I’ve been playing Kancolle for about 3 years now. I started when I was studying abroad in Japan, and continued when I got back with the help of KC3改. Since the latest fiasco with logins, I am unable to play the game using the KC3改 plugin. I understand that I may be able to play if I purchase/use VPN, but i’m not sure if it is worth the investment for me. Is there any free fix to my problem that I am not aware of, will I simply have to wait (i have read mixed reports about server status eventually returning), or is using VPN my only realistic option? Thanks for the input!
The devs have stated that the ip bans ineffect will not last forever and they are well aware of their foreign playerbase even if they cant say anything directly. For now, we are stuck with using VPNs to get past login.
That being said, there are free vpn options. Vpngate, openvpn and sofether all work to a degree from what I’ve seen. I personally use a free TunnelBear account
TunnelBear and ProtonVPN are both free* (they have paid options that grant greater capability and options)
TunnelBear gives 500mb per month (paid options have more data). This isn’t really a problem because KC doesn’t really use that much data as a general thing and you can shut off the VPN after you reach the home screen.
ProtonVPN has unlimited data, but only 3 locations (one of which is Japan) and ‘Medium Speed’. Paid plans give more countries, options and speeds. Again, because you only have to log on and get to the home screen and then kill the VPN none of this is really a factor.
I bought a VPN to get better ads on my Youtube viewing and avoiding ours and to try Netflix for US or JPN since both have more anime lineups (recently). The whole security feature is just far seconds for me and I don’t get the jitz of it since I don’t do sales transactions away from home nor access my email in public and I mostly don’t go to free sites for anime and corn. Then KC got attacked and now they say one needs a VPN for this and it just adds a reason why…but if it’s just this then don’t buy one. For one it’s expensive. They charged you for the whole coverage instead of monthly…e.g. You get a plan that costs $5 a month for one year at checkout instead of paying for the first month only you instead pay for a year. Not really good if you can’t afford it currently even if they do have offers that has discounts you still pay for the entire plan up front.
My experience with free VPN is that…I can’t have them on for a long while. It slows down everything else so while I can login with KC, after several on an off with the server after finally one that lets me play, my Youtube viewing is slow, browsing is slow, but Facebook is fine.
Long story short: Get a paid VPN if you have more reasons for it other than KC
VPN isnt that hard to use tho
VPN might be your best bet for now
Although it’s not free, I can give you a link for express VPN for 3 free months (have to buy 1 yr though I think). So 99 dollars for 15 months for fast and safe internet is not that bad of a deal. Around 6-7 dollars a month.
You can use it for other region lock things not just kancolle
Devs said they don’t want the IP to be forever. So after the server attacks are over I think they will lift the foreign IP ban. If you are looking for a free VPN I recommened SoftEther VPN Client Manager.
My personal advice is to play the waiting game. It’s a telling sign that in the lounge we have post explaning how “easy” it is to use vpn and then suddenly someones wonder why DMM have logged them for suspicious activity…
And now for my daily dose with downvotes but I have to say it:
There are two types of it-professionals: Those who are so unexperienced or just plain stupid that they say everything is easy. I have spent years cleaning up the mess after those where fired… And then we have the paranoid geeks that understand what’s going on and it scares the sh— out of them. They always chooses the path of less change since changing something is scary.
I’m a part of the paranoid guys and that have saved me and my server parks quite a few times. Like a few weeks ago when someone wanted to install Filezilla as an ftp server. You can find thousands of tech guys that says it’s perfectly fine and that those adware problems where a thing of the past. And that’s the time I bring in context: Is it a safe to install Filezilla as an ftp server that logs phone calls in a hospital and keeps a record of those calls, including all the confidential information that patients and doctors talk about? With that context most tech guys run aways from Filezilla. But you will still have some very outspoken supporters of “their” solution that refuses to consider the context. That’s the guys who says it “easy” to use a technical solution.
