Private WOW Servers....

[Ziroc]

Is it safe to log into one of them? (Changing the server to xxx.xxx.xxx and all).. I know they are free, but I hear they are illegal. True? Does your WOW account have to be active officially to play these?
I'm a 61 now, but dunno if I want to spend another month at it.. on private servers, you can jump to lvl 60 with any new character, and respec free, get x15 more treasure and x30 more XP per kill. I mainly wanna finish the expansion, and be done with it.

Can Blizzard detect someone using a private server? If you use one, then log into the 'real' wow server, can they tell?
Playing a private server will not change my official 'real' character right?

Thanks.. if you know if the 'best' private server, also let me know.

[Ivelliis]

I don't know much about them, but they are most definitely illegal.

[Trogdor]

It's against the Blizzard TOS, and techinically illegal to them, don't think it can be traced, but remove the "Launcher" just to make sure (run WoW directly from the wow.exe)

Private servers are great and all in the beginning, but they are unreliable (Most have really bad latency issues- dc's every 30mins or so, dodgy quests/instances)

And to be honest, unless you find one that has more than 50 players, you aren't going to enjoy it.
You may be lvl 255, but you are playing by yourself, and it ain't fun


And no, you don't need an official account

[SpiritWarrior]

They can be traced now from what i've heard, and it's a bannable offense. The anti-hacking software that's in the launcher also generates seperate records similiar to spyware methods. This is from a warcraft weekly thread I saw a few months back. They treat it like they treat sold characters, or sold money. It's their software and they don't want people back who violate it, according to the blue post.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend it, even on another system, as it kinda "flags" your account as a pirate server user. I don't know the details, but I think they log your account name and IP and then adher the flag to your primary account details in multiple places in your WoW folder. The Guardian software Blizz use is now proprietry to them alone (they bought it from the guys who they hired), and they have said that they are always upgrading it to stay ahead of hackers, bots etc. and don't like to give details as to let anyone know. So the next time you log in the central server flags you for booting I guess. This, atop the fact that a private server is hosted by someone you don't know, and requires downloads of certain .exe's which could potentially be keyloggers, is enough reason to not bother. If you're adamant in doing so just do it at your own risk, but don't be surprised if you can't login one day, even if you thought you deleted all the appropriate files, and cleared all the right caches.

[Kakero]

*cough* As long as you are not using your original wow to play private server. You won't be banned. In other words, uninstall original wow and install fake/pirate/downloaded wow and use that instead.

However, good luck in searching for a realible, stable,unbugged and populated wow server. You might be better off starting your own server and playing by yourself. WoW server files can be downloaded from the net. Just a couple of tweak here and there and walla your on! Just make sure to unhook your internet connection to prevent accidentally logging into official wow server.

And ummm...you didn't hear those from me.

[burnzey boi]

I play a private server sometimes.. Though they are illeagal they are still good fun if your bored with normal WoW, or if its Maintenece and you want more of the goodstuff ^^

The private server i use is World of Chris. Heaps of players are on this server and because its based in Australia, its not illeagal (Laws arnt the same). I've been playing these servers for quite some time now..

Heres a site to make an account (free) http://worldofchris.no-ip.info/ Just make an account on the right hand side of the page and select Burning Crusade.

[Trogdor]

Originally Posted by burnzey boi The private server i use is World of Chris. Heaps of players are on this server and because its based in Australia, its not illeagal (Laws arnt the same).

IP laws which Blizzard cling to, don't change depending on country, so you are still violating the EULA/ToS which you entered when you created an account.

[T-D-C]

Trogdor is right. its still illeagle since they are using Blizzard software against the EULA and they can still get you

[burnzey boi]

Well I play Normal WoW mostly, trying to get those higher lvls up. But the odd occasion i still play WoC..