Why Discord isn’t working with your VPN

Is your Discord not working with VPN services, or are you encountering milder performance difficulties that stop the moment you give up on being anonymous and protected online? Blame humanity.

You see, after years of peaceful coexistence, Discord started actively policing virtual private networks because it turns out people suck.

They suck so much that they’ll actively antagonize strangers on the Internet — Discord specifically, in this case — then double down on their toxicity after being told the one thing their mothers never could: no.

For years, trolls have been using VPNs to circumvent IP bans on Discord servers and continue with their flaming crusades. In early 2019, the company has had enough of that immaturity, which brings us to today.

Here’s why Discord doesn’t like VPN’s

Today, if you log into Discord with your account while using a VPN, you’re running the risk of getting locked out right there and then.

Mind you, nothing in Discord’s Terms of Service mentions an outright ban on VPN gateways, but if you type in “free VPN” into Google, click on one of the first several results, then try using Discord, chances are that countless other people did that exact same thing after receiving justified IP bans.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

Discord understandably doesn’t appear interested in wasting money on figuring out whether you’re a bad actor circumventing bans with a VPN or just a random person who happens to have stumbled upon the same freemium gateway used by actual trolls.

What that means is that a dedicated-IP VPN is almost a must if you want to continue using Discord without giving up on a whole lot of extra protections.

Common VPN fixes for Discord

Most other Discord-VPN issues you’re facing can be solved by configuring the program to account for that extra step in Internet communications.

Your top priority should be manually designating certain Discord domains for rerouting instead of leaving the app and your VPN client to their own (poorly supported) devices.

So, open your VPN software, and type in the following domain addresses for rerouting:

• discordapp.com
• dl.discordapp.net
• cdn.discordapp.com
• Gateway.discord.gg

Much like their names imply, these are references to the main Discord portal, its CDN database, authentication gateway, and the node handling product updates. So, everything you need for an uninterrupted experience of using the platform.

In the unlikely chance you can’t find the option to do so, try copy-pasting the server names directly into your VPN suite’s configuration file – assuming it even has one freely accessible like e.g. OpenVPN does.

Keep in mind: Discord can also fail without a VPN

On a rare occasion, the dubious quality of Discord’s VPN support sometimes manifests itself in an entirely different manner – by getting the app stuck in an endless loop when you dare not to use it over a rerouted connection.

That’s right, after everything you’ve endured to get Discord working with your VPN, you’ve been rewarded with a chance for it to forget operating over a standard connection.

Joking aside, this problem — exclusive to Windows — has been around for a while and is easily dealt with once you know what to do; simply open the Control Panel, go to the Network and Internet section, and select Internet Properties. From there, navigate to the Connections tab near the middle, hit the LAN Settings button, and stand in amazement as the cause of this bug that’s been driving you insane reveals itself.

That’s right, it’s the “Use a proxy server for your LAN” checkbox – unmark it and all will be well again.

Editor’s Note

“Discord not working with VPN” was written by Dominik Bosnjak, a long-time VPN-user-turned-advocate who spends more time scrutinizing VPN Providers on a daily basis than he’d like to admit. When he isn’t writing VPN Guides and covering general Tech News, he’s probably spending time with his dog, video games, or both. Fun fact: the Shih Tzu in question is the only remaining creature in Dominik’s life who hasn’t told him they’re sick of him talking about Best VPN practices and government-sponsored erosion of digital privacy which made using the Internet less convenient over the years. He occasionally dabbles in video editing, Wall Street memes, and demonstrating a remarkable lack of guitar-playing ability.

If you want more tidbit-sized rants about any of those things, you can find him on Twitter @dddominikk.