When it comes to this Kancolle situation I put up a win10 ent client on my datalab and run a few of the “free” vpn solutions with an Kancolle alt account to avoid banning. The PA-5220 that protects my lab almost had a stroke. I’m still not sure what’s going on but it seems that I recive traffic from more than DMM. This might be adds but why those this traffic shows up before I connect to DMM? There is no need for hearthbeat from multiple sources on the other side of a vpn tunnel. My best case is data collection to “pay” for the free vpn client. My worst case is spyware.
But it’s your choice since it’s “easy” to use vpn. I’m playing the waiting game since I usually play Kancolle from my working enviorment and I’m the guy that busts others from streaming fotball matches and other stuff the firewall notices. I’m not going to ruin our ISO certification review with installing a crappy malware vpn client to play a Japanese game. I’m waiting until I can use the old and tested KC3 setup that don’t show up on my firewalls. It probably unsafe but as long as nobody can prove it’s unsafe with logs, I have my back clear. And that’s all that matters.
Unless stated otherwise, it looks like the situation is going to remain like this.
The proxy option is also a thing if you are looking for an alternative that doesn’t use VPNs. It’s probably a more secure option but kinda complicated to setup. It also sorta removes the “have to redownload assets all over again” annoyance if you start off with the game’s entire cache dump stored in your PC. And yes, both links are different.
Edit: Had to add this last sentence cause I always forget something when posting here.
I just used a proxy server - does the same thing as a vpn in this case but without the extra fluff.
Been playing this game 5 years now. I am capable of and have already logged in once or twice since this started using a VPN.
That said the issue is I just don’t care. I do somewhat still enjoy the game, but not enough to jump through even a single hoop to play it regardless of how easy the jump is. I guess I was already half way out the door, and the Ban was the kick I needed to fully get out the door. Its somewhat sad, I enjoyed the game over the years but oh well.
Anyone want to buy an account with 30+ married ships? /s
That being said, there are free vpn options.
Reminder to everyone to carefully check said options and see how they are financed. Trials for a paid service with better connectivity should be okay, but anything being advertised as completely free warrants scrutiny – we’re living in a capitalist society and operating costs need to be covered somehow. Don’t be like the Hola guys who managed to get their PCs turned into a botnet.
I can vouch for Tunnelbear, though; I’ve used them for years until changes at Netflix “forced” me to migrate to ExpressVPN.
Thanks for the info! Glad to hear this, for sure.
Thanks for the heads-up!
I have a question. I’m using TunnelBear and it still gives me the blank white screen. Do I have to do something extra like deleting cache?
Can pm me what vpn name?
Thank you, I’ve been trying to find a free VPN that wasn’t just a trial period thing. Just installed it from VPN Gate and it works!
I think its highly unfair to divide tech people up in groups like that.
You dont have to be paranoid to not be stupid, whats important here is to find a solution that matches the problem at hand, in this case not being able to connect to a game that is ultimately not that important. ofc if you are at a work pc in a secure environment you should not install programs from sources that aren’t trusted and/or doesnt follow company policy, but that is not likely the situation of most people here.
Should people just mindlessly follow a guide to get on some random ass shady “free” vpns? probably not, even less so if its on a work related computer.
If you are truly paranoid, the solution would be to run a Japanese vps and install a vpn on that and use that to connect, but then thats really far from “easy” and also somewhat pricey.
For most people, on home computers, running a trial of a reasonably trusted brand of vpn providers should be fine, if they really want to play the game RIGHT now.
I’m curious about this project, does it allow you to reconnect to a different proxy +user&passwd?
Poi browser devs don’t seem to really want to add username+password auth to their socks5 proxy option, and while I have tried to figure out how to add it in myself (because according to their source, it was a recoded fork of someone else’s which did have support, somehow), I can’t seem to compile my version, and currently am stuck on playing kcanotify on a proxy I set up on AWS’s Tokyo server. (lightsail one was hijacked, methinks due to the number of requests… and lack of auth.)
I wanted to ask about this proxy thing, how does it work exactly? The thing is that I’ve never used a proxy and was wondering how safe it is.
I mean, I use chrome for more than just playing KC, and I’m worried about it (I didn’t want to usea VPN for the same reason).