Fortnite Ban

[REPO]

So I was playing Fortnite the other night with zero issues, then it kicked me off and said some VPN Slow Connection or Cheat was why it kicked me and would not let me ever reconnect. So I e-mailed them and ask why I was banned. They said do to a cheat and was a permanent ban. I have ZERO cheats on my system and tried to explain that to them, that Battleye, VAC, PunkBunster and such are all on my computer and would have also detected it if I did for the other various games I play, they of course do not care! 

 

So I looked around on the net and seen other people have had that same problem too, and they just create a 2nd account and done. Well, I have tried 3 accounts and still says the same. So the other night I just said no big deal was getting to a time I wanted to reformat my drive and I did such to make sure that there was nothing on my computer to piss it off.

 

Made another account and was able to play for about 5 hours, thought things were good again. Well I was wrong, I then was kicked again for the same reasons.

 

I forgot to say I did change my sub mask IP address also as some folks said they do an IP ban.  Both of my kids still play with zero issues which leads me to believe that somehow they have a ban on the "machine"

 

Question is what info can they see on the "Machine" to ban it, or what can I do to overturn there decision.

 

P.S. while writing this the only thing I did have on my SSD that I think maybe could have triggered them is AHK for a file I use for a work program, but am not sure?!?!?  That was the last thing I downloaded right before the ban happened which is why I bring it up. Prior to that had been over 2 months.

 

Thanks for any help you guys have!

[iRileyx]

Were you using a VPN while playing? 

Only asking because of the message it gave. 

[Spotty]

8 minutes ago, REPO said:

while writing this the only thing I did have on my SSD that I think maybe could have triggered them is AHK for a file I use for a work program, but am not sure?!?!?  That was the last thing I downloaded right before the ban happened which is why I bring it up. Prior to that had been over 2 months.

AHK (AutoHotKey) is considered a cheat program as it can be used to automate functions in the game, as well as a basis for creating aimbots apparently.
Google "AutoHotKey Fortnite" and there's a few results of people suggesting how to use it to cheat or discussing how they were banned for using it.

[LogicalDrm]

There are always false positives. The fact that devs refuse to explain more tells about two things. 1. Game is too popular for it mattering if they ban few innocent users. 2. Them having lack of professionalism on handling things.

 

This is always problem when propitiatory anti-cheat system is used. While it may have advantage of being harder to go around, it also has lack of verifying factors. VAC, PunkBuster and other, more widely used, have database which can determinate false positives from actual cheater in greater accuracy. AFAIK they don't ban/perma ban from single violation as it might be just false positive. They gather enough evidence to give credible judgement. At some point there were services where you could search with user ID to see if they have violations/bans and for what reasons (with screenshots and logs).

[Spotty]

2 minutes ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

At some point there were services where you could search with user ID to see if they have violations/bans and for what reasons (with screenshots and logs).

Steam will show on a players profile if they have received previous game bans for cheating (VAC bans), IIRC also goes in to detail of which game they were banned in. Doesn't go as far as giving access to evidence of it, though.

 

Spoiler

_{random result from google}

 

[Windows7ge]

18 minutes ago, REPO said:

I forgot to say I did change my sub mask IP address also as some folks said they do an IP ban.  Both of my kids still play with zero issues which leads me to believe that somehow they have a ban on the "machine"

 

Question is what info can they see on the "Machine" to ban it

That depends on what data the application is choosing to send. In terms of networking they would see an IP & MAC address. However the IP is your routers Public IP. As for the MAC I forget if it's your Public MAC or the MAC of the machine your on. You could test if they're blocking that by changing it on your computer assuming you're using a wired PC. This is often known as "Spoofing MAC addresses". I don't think that's how they're blocking you though. I assume you and your kids all have separate accounts so they're probably just blocking your account and blocking each new account when they see something they don't like. Did you try dedicating a computer to work and a computer to gaming instead of an all-in-one?

 

Usually these companies will go blocking your Public IP once you become a SERIOUS nuisance to the game community. 

[REPO]

2 hours ago, RKRiley said:

Were you using a VPN while playing? 

Only asking because of the message it gave. 

No VPN

[REPO]

2 hours ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

There are always false positives. The fact that devs refuse to explain more tells about two things. 1. Game is too popular for it mattering if they ban few innocent users. 2. Them having lack of professionalism on handling things.

 

This is always problem when propitiatory anti-cheat system is used. While it may have advantage of being harder to go around, it also has lack of verifying factors. VAC, PunkBuster and other, more widely used, have database which can determinate false positives from actual cheater in greater accuracy. AFAIK they don't ban/perma ban from single violation as it might be just false positive. They gather enough evidence to give credible judgement. At some point there were services where you could search with user ID to see if they have violations/bans and for what reasons (with screenshots and logs).

