Do VPNs Help With IP Blocks When Gaming?
IP blocks are often warranted. It’s an efficient way to get rid of cheaters, trolls, and abusive players. However, IP blocks can sometimes work against you. And no, we’re not calling you a cheater or anything like that. What actually happens is that the admin has it out for you and decides to ruin your experience by blocking your IP.
This can happen if they’re just a sore loser who’s jealous of your skills. Or maybe one of the players is their brother or close friend, and tells them to IP block you because they don’t like you.
In any case, seeing the IP block message is downright frustrating. But what can you do, right?
Well, you could use a VPN to bypass the block. We’ll tell you how that works and if it works in this article.
How Does a Gaming VPN Hide Your IP?
VPNs don’t make your IP address magically disappear or anything like that. However, they can make it so that online users, web servers, and web sites don’t see it anymore.
To do that, a VPN uses its server to route your online connections. That means that before they reach the gaming server, your connections first stop by the VPN server. That tricks the gaming server into believing you are communicating with it via the VPN server.
Consequently, the gaming server only sees the IP address of the VPN you’re using. Hence, the VPN “hides” your IP.
Does a Gaming VPN Bypass IP Blocks?
Yes, a VPN should be able to do that. Since it helps you communicate with the gaming server through a different IP address that isn’t blocked, you should be able to connect to it and continue playing.
True, you can get blocked again. But all you need to do to fix that issue is connect to a different VPN server. And if you use a VPN with thousands of servers, it’s really easy to do that. Even if you don’t get to play anymore, at the very least you should troll the unfair admins until they can’t take it anymore. Who knows, maybe they’ll even rage quit!
Based on our experience, we can confirm that you can bypass IP blocks with a VPN. Our team ran numerous tests, and they were always able to reconnect to the game after they connected to a VPN server.
Want to Find Out Why Else You Should Use a Gaming VPN?
Bypassing IP bans isn’t the only perk of using VPNs while gaming. You can read about other ways a VPN helps you gaming here. It’s an in-depth article from GamerGirl, a blog that talks about cybersecurity, VPNs, and gaming.
The article talks about the advantages of gaming VPNs, but it also mentions what you need to look for in a gaming VPN, it answers some FAQs, and it even recommends good VPN service (plus it offers some nice discount links).
Can VPNs Bypass All Blocks?
Not exactly.
Here’s the thing – VPNs can bypass normal IP blocks. They can also bypass IP blocks at the router level. Though, in that case, you have to manually set up the VPN on your router, which can be a hassle.
However, a VPN can’t help you if the game bans your device’s MAC address (its unique identifier). In that case, your only option is to try and spoof your MAC address, though doing that is pretty difficult.
What’s more, VPNs can’t bypass account bans. If that happens to you, the only solution is to create a new account and hope it won’t get banned.
Can a Free VPN Bypass IP Blocks?
They might, but we can’t vouch for them. Free VPNs are attractive, but they’re not really worth it. It might be hard to bypass IP blocks with them because they don’t have a lot of servers. Even if they do, if their IPs get blocked, the providers don’t refresh them fast enough.
And that’s not the only issue.
Free VPNs are also slow, have capped bandwidth, don’t have reliable support, and expose you to ads. If you’re extremely unlucky, they might even infect your device with malware.
Can a Proxy Bypass IP Blocks?
Yes, a proxy should help you get around IP blocks. It works just like a VPN – it hides your IP address.
However, there is one main difference – proxies don’t have good encryption like VPNs do. Because of that, they can’t secure your traffic when you use unsecured WiFi (hackers could steal your game account’s login credentials).
What’s more, because they can’t encrypt your traffic, proxies can’t stop ISPs from throttling your bandwidth.
Can Tor Bypass IP Blocks?
Yes, you should be able to do that with Tor. Like VPNs and proxies, it hides your IP address by sending your traffic through different servers. It’s also cool that Tor is free to use.
Unfortunately, we just can’t recommend using the Tor network while gaming. The speeds are unbearably slow. We often see 80-90% slowdowns when using Tor. For reference, we only experience 30-50% slowdowns with proxies and VPNs.
Why is Tor so slow?
It’s likely because it only has 6,000+ servers. And the main problem is that over two million people use Tor. So the speeds are split between too many people.
Besides that, Tor also adds at least three layers of encryption to your traffic, which further slows down your speeds.
Really, Tor is only useful for getting more privacy. You shouldn’t use it for gaming, streaming, or torrenting.
The Bottom Line
IP blocks are infuriating, but – luckily – a VPN can help you circumvent them. It does that by hiding your IP address. Of course, there are limitations. A VPN can’t protect you against MAC and account bans.
Have you ever used a VPN to bypass IP blocks? If yes, did you manage to do it on the first try, or did you have to try multiple times? Also, which VPN did you use?
Please share your experience with all of us in the comments.
