Physical Blizzard authenticator

This topic was closed. If you have a comment or suggestion, your best option is to create a topic in General so that your voice can be heard by those that make the decisions.

3 Likes

You’ll want to post on General Discussion. The people that make these decisions don’t come here for player feedback.

4 Likes

Android emulator, baybee.

In all seriousness:

The battle.net authenticator doesn’t require cell service to work, only WiFi. And a $40 omni-authenticator for all the 2FA websites want you to have nowadays is hardly a bad investment.

2 Likes

I suspect something like an iPod’ll do it. One of the fancier ones, which are basically cellphones without the cell or the phone.

4 Likes

That’s what I use; an old iPod Touch. You can get 'em refurbished pretty inexpensively, although an old smart phone is probably cheaper and will work even if you don’t activate phone service on it.

7 Likes

My nephew uses an old smartphone, it doesn’t even have a sim card. You can find them dirt cheap (sometimes cheaper than the keyfob). Just connect through the Google Play store (if using Android) via wifi, and download what you need.

7 Likes

I would just warn you to make sure the OS on any old device you buy will support the authenticator. My current phone has Android 4 something and after the last update, the authenticator doesn’t actually work correctly: it will come up and complain about not having Internet (even though it does) and the method where it pops up a notification and you just approve it doesn’t work. I have to type in the code manually every time.

Of course that’s usable (it’s the same as using the physical authenticator would be), I’m just concerned that the next authenticator update will break it entirely. And I wonder if older versions of Android also might not work at all.

1 Like

^ This

It doesn’t have to be an expensive cellphone. It just has to be something that will run a compatible version of either Android or iOS.

That would also include cheap tablets , iPods , cheap iPhones and Android emulator software. There’s a few people on the forums who operate just fine using Android emulator software with the mobile authenticator installed to it and have done for quite some time now.

PS Android can run on smart fridges and smart TVs as well. You could possibly get it running on that as well :smiley:
PPS No I’m not saying run out and get a smart TV just to run the authenticator. Just that a few smart devices someone might already own could be used for the authenticator

8 Likes

Here’s a thought

Raspberry Pi/Arduino + Cheap USB storage + Digital Counter Display = relatively cheap Blizzard authenticator

4 Likes

Let’s cut to the chase here and trim away all the fat. Account security is up to the account holder. Not blizzard. They are under no obligation to provide additional security. It’s your job to make sure your account is secure, your PC is secure, and your emails are secure. As it is? They still do offer a multitude of ways to use an authenticator. Android devices. OS devices. And emulators. Which once again they do not have to provide at all. they can pull all types of authenticators. They choose not to. They could charge for the digital authenticators. They do not.

12 Likes

If you have a cell phone that can be set up with SMS Protect, you don’t have to get rid of the physical authenticator when it dies.

I have a physical authenticator attached to my account but I no longer have the device, it melted in a car fire.

When I am prompted for an authenticator now it has a drop down box that allows me to select having a text message sent with code instead.

I’ve had no issues access my account without having the authenticator any longer, and this is even after changing my internet provider and having the system flag it as a log-in change.

3 Likes