I did not download via Steam, i downloaded direct from them, so I an not have Steam investigate

[REPO]

2 hours ago, Spotty said:

Steam will show on a players profile if they have received previous game bans for cheating (VAC bans), IIRC also goes in to detail of which game they were banned in. Doesn't go as far as giving access to evidence of it, though.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

_{random result from google}

 

I did not download there game via Steam, I did it direct from there site, if that helps figure it out

[LogicalDrm]

2 minutes ago, REPO said:

I did not download via Steam, i downloaded direct from them, so I an not have Steam investigate

Doesn't matter if they don't use VAC as anti-cheat. If its in-house system, only devs have records on what causes alerts on system and what doesn't.

[REPO]

1 hour ago, Windows7ge said:

That depends on what data the application is choosing to send. In terms of networking they would see an IP & MAC address. However the IP is your routers Public IP. As for the MAC I forget if it's your Public MAC or the MAC of the machine your on. You could test if they're blocking that by changing it on your computer assuming you're using a wired PC. This is often known as "Spoofing MAC addresses". I don't think that's how they're blocking you though. I assume you and your kids all have separate accounts so they're probably just blocking your account and blocking each new account when they see something they don't like. Did you try dedicating a computer to work and a computer to gaming instead of an all-in-one?

 

Usually these companies will go blocking your Public IP once you become a SERIOUS nuisance to the game community. 

I did change my start IP address's so that changed all of everyone's connections IP's. so it started at say 192.168.369.60 and I made it be like start at 192.168.369.90, is that what you are talking about changing?

[REPO]

Just now, LoGiCalDrm said:

Doesn't matter if they don't use VAC as anti-cheat. If its in-house system, only devs have records on what causes alerts on system and what doesn't.

So how did they find this machine again after a format, do you think they have access to the SSD's Serial Number maybe?

[REPO]

Also, does anyone know since they use Battleye (only?) why none of my other Battleye games are blocked just Fortnite?!?!?

 

[LogicalDrm]

4 minutes ago, REPO said:

So how did they find this machine again after a format, do you think they have access to the SSD's Serial Number maybe?

 

I don't have Fortnite account so I don't know how much information you give when making one. IP is one way to get info, but more likely its MAC address of your router. They probably don't have it blacklisted outright, but watch accounts created from that and match it with other details. Hard to say for sure, there's reason why companies don't share info about how they catch cheaters.

 

[REPO]

Just now, LoGiCalDrm said:

 

I don't have Fortnite account so I don't know how much information you give when making one. IP is one way to get info, but more likely its MAC address of your router. They probably don't have it blacklisted outright, but watch accounts created from that and match it with other details. Hard to say for sure, there's reason why companies don't share info about how they catch cheaters.

 

So do I contact the ISP to change the MAC?

[LogicalDrm]

1 minute ago, Joel2003 said:

your mac address is bound to your router, so you'd have to get a new router..

At which point one could ask, how much free game is worth. Especially one with such shitty devs.

[REPO]

HAHA  I rent my router, so I would just make them bring me a new one lol, but if it where the MAC, the kids should not be able to play correct? So then it come back to what intel did they get out of the machine that stays static with the machine?!?

[Spotty]

15 hours ago, REPO said:

So how did they find this machine again after a format, do you think they have access to the SSD's Serial Number maybe?

 

 

17 hours ago, Spotty said:

AHK (AutoHotKey) is considered a cheat program as it can be used to automate functions in the game, as well as a basis for creating aimbots apparently.
Google "AutoHotKey Fortnite" and there's a few results of people suggesting how to use it to cheat or discussing how they were banned for using it.

If AHK is indeed the reason you are receiving the bans, every time you make a new account on a different IP it will still ban the new account if it detects AHK running in the background.

 

*link removed*

Edited April 24, 2018 by wkdpaul

[REPO]

15 hours ago, Spotty said:

If AHK is indeed the reason you are receiving the bans, every time you make a new account on a different IP it will still ban the new account if it detects AHK running in the background.

After the format I did not re install it and I was banned again

Edited April 24, 2018 by wkdpaul

[REPO]

36 minutes ago, Joel2003 said:

your mac address is bound to your router, so you'd have to get a new router..

If it were the router MAC address then the kids should not be able to play correct, so then it would be the local MAC address then correct? @ImHyperStyle

[LogicalDrm]

14 hours ago, REPO said:

If it were the router MAC address then the kids should not be able to play correct, so then it would be the local MAC address then correct? @ImHyperStyle

Besides router, every other connection point has MAC address. That's how ISPs keep track of data. I've received warning because someone had spoofed my IP, but had different MAC address than my PC or router. So besides router, your mobo has MAC address (you can see it by typing ipconfig to cmd.exe).