How to Unlock and Play Titanfall Early - Setup your own Proxy Server Tutorial

Posted in titanfall

Someone thought it was a good idea to stagger Titanfall's release date across several continents with the UK being outside of Europe's release date of 13th March. Make sense? No. But forget all that, I'll show you how to bypass the release date using a proxy server and play Titanfall on the US release date of 11th March.

Before I start, this method will NOT get you banned and this has been confirmed by Vince Zampella from Respawn. Regarding other games and beating release dates - people have their right to try things so I'll leave the moral and legal rights of this to you. There's also a small (but improbable) chance that your Origin account might get banned for other games but I doubt it because people have done similar things with BF4 in the past.

So once more for the record, using proxy servers to unlock and play Titanfall early will NOT get you banned. Tweet:

About playing early: We won’t stop or ban legit copies. It is prelaunch, so there may be interruptions in service as we prep servers.

— Vince Zampella (@VinceZampella) March 7, 2014

A lot of people recommend free VPN services such as FlyVPN or VPNGate which you can download and install on your computer. They're fine for some things but the lag for activating games is tremendous. You're also going to send passwords over an anonymous network which could easily be monitored by some not so pleasant people. Personally I wouldn't take that risk.

Proof this works

Quick screenshot showing a pre-load of Titanfall on 7th March.

Using your own VPN

Edit: Some of you are reporting that Origin says "online login is currently unavailable". I suggest you go straight to the VPNGate part of this tutorial instead.

If you want to try building your own VPN server then carry on...

Creating your own VPN is a lot easier than people think. Using this tutorial you should be able to pre-load early, activate and play Titanfall on the US release date of the 11th March. Depending where you live this could be several days ahead of time. These are the release dates for different countries/continents:

• US - March 11, 2014
• EU - March 13, 2014
• AU - March 13, 2014
• UK - March 14, 2014
• NZ - March 14, 2014

What you need

Nothing complicated about this, all you need is:

• Rackspace cloud server
• Internet Connection
• 15 mins of your time

Ok, follow these steps.

1. Create a Rackspace cloud server

Step 1: Create a Rackspace account

We're going to create our very own Proxy server using a Rackspace cloud server. These are charged per hour for as little as $0.10 which over the course of 2-3 days will cost you about $10. Bandwidth is charged by GB so this is not a long term solution, just a way to get ahead of your countries release date.

Rackspace isn't the only choice here, you could use Amazon's cloud services or any other provider. For this tutorial we'll show you Rackspace though.

So sign up and login to Rackspace at:

http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/

Step 2: Login and create a new server

Once you've logged in, go to your Control Panel and click the "Create Server" button:



Here you have the option to choose a location. United States seems the obvious choice but you could also go for Asia and attempt to get the earliest possible release date (which is in South Korea).

Step 3: Select Windows Server 2008

Select a Windows Server R2 image and choose "base install with updates". Give your server a name so you can easily identify it.



Step 4: Select the server type

Scroll down a little and choose the server spec you want. I would go for at least 400 Mb/s Network speed.

Depending on your needs you might want more bandwidth but you'll pay more per hour for it. Depends how well you want Titanfall to play online. Choose wisely to prevent lag during the game.

A decent network speed is 400 Mb/s for $0.10 per hour. Forget most of the other settings because we don't really care about CPU, RAM or disk space.



Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "Create Server".

Step 5: Make a note of the password

This part is important. Rackspace will give you a Root Admin password now so make a note of it.

You will need this password to login to the server and setup the VPN.

Step 6: Login to your new server

Wait a couple of minutes for the server build to complete and then try logging in.

There are two ways to do this; either RDP or a Console session from the web browser. The console session is a little slow but it's fine because there's not much configuration to do for a VPN.

So click "Actions" and choose "Connect via Console":



This will open a new browser tab where you can interact with the server. So send a Ctrl+Alt+Del and login using the following credentials:

User: Administrator
Password: [the password you received in step 5]

2. Setup VPN

Step 1: Open Server Manager

Now you're on the server the fun part starts.

