Running 2 gw clients, same IP, problem?

Hi all,

I heard about someone got mistakenly banned due to running 2 gw clients under the same roof, or something similar like that long time ago. I just recently having a luxury to get another mini laptop for myself and also blessed with 2 accounts. I got some stuffs that I wanted to transfer to my main account, mainly weapons and ectos that I stored a long time ago.

The question is, is it safe to do this? Is there anything I can do in order to avoid getting flagged/banned?

Thank you in advance.

Multi-clienting is safe. Gaile Gray confirmed this. cba to dig up the post from wiki though.

my husband and I both play from the same ip--have been doing so for almost 6 years now...I also have it installed on another computer ...which I use to run my mules around (on a 2nd account I have).....LOTS of families play--so yeah, no problems with that.

Yes it is safe. The only story I heard was when 1 family member was doing things against the EULA. Though Anet was sensitive to that situation and the other family members kept their access to the game.

So playing on the same IP is no problem at all. If one person on the IP is doing illegal activity's (botting, scamming, goldselling, exploit hacking), be aware that all accounts on that IP can be subject to investigation.

You will not get ANet confirming your ok to use it as it breaches the ToS. However it is common knowledge that programmes like gwx2 are ok to use providing you are not using it to gain an unfair advantage. So if your using it for muling your pretty much 99.9% guaranteed not to have any problems. If you box 2 accounts running elite areas and dungeons, ie 600 smite with you using the 2nd account to bond and collect what would have been a hero's drops then your gaining an unfair advantage and shouldn't be surprised if you get banned, many get away with it but they do run the risk of a ban if caught. They're pretty experienced at recognising bots/boxers against legitmate users like families in the data trends and reserve the right to stand by their own judgement.

It should be fine as im sure in the world there are places like internet cafe`s that allow online games to be played and that will have same ip.
Also like many others my wife and myself use 2 pcs for our accounts and a few times shes been on and ive been running duel clients on my pc and been fine - and thats 3 instances of same ip.

Best thing to do if in doubt is visit support and send an email with your questions or use the new support forum from gw website and they will be able to give you an answer .

I have never, ever heard of this happening. Do you have any evidence to back up this claim?

sorry but its 11.30am here and i just came off night shift so well and truely ready for bed lol not gonna search all day...but, if you find the original Gaile statement (not sure if it was here or wiki) there was something to that effect in her statement too i think

PS i don't think they would pick you up automatically rather follow you manually and monitor as with bots, so the risk of getting caught is probably minimal but still there. Don't act like a bot and you likely won't arouse suspicion. But if your using 2 accounts to do the same farm as me with one and getting twice as many drops that is an unfair advantage. I use gwx2 for my own mule accounts btw

What part of the ToS doesn't allow running two accounts from one IP?

Anet staff have said in the past that the unmoddified versions of programs like GW Multilaunch and TexMod are ok, but they are not supported. Meaning two things: 1. make sure you download a valid copy as some sites will piggyback malicious code to these programs; 2. if it breaks your game Support won't help you fix it.
As long as you are running two (or more) valid accounts, you are no more restricted in playing them by the ToS than someone running just one account.

I've had two accounts for over four years and frequently ran them together on two computers (desktop and a laptop right next to each other) so that I could drag along a second account. People do this all the time and constantly talk about doing it in fan forums like this and on the official wiki. There's a whole thread on this forum about GW ML. Guru regularly shuts down threads that talk about exploits that break the ToS, and yet this thread is still open and has just over 300 posts in it.

Each account is getting their own (random) share of drops. How is that unfair? The only "unfair" thing I see here is being able to afford the real world cost of multiple valid accounts, but that's not against the ToS.

To the OP, check out the thread I linked in the paragraph above. GW ML is what you are looking for if your PC is strong enough to run it. I regularly have two copies playing on my new home PC and it's been a real benefit for moving all the crap I tend to hold on to (I have 22 or so characters over two accounts, and most of their inventories are full, lol).

