Pingzapper, Lowerping, battleping - What's your stance Square? will I get banned?

I play from New Zealand, my ping is insanely high because of how my connection routes to the Montreal servers (even the JP servers)

350-400 ping, this is making the "red circle dodging" literally impossible.

If I use pingzapper, my ping drops to 200, which makes dodging circles much easier.

Can I use these services, or will I get banned.

would love a response about this please.

Services like PingZapper work if one of their data servers that you subscribe to is at a better location in your proximity than one of the game's own servers you would otherwise talk to. By sending to a nearby data server your ping is lowered, and they forward the connection on your behalf to the actual game server while using a more expensive Internet connection with prioritized traffic.

Such a service is called a proxy. The reason why it is frowned upon is because criminals typically use proxies to conceal their identities and sometimes you can get caught up erroneously in the suspicions of system administrators. However services like PingZapper do not harm or needlessly exploit or interfere with the game's own servers, they just provide a service that leverages a superior Internet connection for a nominal fee.

still needs a official reply

for example Tera EU banned people for this

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Originally Posted by Minione

Services like PingZapper work if one of their data servers that you subscribe to is at a better location in your proximity than one of the game's own servers you would otherwise talk to. By sending to a nearby data server your ping is lowered, and they forward the connection on your behalf to the actual game server while using a more expensive Internet connection with prioritized traffic.

Such a service is called a proxy. The reason why it is frowned upon is because criminals typically use proxies to conceal their identities and sometimes you can get caught up erroneously in the suspicions of system administrators. However services like PingZapper do not harm or needlessly exploit or interfere with the game's own servers, they just provide a service that leverages a superior Internet connection for a nominal fee.

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Well said sir! Glad to see you keep informed.

If you use such a service I would say you do so at your own discretion, knowing that it could get you banned. I doubt anyone at SE would give a blanket pass on such services. I have no idea if they will outright ban them, but even if they don't they prolly won't offer any support for those services.

Edit- in case its not clear they can't support these services cause people who try to hack and do other things will use the same service.

I don't mind, I understand support isn't given.. I just don't want to be banned lol

I think SE's reply (if any) will simply be if you violate the ToS in anyway you risk getting banned. They can never "officially allow" any deviation from ToS. No point in asking them.
Many FFXI players may have some advice for you from experience, but this is not the forum to be discussing it.

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Originally Posted by MisaCeliousa

still needs a official reply

for example Tera EU banned people for this

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Frogster (later Gameforge) were a weird bunch of people. I wouldn't compare SE to them. Mind you, they even banned people for tweaking the awful settings in the UE3 config files. TBH, Tera runs like crap anyhow, so how would it be cheating to optimise some CFG-files, right?

Tera EU probably did it because it's a EU exclusive server, and people could easily use it to play from anywhere outside EU. Since FF14 isn't restrictive of regions, you should be fine. But like plenty of people before me have said, this isnt' an official response, so play at your own risk.

I still can't play. -service account issues-

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Originally Posted by AmeliaVandelle

Tera EU probably did it because it's a EU exclusive server, and people could easily use it to play from anywhere outside EU. Since FF14 isn't restrictive of regions, you should be fine. But like plenty of people before me have said, this isnt' an official response, so play at your own risk.

I still can't play. -service account issues-

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I am so sorry to hear about that! I hope you can play soon! Its pretty rough to get service with 50 thousand (or more) people calling tech support because of congested servers. Makes it tough for people with problems tech support COULD fix to get throuogh!

Could we please get a response regarding low ping services?

Bump! Totally want a response SE! We need to know, and if you it is against your ToS or policies, then for gods sake fix the issues with dodging moves, like make the tests client side and have the responses sent that way.

Many people are using VPNs to get round the ISP P2P throttling problem at the moment and openly discussed the VPNs they used, I highly doubt SE would have allowed those discussions to continue had they not allowed it: a VPN is a Proxy with bells and whistles really, they're the same from this perspective.

That said, I agree it would be nice to get an official statement, but knowing SE I wouldn't hold your breath.

I would like to reduce my ping/latency and I would love to have an official answer regarding this issue.

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6. INTERNET ACCESS AND EQUIPMENT
You are solely responsible for obtaining and maintaining, at your own expense, all equipment (such as modems, computers, or videogame consoles) and internet access necessary to play the Game, and for ensuring such equipment and services are compatible with all requirements of the Game.

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Taken from the ToS. Seems as how you are responsible for internet access to use the game, and no noted restrictions to this I would say proxy to your hearts content. If necessary they can change it and require you to just agree with it whenever you load the launcher (No one reads these anyways right?).

They're sometimes a really good read. Gamers that read the ToS usually end up constructing the greatest prenups ever (I would assume for the crap we get handed down the wire for NOT reading these).

Some potential loopholes SE could invoke:

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3.6 Any Illegal Activities. You may not conduct any illegal activities whatsoever in connection with the Game. This includes every illegal activity not specifically highlighted above, including without limitation gambling, defamation, harassment, and fraud.

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Proxies are frowned upon yes, I would not be surprised if it was deemed 'illegal' in some countries, but this clause is a bit TOO open. IE: Say I'm 19, illegal for me to drink in the states; go to Canada get wasted legally.

The next one is still a bit vague also, and encompasses 2 statements:

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3.7 False Account Information. You may not provide Square Enix with false information during the registration process.

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and

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You agree that Square Enix may use the information you provide (such as IP address, e-mail address, or home address) in order to identify you

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Say you register somewhere with one IP, but never use that location again; did you just provide false information? That in a nutshell is how proxies work, except you were at one point PHYSICALLY at the location you registered.

In any event that's my 2 cents, and clarification on ToS's is always needed.