...Restricted from this Realm. Please try to log in at another time."

Ahh my favorite message.

Been having quite the lively discussion with Marty from Tech Support. And by lively I mean standard form response e-mails that say nothing.

However, he did say one thing which was interesting. And that was that the temporary ban can last a MAXIMUM of 12 hours, based on the severity of the offense.

The various listed offenses include:

- Rapidly connecting and disconnecting to Battle.net
- Creating or joining numerous games within a short time period such as "Magic finding" or "Baal runs"
- By the use of "add-on programs"
- Chat channel abuse
- Failed login attempts
- In game latency caused by excessive spell effects

I fell under the category of "Magic finding" and had the ban placed at about 9:30am. Its almost 9:30pm here, and the ban is still in effect.

You'd THINK that things like chat abuse or using 3rd party programs and botting would be way more severe than doing quick games, especially considering how the server load has lessened quite a bit with the mass exodus of players to WoW, and the improvement of server technology in the last decade.

Or perhaps Blizzard in their infinite wisdom is trying to drive all the D2 players away so they can scrap the servers, its not like they won't have enough willing slaves for D3 from WoW. Sad.

And its now officially been OVER 12 hours since the ban was put in place, for a relatively minor infraction.

Of course, no update from Marty at Tech Support.

Ah well, my nostalgia period was fun while it lasted, for all of three days. Maybe I should go to work for D2Items.com, at least then I could get some playtime in...

I have no idea where you got "12 hours" from.
This is what Blizzard has said about Temp-Bans (it clearly states TBans last 2minutes to 72hours):

---

Q u o t e:
If you receive the message that you are temporarily restricted or unable to connect, the first step is to attempt to log onto another realm, for instance if you are on USWest (Lordaeron), attempt to log onto USEast (Azeroth).
If you cannot access only one realm then you may have a temporary IP restriction.

Causes for temporary restrictions are:

All Games:

• Spamming text or chat commands such as /friends list or /whisper or /whois (often associated with bots).
  
• Rapidly connecting/disconnecting to Battle.net (often associated with bots or switching between characters).
  
• Viewing multiple profiles in a very short time period.
  
• Exceeding 8 connections to Battle.net (often associated with bots).
  
• Repeated use of an incorrect password may lock an account login for your protection.
  
• Use of third-party/add-on programs (hacks) - these include but are not limited to sending bad packets, flooding the server(s), and the use of hack programs.
  
  Diablo II Only:
  
• Scrolling through skill selection using the mouse wheel.
  
• Going in and out of accounts/characters too quickly. i.e Muling
  
• Going in and out of games too quickly (most common cause). i.e. Muling, magic finding, Baal/Pindleskin runs, etc.
  
• Repeated requests for a new screen to see what you wish to gamble for.
  
• Going up and down a way point to refresh the screen in a shop (see above).
  
• Repeated use of a spell with no cast delay such as Amplify Damage or Glacial Spike.

This lasts anywhere from 2 minutes to 72 hours.

Restrictions lasting longer than 72 hours usually indicates that you were witnessed by a Battle.net representative doing something against the Terms of Use Agreement, which warranted a lengthy restriction.

Common causes for extended restrictions include, but are not limited to:

• Attempting to use an invalid CD-Key (often associated with bots).
  
• Excessive spamming or flooding in a channel (often associated with bots).
  
• Spamming over multiple channels - even if it is just one line per channel. (often associated with bots).
  
• Use of flood or load bots.
  
• Harrassment of another player and/or clan.
  
• Advertisement of an inappropriate website URL.
  
• Use of third-party/add-on programs (hacks) - these include but are not limited to sending bad packets, flooding the server(s), and the use of hack programs.

Unfortunately, you will have to wait it out or obtain a different IP address from which to play. Please note that we will not provide support for changing your IP address.

This type of restriction can last up to 2 weeks.

For further information, email support@blizzard.com or use Blizzard's webform: http://us.blizzard.com/support/webform-us.xml
Please include the following information in the email:

• Name
  
• IP Address (go to http://www.ipchicken.com/)
  
• CD-Key
  
• Account name
  
• Realm
  
• Date/Time/Time Zone of when it happened
  
• How long you have been restricted
  
• Description of what you were doing before being restricted

If you are absolutely certain you did not spam, keep in mind that anyone behind your network, or if your ISP shares your IP address (as in more than one persons are given the same IP address), gets restricted from battle.net, you will suffer the penalties along with them.
This is the unfortunate disadvantage of using a shared IP address.
Also, keep track of siblings and other people with access to your computer and/or network who play on Battle.net, as they can get you restricted as well.
It is also possible that your computer may be infected with a virus that has resulted in the restriction. You can find info on virus detection and removal here - http://www.blizzard.com/support/?id=asi0462p

It is important to realize that these restrictions are not exactly a punishment, but rather that they are necessary for server stability. When you spam, it places a much heavier load on the server and ruins the gameplay experience for everybody. For restrictions other than spam - such as using an invalid CD-Key - you are restricted to prevent abuse - such as stealing someone else's CD-Key via brute-force.