The only situation that caused a problem with ArenaNet was in PvP. Using two accounts to give yourself easy wins is not allowed. No, I don't know how that worked because I don't PvP. But I do remember some mention of that in the past.

It's the normal ANet stance. Don't cheat. Using two accounts on the same computer is not cheating if it's just the normal storage swaps or similar.

Counts as match-fixing I believe. The only time I've hopped on both my accounts when PvPing is if I want to scout what teams are forming in HA when I'm already in or if I'm waiting for a match in HA and someone wants something off my other account. It's been tempting for us to get on mules and make another team for us to face when halls are dead but we all know it's not worth losing accounts over.

Of course it's fine. From a-net's side they have no way of telling how many machines are behind a NAT (or even how many NATs are behind a NAT).

The part that says the use of third party software is strictly prohibited

Correct


They clearly stated that they don't mind (they see the practical side of mule accounts due to limited storage and hey its more sales) but also clearly stated so long as you are not gaining an unfair advantage.

The fact they haven't bothered to look at your account or others is irrelevant, if they decide they want to one day they are within their rights to act as they wish irrespective of ignoring you in the past.
They stated that they will turn a blind eye so long as there is no unfair advantage abuse going off so there is no reason for admins to shut these discussions down. The software is being allowed, with limitations to its use.


It wouldn't be unfair if they were both keeping their own loot, but its pretty obvious the reason people like you do this is to have all the loot drops for yourself and i doubt anyones gonna believe you don't pass all the drops over to your main. It IS cheating, you are getting an unfair advantage, and although its unlikely they'll bother you haven't a leg to stand on if they decide to take a look at you.

I have 3 accounts myself, 12 or 13 on my main, 8 on my second and 6 on my third. I use them mostly for muling with gwx2 which is acceptable. I've been using it for years but I wouldn't want to tarnish my own personal achievements and self satisfaction by cheating. Farm boxing is not a million miles away from botting as far as cheating in mine and many others eyes and theres little you can say to convince otherwise, you can kid yourself your not a cheat if you want and you'll likely continue to get away with it, good for you.
Unfortunately i can't find the original Gaile statement which gives more clarification than simply "yeh its ok to use" she leaves the door wide open for them to act on abusers as and when they wish. Stuff the OP and other multi client users should be aware rather than just listening to people like you telling them they're ok to go ahead and do what they want.

Running two GWs through the same IP has nothing to do with running 3rd party apps, unless you use a multi-launcher on the same computer. And, even then ANet has OK'd the use of multi-launchers - mostly because there is no real difference between running 2 accounts on 1 computer vs running 2 accounts on 2 computers.

People run multiple accounts all the time. I know a family where the husband, the wife, and one child, all have separate accounts and play together through their one IP. And, what about LAN/WAN parties - there you also have multiple people playing through the same IP.
There would be no practical way for ANet to determine that multiple accounts from the same IP are being played by the same person - and it wouldn't really matter if they could.

we are arguing about what is or is not acceptable with these third party programs not family usage. I don't work in the gaming industry myself, i'm qualified as an automotive quality engineer and so very much used to looking at data and recognising trends and abnormalities within the data. I'm pretty confident they can tell the difference between someone boxing and 2 family members, its an experience thing, but its also a time consuming thing likely not worth their effort, you could pick up on them if you watch them for long enough but they're not gonna stand out as blatantly as a bot. And its not as easy to box farm on 2 dif computers for most people. I'm not trying to scare the OP just make her aware of the official stance, like i say i use gwx2 for my mule accounts, i just don't cheat with them (unless you wanna include gate monkey when i did LDoA). i've looked but cannot find that Gaile statement on her page and not aware of any newer statement made that says its changed?

Running multiple accounts under from one IP address does not require the use of third party software, just a router or switch and two computers.

