next x3
  15. [Input a name]
  16. Finish
  17. Restart your Overwatch Client.

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.

Good luck everyone and I hope you have fun wherever you want to play!

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2

Or you could start a solo custom game so that you don’t have to stay.

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Thank you so much for this :smiley: I was already looking into some VPN’s, but I do not want to pay just to be able to play the game.

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I have been using this for a long time now. I live in South Africa and play on the EU servers. Since the ME servers popped up I would get automatically connected to them and the quality of the games plummeted.

Been using my firewall to block the ME IP address range so that I connect directly to EU.

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This is a great “fix” for those of us on EU servers that want to play on US. So far I’ve blocked Bahrain (15.179.0.0-15.188.255.255), Paris (5.42.176.0-5.42.191.255), and Amsterdam(5.42.160.0-5.42.175.255).

Seemingly the client decides which server to use when starting the game, so changing firewall rules requires the game to be restarted, even in a custom game “best location”

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6

You are correct! When you boot the game the client decides the region it’s going to be using for that play session based on your geolocation and ping.

7

Interesting, thanks for the guide.

It should be enough to block the desired IP address ranges for the overwatch.exe, right?

There are some other .exe files that want internet access, but I guess I don’t strictly have to block the IP address ranges for them as well, or do I?
After a brief look at my “Malwarebytes Windows Firewall Control” rules screen, besides the 3 overwatch.exe files, there are also:
battle.net.exe - Battle.net App
agent.exe - Blizzard Update Agent
blizzarderror.exe - Blizzard Error Reporter
blizzardbrowser.exe - Blizzard Browser

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Those are all used with the battle.net launcher. You don’t have to worry about any of those settings.

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You are just great guys, its working flawlessly , thank you so much :slight_smile:

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I did the same and blocked Bahrain, Amsterdam and Paris but am still not connected to US, but some other Server where I have around 250 ping. Some gb1 or something like that.

Now I am trying to block that IP address, but do not know how to modify the rule that I have just made where I put all the other IP’s, because when I make a new rule to put the other IP’s it just puts me back to EU.

EDIT: Nvm :smiley: after blocking that gt1 whatever Server now I am connected to ORD1 :smiley: Yay, thank you so much :smiley:

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You did guide me to this but i dont know the ASIA Ips can u please tell me

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Do you know the Asian Ips to block

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No, I am sorry, I do not. I think I saw someone post them in another thread. Take a look here:

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There is still one issue tho, i am still able to see only games from EU under LFG.

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Yes me too, but I do not care about it since I never use it :smiley:

I am just content that I am able to play on US in modes I do play.

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Well it makes me sad little bit as i had fun with finding people to play with there on my alt.

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I only used it like twice since the crossplay came out and joined the group that was a mix of PC and Console players since I wanted to try it out, but other than that I stopped using that feature years ago. :smiley:

The majority of those groups are either derank groups or some e-girls looking for a boost. Cringe.

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Hmmm, I’m not sure how or where that part of the system is getting its information. Maybe it’s getting that info from the bnet service… I’d have to dive into that.

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This just doesn’t work for me and I do not understand why.

I use Bullguard but their Firewall runs through Windows Defender.

I’ve created the rule twice, Inbound and Outbound (as well as just Inbound like the OPs guide) and I still get connected to ams1

Any ideas?

Update: also tried disabling Bullguard’s Firewall, so it’s solely Windows Defender and still no change.

Deleted / recreated the rules several times and shut the game each time and Battle.net via Task Manager to make sure it definitely y isn’t pre-picking.

Really wanna get this working because I was just getting back in OW and they’ve really messed it up w/ this Region Locking shpeel, bc EU is just the absolute worst to play on.

1 Like
20

go to inbound rules and scroll until you see a bunch of rules called “overwatch application” disable all those.
that is what fixed it for me. i think they override any new rules you create unless you disable them.
OP should add that tip to the guide.