GameMax and other proxy services - AVOID!

T

TheLaggingShaman

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I don't mean to name and shame a product here, especially one that offers so much (tried and tested) benefit to us South African players. But the truth is that the cost of using such a service is far more detrimental than the temporary benefit, as I will explain further below.

The long

GameMax (and other services like LowerPing) tunnels your connection via an international server to lower your latency. It works, but it also changes your IP and associates your account with all the other account using the same service and IP. Unfortunately, Blizzard has a policy of banning all the accounts connected with the one that infringed on the ToU.

Thus, as soon as one account is flagged by Blizzard for abuse of the ToU, all of them are, and it is very likely you will lose your account for having done nothing at all. And due to the nature of proxy services, there is no way to isolate the guilty accounts, so there is little opportunity for recourse.

So, how risky is it? You'll get mixed responses. Some people are able to use proxy services for a short duration without any incident. Others are banned almost immediately, such as in my case. But the overwhelming trend (if you do a quick Google search) is that long-term users eventually get hit at some point or another. Blizzard themselves have stated that it is possible to get banned in such a way and it is highly recommended that you do not employ the use of proxy services.

Personally, I was banned today, after having used GameMax for barely a week - for "Exploitation of the economy" and trade in "virtual goods and in-game currency", two things I have never ever had the slightest involvement in.

The short

Avoid, avoid, avoid GameMax and other proxy services that offer to lower your ping. It may work, and may be very tempting especially to us Saffers, but it will catch up with you in weeks, days, perhaps even hours - and you will lose your account and all of the time/money invested in it.

Again: My intention is not to name and shame. GameMax happens to be the most convenient and popular of South Africa proxies, in my experience, thus it is the one I have chosen to focus on. However, you are equally at risk with all of them. The choice is yours.
 
...or setup your own one by getting vps doing the dirty. still you are going to pay at least R50 for that p/m and will not get the exact same results such as the pay lower my ping services. last such service i used without any issues was lowerping, but however as you say for some it's just a matter of time as my friend is on his final warning for using these services.
 
or just make sure you connect to the login servers with your own ip. I.E dont forward port 1119 or w/e it is
 
I wouldn't say that Blizzard has no way of identifying the guilty accounts. They log everything that happens in the game. But considering the amount of information that is logged, it will take considerable effort to identify which account are guilty and which are not.

I also don't think that Blizzard bans everyone using that IP as soon as one of them breaks the ToU. More likely if there is a larger number of transgressions, or the type of transgressions. That might explain why some get banned immediately, while other takes a while before getting a ban. Some ppl might just be joining the service at an inopportune time.
 
OP, I disagree. I've been using WTFast now for a few months and have never been banned. Also used Smoothping for about a year prior to switching to WTFast. No problems at all.
 
These tunneling services have forwarded all their IP ranges through to Blizzard so people won't get banned when logging from 2 different IPs across the globe.

Been tunneling for about 3 years myself.
 
avert said:
or just make sure you connect to the login servers with your own ip. I.E dont forward port 1119 or w/e it is
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I didn't know about this, thanks for sharing. But are you sure it would protect your account? Even if you log in with your own IP, once in-game the data will still be sent via the proxy so it seems like your account could still get banned.

bradrap said:
These tunneling services have forwarded all their IP ranges through to Blizzard so people won't get banned when logging from 2 different IPs across the globe.

Been tunneling for about 3 years myself.
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I've been in contact with Blizzard over the weekend and GameMax was the exact reason I was banned (due to the IP change). So maybe the more popular tunneling services have done so but this one definitely hasn't.

SnowWar said:
Op just don't know wtf he is doing. Let him be
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I admit I acted rashly by making this thread as soon as I was banned. Fortunately I have been able to get my account back, which I am very grateful for, but Blizzard has assured me that the lock will be replaced if I return to using a proxy. Maybe the risk is slight, and you guys seem to know better than me, but it is very much there so I feel this thread was justified.
 
/facepalm, /sigh.
most of the proxy servers now forward the ip to blizz.
the reason you got baned is there is a application on blizzards servers called sentinal or something. anyway it is a automated scanner that looks for suspicious behavior and will ban acounts that violate it's rules.
Blizzard are aware that some users use proxy servers and for the most part turn a blind eye.
Being a boon and repeatedly loggin in with and without a proxy service is likely to trigger this automated sentry to ban your account.

If you are going to use a proxy , JUST USE the proxy, dont go in without and then with it. That is the safest way.

Anyway been using various proxies for years with no hassles.
I also used to move around alot and logged in from various parts of the world without getting banned.

blizzard are not robots and as you saw your account was re-instated quite quickly.

I hope you enjoyed your day (without wow) in the sun :)
 
You know i have been using gamemax for well over a year now and I had my account banned once. I called Blizzard (yes called them) spoke to a support person explained that where I live and why I use this. He then told me best to connect with the proxy and not jump around using normal connection and then the proxy. Since then their system picks it up as you connecting from 1 place and then in a short time halfway around the world.

Anyways he marked my account as using a proxy and never had issues again. And I have nothing but praise about Battleping. Even a few blizzard posters I heard praised it. I'll look around and link those posts.

Anyways nothing wrong with using a proxy service Blizzard does not support it though. There is nothing in ToC that prohibits its use.
 
The problem with the commercial ones and the free ones, many chinese farming companies use them to hide / cloak their IP's of their farmers. Which in turn means the IP's of the gaming services are marked as high risk ranges.
We have guys in our guild which are gold capped, and everytime they transferred high amounts of gold over to alts or other characters, an autoban would kick in... so yes they do monitor gold flow through characters... add a free / paid for proxying service, and the chances of being flagged as a gold trader increases drastically.

Using your own proxy service is definately the way to go. Been playing with a proxy now for over 2 years and not once I have been banned / suspended.

Also Blizzard did state you are more than welcome to use it...

http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=8496299551&sid=1&pageNo=2
 
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I do not thinlk I will be able to not use my proxy, I get 250ms with it and 500ms without.
 
Nookie said:
I do not thinlk I will be able to not use my proxy, I get 250ms with it and 500ms without.
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Have you tried battleping? It uses your own IP address thus does not look suspicious.
 
Have you tried battleping? It uses your own IP address thus does not look suspicious.
Click to expand...

After reading this thread yesterday, I decided to give battleping a testdrive, and DAMN! It shaved off about 300-350ms off my temporary 3G connection.

Brownie points for you guys! ;-)
 
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