Can i get banned from steam if i used vpn just to download games?

[Terrorist Omar]

hi
so my stupid isp is blocking steam downloads and i tried messaging them a million times in the last 10 days and they said they will fix it and still nothing
i can download games while using a vpn but will i get banned? i heard that its safe unless i changed my store location to get cheaper games

[Ducks on Fire]

Why is your ISP blocking the download? I'm not sure how a VPN will help if it's your ISP.

If you aren't using a VPN to bypass any restrictions on Steam then Steam shouldn't care.

[nullable]

Yeah, Steam isn't the police for your ISP. Steam only cares about you trying to defraud them and their other customers (developers).

[Chompman]

Technically they do have a rule about using a vpn to bypass region restrictions like that as they have to have it for legal issues and if the isp is blocking it this could be under orders by the government often times.

I would be more worried about the reason it's being blocked and if it's something that can get you banned from that isp or legal issues in your region depending how monitored it is.

[Criss-Cross]

UR4NIUM AKA -Light님이 먼저 게시:

hi
so my stupid isp is blocking steam downloads and i tried messaging them a million times in the last 10 days and they said they will fix it and still nothing
i can download games while using a vpn but will i get banned? i heard that its safe unless i changed my store location to get cheaper games

Have you tried changing your region, maybe that'll work ? Not saying it will but it's an option.Better than being banned for one game for a vpn usage.

[Terrorist Omar]

Chompman님이 먼저 게시:

Technically they do have a rule about using a vpn to bypass region restrictions like that as they have to have it for legal issues and if the isp is blocking it this could be under orders by the government often times.

I would be more worried about the reason it's being blocked and if it's something that can get you banned from that isp or legal issues in your region depending how monitored it is.

its just my isp not the government, i can use steam using the phone network and other networks in my friend's house...etc

[Terrorist Omar]

Ducks on Fire님이 먼저 게시:

Why is your ISP blocking the download? I'm not sure how a VPN will help if it's your ISP.

If you aren't using a VPN to bypass any restrictions on Steam then Steam shouldn't care.

i have no idea why, i msgd them 2 weeks ago and they said they will fix it, they done nothing

[Dendy]

I'm using steam for 4 years and i always use VPN CUZ of my country I got lots of restrictions and it's all good .

[The_Breaker]

Yeah, Steam isn't the police for your ISP. Steam only cares about you trying to defraud them and their other customers (developers

[Teksura]

UR4NIUM AKA -Light님이 먼저 게시:

Ducks on Fire님이 먼저 게시:

Why is your ISP blocking the download? I'm not sure how a VPN will help if it's your ISP.

If you aren't using a VPN to bypass any restrictions on Steam then Steam shouldn't care.

i have no idea why, i msgd them 2 weeks ago and they said they will fix it, they done nothing

Keep calling them, complaining, and use the magic words "How are you going to compensate me for the fact that your not providing the service I'm paying for?"

If one of the main reasons you use the internet is for gaming and entertainment and your ISP is blocking you from being able to do that and still won't fix it, this is the point where you get to point out that they're not upholding their end of the deal and therefore owe you compensation. At that point when not fixing it starts to cost them money, it should light a fire under them to actually fix it.

[Iceira]

You sure its not own VIP portal, and you need to open traffic in for steam, some isp use custom portal settings.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/669A-2F68-D1D1-A5EC

Known Issues with Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
Important:
If you notice that your Steam connection only has issues during certain hours of the day (for example in the evenings between 5pm and 11pm), it is possible that your ISP is blocking or "shaping" your connection. Please test your connection at other hours of the day and contact your ISP directly if you believe this is causing the connection issue.

Some ISPs have been found to block ports required for the proper operation of Steam and Steam games:
012.net (Steam traffic blocked)
Bluewin (Firewall blocks Steam from provider side - must be disabled through provider's service portal)
Dutch Telecom (Steam traffic blocked)
ISPFree (Steam traffic blocked)
Micronet Broadband (Steam traffic blocked)

[Elucidator]

I read about this...
I forgot which country, but the court there ordered blocking of addresses that belonged to Cloudflare. (its possible it was your country so I am mentioning this)
As steam is partly running on cloudflare, the isp is blocking some connections.

It isn't the government there that blocked it, its a court order that was succesful, created by anti-piracy extremist (the nation's piracy watchdog)
They are doing everything to restrict piracy, and with it they don't care about innocent victims.
As a single pirate site was tunneled through cloudflare to prevent ddossing that site (as cloudflare does with many websites) 'cloudflare' was blocked, instead of that site. They simply blocked the means in between to get there instead of the site basically.

And because of that and how large cloudflare is, now Steam is blocked there. That is what the situation is in that country from what I recall.

@OP, if this is what is going on, you will need to use a VPN that doesn't use cloudflare and finding that will be very difficult.
a lot of VPNs also have their servers behind cloudflare to protect them...

I recommend at least trying to appeal to the court order with a lot of others and say the decision is too dystopic or something.

Perhaps you can just switch ISP though. idk.

[变成贡品守护飞机✈]

“You agree that you will not use IP proxying or other methods to disguise the place of your residence, whether to circumvent geographical restrictions on game content, to order or purchase at pricing not applicable to your geography, or for any other purpose. If you do this, Valve may terminate your access to your Account.”
So I think Valve mainly wants you to not bypass regional restrictions or buy across regions

[sotoシ]

no\

[Terrorist Omar]

变成贡品守护飞机✈님이 먼저 게시:

“You agree that you will not use IP proxying or other methods to disguise the place of your residence, whether to circumvent geographical restrictions on game content, to order or purchase at pricing not applicable to your geography, or for any other purpose. If you do this, Valve may terminate your access to your Account.”
So I think Valve mainly wants you to not bypass regional restrictions or buy across regions

its not regional, everyone in my country can access steam but my isp have its own stupid system idk what's wrong with steam and them

[Ducks on Fire]

UR4NIUM AKA -Light님이 먼저 게시:

变成贡品守护飞机✈님이 먼저 게시:

“You agree that you will not use IP proxying or other methods to disguise the place of your residence, whether to circumvent geographical restrictions on game content, to order or purchase at pricing not applicable to your geography, or for any other purpose. If you do this, Valve may terminate your access to your Account.”
So I think Valve mainly wants you to not bypass regional restrictions or buy across regions

its not regional, everyone in my country can access steam but my isp have its own stupid system idk what's wrong with steam and them

If it's literally just an issue between you and your ISP then you aren't violating any Steam policies so it shouldn't matter. That being said a VPN might not even help in this situation if the issue is with your ISP.

Call them for an update and let them know that you'll switch to another ISP if the issue isn't resolved soon.