Well, I’m glad it worked for you!
I’m also really confused why it doesn’t work in reverse, must be something else going on, but I guess for now it doesn’t matter.
To block all of america you have to clock the entire range, which is 24.105.0.0 - 24.105.63.255. When I blocked it I was sent to cdg1 (in paris). You can check an IP range by taking whatever address you’re given originally and plugging it here: https://www.whois.com/whois/
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Interesting. Did you restart the client after setting the rule? I only tried to join a new match, but now that I think of it it might be checking latency only at startup.
Yes, you would need to restart your client to get a new auth server.
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Ah-hah! Mystery solved. 
Shoulda known.
Something interesting is that the geo has been improved with this update. I use to be sent to ams1 (in netherlands) when I use to connect via the “Europe” dropdown menu.
Confirmed working in comp; I’m now in [ord1]!
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Quoting the initial part for posterity as the complaint about losing this functionality seems to be about to get this post deleted.
Congrats!
I’m trying to get my EU friend to be able to get on NA servers by herself without the need for a US duo (me), and she’s still getting shoved in ams1.
I’ve specifically had her block the EU servers, the ME servers, the KR servers, Taiwan, and SA servers -
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
Had her close OW and the bnet app, verified no av firewall shenanigans, and had her connect up again. Still gets ams1 servers, even though the range is blocked in the firewall.
Update - Can any non NA players give this a shot, except don’t do all programs, specifically block overwatch.exe (NOT THE LAUNCHER!) and battle.net.exe (AGAIN, NOT THE LAUNCHER!) and see how it pans out for them? So wf.msc > inbound rules > new rule > custom rule > specific program (overwatch.exe and battle.net.exe), then block as normal.
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Now reaching 10mins? WOW you are lucky. I have had well over 10 min queues before cross play. For quite a few seasons now actually. Even the priority pass this season I have waited over 10 mins regularly. And this is during prime hours as well.
This is a little melodramatic honestly. I play on EU everyday because that is the only server that allows to play the game on any form of playable ping (under 200ms).
90% of the time players can speak english and understand it well enough to communicate. I have made friends with Hungarian, Dutch, Finnish, German and Russian players and we have no problems communicating with one another.
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Yikes, I would not recommend using a firewall for a game.
That’s the client trying to control the host, and if the host is strict you might be dropped from games more often. There are so many variables in play when trying to control your traffic to control the hosts traffic.
I think a vpn would be the best bet. That way the host knows you as a US ip and nothing more versus you blocking all types of IPs you may actually need.
everyone in china: first time?
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You seem to have blocked Amsterdam, but not Paris or Bahrain.
Are you sure she’s going to Amsterdam and not Paris? Did you check with CTRL-SHIFT-N?
Did you exit Overwatch completely and start the new instance after implementing the rule?
Is another firewall running and preventing Windows Firewall from running? (I’m not even able to get into Windows Firewall settings when my Avast Firewall is running, but if you were to use a ‘stop for 10 minutes’ kind of option, you might run into this issue).
Outbound rules is what you need to change, not inbound.
Positive. She sent me screenshots of the IPs, and they were well within the block range. Seems to be hit or miss…
I’ll have her try again later at some point and make sure she didn’t mess it up.
Either should work?
But outbound rules is more polite, that stops you from sending to those addresses at all, keeping the internet quiet. With inbound rules, you’d create traffic but ignore the replies.
I’d recommend not creating pointless traffic (that’s why I originally suggested an outbound rule). It shouldn’t be a serious problem, but best not give any reason for Blizzard to think about messing with people using this technique.
Yeah, I got it to work on my end (blocked all but KR, was only able to join KR) by making only an outbound rule for all programs with the following IP’s (this should make it NA only, the previously mentioned KR thing was just to test.)
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
From: 15.179.0.0
To: 15.188.255.255
From: 5.42.176.0
To: 5.42.191.255
From: 185.60.114.0
To: 185.60.115.255
From: 185.60.112.0
To: 185.60.113.255
From: 35.192.0.0
To: 35.207.255.255
From: 34.64.0.0
To: 34.127.255.255
If you use inbound you could run into scenarios where the game would try to connect to a server but your computer would refuse the reply resulting in disconnects.
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I am in EU want to connect to NA, Negima’s first rule worked for me so far (today).
Thanks Negima!!