More to your point though, are you referring to this section of the Rules of Conduct: "You may not use any third-party program (such as a "bot") in order to automate gameplay functions, including playing, chatting, interacting, or gathering gold or items within Guild Wars. You may not assist, relay, or store gold or items for other players who are using these processes."

Programs like GW ML and TexMod don't do any of the above, and so are not against the rules.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...8&postcount=78

I find it interesting that you are so sure of yourself, to the point of saying I'm giving irresponsible advice when you can't find the source of what you are basing your "facts" on.

As Regina has said they do not believe that these programs (TexMod, Multilaunch, KSMod, GWStats) provide an unfair advantage.

My point is that it is widespread enough that if it were specifically against the rules, then they would have said something by now, and if it were against the rules, GWGuru mods would have shut it down regardless of whether Anet was taking immediate action on it as they are required to do being an official GWs fansite.

If I have two accounts and I get the benefit of having two accounts, how is that cheating? You know there are people in the game who just give away drops to other guildies, allies or even strangers...are they cheating too?

And suppose I didn't consolidate the loot drops on to one account? Suppose I keep them scrupulously separate? I still have access to the loot because they are both my accounts and each account got the loot it was assigned by the game, just as the other heroes in my group got their loot drops.

I had to look up what farm boxing was. If I understand it correctly, it's a script that would allow input in one running version of GWs to be duplicated in another copy of GWs you are running on the same computer.

That would be against the Rules of Conduct as it would be using a program to play the game for you (the 2nd version that is mirroring your input).

That's not at all what I've been talking about and have no idea how anything I've said would lead you to think that.

But running two accounts to do a two person farm is not cheating or against the rules as long as you aren't breaking the game rules in how you do it.

And 600/smite was nerfed by the time I started using Multilaunch. Mostly when I run 2 accounts, I'm running myself somewhere, having one account act as a kind of gate monkey, moving stuff between accounts, or dragging a character through the storyline. I probably should be doing more two person farming really since I could reasonably do it now (two accounts on two computers is kind of a pain to coordinate.)

He wants, according to his original post, to do what you have been doing with gwx2. Which, as I've shown, is perfectly ok. I never said anyone should ignore the rules.

Interestingly though, you do.

You believe that these are third party programs not allowed by the ToS. And yet you continue to use them, and to advise people that they 99.9% unlikely to get in to trouble if they use them too. And you think I'm the one giving out bad advice?

It wasn't Gaile Gray, it was Regina Buenaobra who made the statement last year about the basic programs.

LOTS of people have more than one account and play on multiple computers....as I stated earlier, my spouse and I have been playing for almost 6 years TOGETHER now---and yeah, we do duo lots of places---(vanquishing with a sin and a ranger is very strange but doable).....we have never had any issues with BOTH of us having accounts and playing from the same ip--using 2 different computers (actually 3 since my first once still has gw on it and I use to to mule stuff a lot)..he still has his original computer from when he started playing 6 years ago---
I see nothing in the tos that says we can not have more than one game account at one ip nor that you can not use them at the same time....

Funny cause they know I've run multiple accounts in fow and uw and they know what accounts they were used on yet neither got banned...wonder why...

yea wintersday i use my 2 alts (1 being a ranger the other being a necro) and i team up and go do snowball dominance. i've never had any problem with them saying its an unfair advantage that im getting twice the quest reward b/c im using 2 accounts. im legitimately playing the quest using 2 accounts.. having to split my focus between the 2.

i would understand getting banned if i botted it, but i ddint and played fairly so i dont see why bugs would think you'd get banned?

just my 2 cents

Who said running gw twice on one computer and obviously IP address invloved the use of a third party program?

IF you guys don't know how to run two GW clients without a silly 3rd party exe your a very silly person. Anyways once theyre running theyre not using any 3rd party software, they're just running, twice.

