I’ve come across many posts on forums and Reddit about accounts being mistakenly banned, which has made me quite concerned. To avoid any potential issues, I wanted to ask for your valuable insights and advice on this matter.
I recently graduated from university and will be starting my new job in April. In the future, I expect to spend about half of my working hours remotely, and I may need to use a VPN for that purpose. To ensure a smooth workflow, I have set up two computers—one dedicated to work and the other for gaming.
That being said, let’s be honest—who can completely resist playing World of Warcraft while working from home? My main concern is: if I use a VPN on one computer for remote work while logging into the US servers of World of Warcraft on another computer, could this lead to my account being banned?
Furthermore, due to the nature of my job, I may need to change employers every few months (though I won’t be moving; only the clients I work with will change), which means my VPN’s IP address will also change accordingly. Would these frequent IP changes increase the risk of my account being flagged or banned? That said, I assume there aren’t many players in Japan accessing the US servers, so the chances of my VPN IP overlapping with others should be relatively low—would that be a reasonable assumption?
I would sincerely appreciate any insights or advice you could share. Thank you very much in advance for your help!
I don’t think a VPN would, though I could also be wrong here, but remote work, I think this is a grey area. Blizzard won’t really give into details about would could lead to suspensions/bans when it comes to certain things, and this is intentional as to why they won’t release these sort of details.
VPN use is not forbidden, not supported, but ok. They often are used to diagnose connection issues. If you do use one though, I would recommend using the same one, rather then constantly changing location.
Excellent plan. Your work machine should not touch the game, esp if you use any automation programs for work like Autohotkey. It is not the VPN that is the issue, it is the tools some folk use for automating parts of their work routines that can set of flags.
Your game machine sounds like it will be operating separately without a VPN, without any remote connection software, and without any automation software. Use only addons from trusted sources, don’t use them to spam or otherwise break the rules. Do not create macros outside the game that do things the in-game macro maker can’t do. Stick to the in-game macro tools only.
Kozzae gave some great advice too. IF you use a VPN on a gaming computer, it is best to use the same one so you don’t look like you are jumping around the world.
It seems like as long as the gaming computer and the work computer are separate, it should be fine. However, they are on the same local network, so I’m still a bit worried.
Additionally, regarding the comment “IF you use a VPN on a gaming computer, it is best to use the same one so you don’t look like you are jumping around the world,” as I mentioned in the second-to-last paragraph of my original post, while I can guarantee that I will be using the same VPN for a few months (i.e., the one connected to the client company), I will change clients after a few months, which means I will also need to change VPNs. I’m unsure if that would pose a risk. However, I can guarantee that all of this will be within Japan, specifically Osaka.
I would appreciate any further insights you may have. Thank you again!
Although I’ve linked the authenticator, I’m not quite sure what you mean. Could you clarify?
Having the Battlenet Auth on your Battlenet account tells Blizzard that you have taken extra steps to secure it. The account tends to have fewer chances of being locked for security reasons based on just an IP or computer change. Accounts without an Auth are more likely to get auto locked for security reasons if something “odd” happens. To unlock it the user just needs to change their password from the new location or device, but that is a pain. People can prevent that by having extra security on the account.
Your VPN would be set at the computer level, not your router or modem so should not impact your gaming computer. Right? It would just impact the work computer connecting to your work locations.
Again though, use of a VPN alone does not trigger anything more than a security lockout at most. It is what people DO when jumping around the globe (VPN) that can flag it, and what software they are using. There is anti-cheat software that Blizzard runs.
I would assume the VPN you will be using is a work VPN. You will not want to send your gaming sessions through it. You should be able to specify what traffic goes through the VPN, only send specific work items through that to go through it. Ultimately most VPNs will also reduce performance and can introduce botttlenecks, so any streaming, or voice call should if possible avoid the VPN as well.
What they mean about vpns is that if you use them set it so it’s one country and only one country don’t say your in Usa one day, Australia, Japan and maybe the UK every other day.
If it’s the same machine that appears to be jumping faster than the speed of light around the world, that can pretty easily be determined and deduced to be a VPN, especially if it’s connecting from a known VPN endpoint. Now, swapping from your desktop at your regular IP to a new laptop using a VPN, that’s going to be a lot more suspicious.