For more information on temporary restrictions, see Blizzard's support page at http://www.blizzard.com/support/?id=adt0689p

(Last edited October 14, 2008)

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It would be nice if the disconnect and account restrictions happened ONLY when there is bad behavior.

As far as I can tell they also happen when the servers get overloaded (or something else like it), without any bad behavior.

I have seen simultaneous disconnects of everybody in a game, with people spread across over the country and using different ISPs. Confirmed by loud cursing at battlenet on a ventrillo voice chat channel.

Without any violations I see this happening multiple times a day.

Mine is doing the same thing i have been restricted for 8 hours now and i dont know what the problem is...?

i remember when d2 was actually good... 1.09 patch...

back than you could mf endlessly for hours, not have a temporary ban for making games too fast. Oh, and there were no good runewords to make, so not everyone on the realm was using enigma.

Boy, blizzard's really messed up a great game.

crossing my fingers that D3 isnt this horrible.

Yeah good luck getting anyone to care. There are so many stacked mistakes Blizz has made on D2 it isn't funny anymore. Sad part is that when their plans for "zero tolerance stances" fail horribly they don't have the guts to admit it by reverting measures that end up hurting everybody but the cheaters. Temp Ban is the prime example. An anti-botting measure that stopped botting for a few days and has plagued all of us for years.

I got this message twice today for MFing.......I can't belive that blizz lets the bots farm 24/7 and spam to us 24/7 so that we can buy what they farmed. Then i get booted for PLAYING the game to get my gear?!?!?!? i cant belive this.....please Get your head out of your ass blizz

Big problem whit that logic is that bot are now setted to avoid those type of dowtime and player dont watch at the clock and look how much game they made ect.... Its a kinda fail system.

i am so sick and tired of this, i cant even xfer items without this happening, its been 3 hours since i LOST ALL MY ITEMS attempting to xfer... Isnt that enough?

Blizzard you really messed up.

If you really need someone to punish... how about all the bot users? the online spammers (prolly selling items for you?), people harrassing others? not the people trying to have a good time and transfer items from one character to another...

Thanks for allowing me to loose plenty of my valuable items and suspending me in the process #yourock

Really hope D3 isn't ran by such failure

---

Q u o t e:
i am so sick and tired of this, i cant even xfer items without this happening, its been 3 hours since i LOST ALL MY ITEMS attempting to xfer... Isnt that enough?

Blizzard you really messed up.

If you really need someone to punish... how about all the bot users? the online spammers (prolly selling items for you?), people harrassing others? not the people trying to have a good time and transfer items from one character to another...

Thanks for allowing me to loose plenty of my valuable items and suspending me in the process #yourock

Really hope D3 isn't ran by such failure

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Same stuff just happen to me ... lost my freaking cool items and i'm a freaking New Player i see all day long Run Bots and Spam bots but no one is Restricting , BANNING them ... This is so USER NOT FRIENDLY :@

This is really getting out of hand I just got home from work joined one game tried to trade for 10mins and got restricted from the realm and of course its gonna be for 12 hours i went to battle.net tech support and they didnt help me at all and i think its sad that blizzard doesnt care at all becuz the game is so old and nonone pays 15 a month like wow so why even bother you've already got my money and wont receivce any more money lol how classy of you its really sad that a game over 10 years old still has tons of problems sounds like blizzard is super lazy and only cares about wow since they have to buy a game and pay 15 dollars a month just to play it which is the dumbest thing ive ever heard you come out with new patches all the time for wow but you cant fix a game that is over 10 years old thx alot blizzard yall are a great company and ur customer service is horrible your a good theif for stealin ppl's money ill give u that great job!

lol i just think that blizzard is a horrible company for makin so much money they still cant seem to fix a simple problem of reduceing the temp restriction i mean its just plain stupid how they are handleing the problem you would think the extreme amount of money and people they have on their payroll they could come up with a solution to ALOT OF PEOPLE'S PROBLEM i mean really where is their coporate office because i would like to go on strike out front of their office so they would see how much peopel are pissed off that we are getting banned because of other people who dont wanna play the game and just have a robot do everything for them and have website that run bots to find stuff for them to sell online which im SURE that blizzard MAKES MONEY OFF OF but anyway its a corrupt bussiness blizzard if u ask me for takin people's money and selling them a game that blizzard gets to decide if we are able to play or not LOL I BOUGHT THE GAME ILL PLAY IT WHENEVER I WANT TO AND EXIT ANY GAME AS MANY TIMES AS I WANT TO CUZ I PAYED FOR THE THEREFORE ITS MINE I CAN DO WATEVER I CHOOSE TO WHENEVER HOWEVER HOW LONG HOW SHORT I WANT TO BLIZZARD GET UR ISH TOGETHER BECAUSE UR A DISGRACE SELLING GAMES TO PEOPLE THEN TELLIN THEM THEY CAN ONLY PLAY IT WHEN U SAY SO AND SELLIN PEOPLE GAMES THEN MAKIN THEM PAY 15 DOLLARS A MONTH JUST TO PLAYYY THE GAME THAT IS THE MOST HORRIBLE THING IVE EVER HEARD PLEASE CLEAN UR ACT UP GEEZE!!!

u mad bro?