Those who believe half of what ANET says are very naive.

this thread answering yet giving me more things to consider... I will wait for one more day while also do my own research on this matter before jumping in. However, like many said, I can't help but look at those who play gw under the same roof with different account. If they got banned there will surely be many outcry, but so far I cant remember such case. So I'll assume that they are doing fine, those people..

Thanks for that but thats not the one i was referring to, was a slightly more detailed statement by Gaile that basically said your ok to use it so long as your not gaining an unfair advantage, do so at your own risk. Basically don't abuse it and your fine as the official stance, reality is the majority of people can't be bothered with the hassle of boxing to the extent of exploiting and it would be too expensive for them to police properly, they sell more discs. Might be different were you to report someone but its to their discretion as to whether someone has gone too far or not and the lack of bans shows their lenience (serious offenders banned are unlikely to come here looking for sympathy).

The Regina statement was referring to how they will only support the current version. If say the texmod program is updated it may not be supported and you may be detected as using an unauthorised 3rd party software, but the current version is safe to use, i guess to prevent anyone hacking the software and using it as backdoor into the servers maybe?

Again, the section in the rules about third party software refers to botting. If you aren't using some kind of script/bot/exploit to automate one side of the 2 accounts you are running then there is NOTHING wrong with playing 2 accounts at the same time.

They are making two points here, 1. be careful that you download a clean version as if you download a version with some kind of bot/virus/keylogger attached to it, it those attachments (not the normally working program mentioned) could lead to you getting banned. 2. If the programs get changed to allow some kind of botting/exploit then they're going to be covered under the rules of conduct regarding third party programs that "automate gameplay functions, including playing, chatting, interacting, or gathering gold or items within Guild Wars."

I never said there was anything wrong with running two accounts at the same time, i said your allowed providing your not gaining an unfair advantage. That statement by Gaile was purposely left wide open with no specifics as to what you could or could not do. Thats all i'm trying to say, no more no less

I'm pretty sure that Gaile's statement was here on guru but can't find it, if anyone can it would clarify, but check these out, just a snippet of issues that show that its not a free for all

Here Gaile repeats some of her statement 'We do not disallow the use of third-party programs, nor take action against them, if they do not give a player an inherent advantage in the game' http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User_...me.2C_legal.3F

Guy gets banned for boxing and looking like a bot, got his account back eventually http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User_..._ask_something

Guy gets banned, vague reason, but appears to be some form of abuse through texmod http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Feedb...1#wrongful_ban

Lots more of these cases about, like i say no absolute what is or not allowed, i can't say what is or isn't and neither can anyone else here, only what you've got away with, they're free to change their mind if they think boxing is having an adverse effect on the economy or w/e but no reason to suggest it has or will.

As for the EULA you'll probably find you have no power or rights whatsoever, if they want to ban you cos they had a bad hair day theres nothing you can do about it except complain. Again i find Anet pretty lenient while not falling for any crap mostly, they keep themselves very much covered under the EULA

If your referring to using a HEX editor to change the name in the .exe for the copy sorry but your not allowed to touch the .exe

They turn a blind eye to it same as they do programs like GWx2. Turning a blind eye isn't the same as it being allowed. Abuse the privalige and they can ban you if they want. Make your own choices just be aware of the facts!

The guide for it http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...ars-id1837.php

NOTE:
WARNING and DISCLAIMER:
I claim NO Responsibilty if you break your copy of Guild Wars, (hey, you can always just reinstall it)
Or... if either of your accounts get banned, As mentioned above, editing the GW client is maybe against the AUP and
therfore should not be attempted.. This method is however tried and tested, and works..

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This post is here purely for educational purposes, So many people wondered if it was possible.. and it is...
so heres how I did it.. Many people have have asked me to do this for them, however since this would need doing
after each update (because the .exe changes each time) it would just be too much hassle...
Plus, I'd hav eto make 'an' exe available for download, which is distributing software, and is illegal..

This does NOT allow you to run 2 characters from a single account...