Server Manager should automatically open but if not just click the Server icon in the taskbar:



Step 2: Add Roles

Next click the "Roles" item on the LHS and then click the "Add Roles" link on the RHS:



Click Next on the first page of the Wizard and then select "Network Policy and Access Services" from the list:



Click Next a couple of times until you reach the "Role Services" section. Select "Routing and Remote Access Services" from the list:



Choose Next, then Install. Wait for install to complete and close the wizard

Step 3: Configure Network Policy and Access

Back in the Server Manager window, expand the section "Network Policy and Access Services". Right click the "Routing and Remote Access" item. Click "Configure and Enable Routing and Remote Access" (see image below):



Click Next in the wizard and choose "Custom configuration":



Select both "VPN" and "NAT" from the next screen:



Click Next, Finish and then the "Start Service" button.

Step 4: Configure Policies

Now that routing and remote access is installed we need to allow access because it's disabled by default.

Click the "Remote Access Logging & Policies" item and click "Launch NPS":



The Network Policy server screen will open. Select "Network Policies" on the LHS, then right click "Connections to Microsoft Routing and Remote Access server". Select "Properties" from the list:

Click "Grant access" and choose the type of network access server as "Remote Access Server (VPN-Dial up)":



Click ok to close the windows.

Step 5: Create NAT Interface

The final part to setting up the VPN is to create a Network Address Translation rule. So go back to Server Manager and expand the "IPv4" section on the LHS. Click "NAT" and then right click on the RHS. Choose "New Interface" from the list:



Click "Public" and then on the next screen make sure you select "Public interface connected to the Internet" and tick the "Enable NAT on this interface" option:

3. Connect to VPN

Ok the hard part is out of the way, now we can test connecting to our new VPN server.

First we need the IP address. So go back to your Rackspace Control Panel webpage and scroll down the page until you get to the Networks section. You'll see a PublicNet (Internet) item with an IPv4 address - this is your VPN IP address so copy/make a note of it.

Now on the computer you want to play Titanfall - open the Control Panel and search for "Network and Sharing Center". Then open it:



Click Set up a new connection or network:



Select "Connect to a workplace"



Choose "Use my Internet Connection":



Now enter the IP address of your new server. Click Next and enter the login details:

User: administrator
Password: [the password you got in step 5]

4. Test VPN

Hopefully you'll connect ok and now it's time for a quick test.

If the VPN is working correctly, your IP address should have changed to a US IP address because the Default Gateway is automatically routed through the VPN. To test this, open your browser and Google "whats my IP".

Google should display something like:

Your public IP address is XXXXXXXX

If this matches the IP address of your new server, then congratulations your VPN is working nicely!!

5. Play Titanfall using US IP address

Now that you've got a US IP address you can play Titanfall as if you were living in the US.

Follow these steps:

• Disconnect from Origin
• Connect to the VPN network (through Network and Sharing Center)
• Login to Origin
• Play Titanfall

You should be able to activate the game and play on the US servers from 11th March.

Very Important

When you've finished with the VPN server remember to delete it from your Rackspace Control Panel. If you don't then you'll be charged per hour for every day it still exists - a hefty fee!

Troubleshooting

If you find that Origin reports "Online login is currently unavailable" then you'll need to alter the connection method from your local PC. Origin suspects you're using a Proxy which is against their TOS and therefore it logs you out.

The way to avoid this is to spoof a new network connection by creating a virtual network adapter. To do this you'll need to find a good Software VPN client that supports virtual adapters e.g. Shrew Soft, VPNGate. Unfortunately the install and setup for these is outside this tutorial but a quick Google will get you on your way.

Last Resort - Use VPNGate

If you're really having trouble getting your VPN to work then you can fall back to VPNGate - it's still the best alternative. Just download and install the SoftEther VPN client, start it up and double click the "VPN Gate Public VPN Relay Servers". Select a Korea server from the list, and retry many others until you get a connection straight away.

Tips:
Make sure you logout of Origin before connecting to a Relay Server, then once connected immediately open Origin again. The UI language should change to Korean (or what ever proxy region you chose). Now open the "My Games" tab and under Titanfall the pre-load (or play) option should be available.

If you're pre-loading then the download speed is going to be poor. Once you've got at least 100Mb done, try connecting to another proxy server that you know will fail. This will drop your current connection and usually fools Origin into continuing the download with your high speed local connection!

Stay safe

VPNGate relies on public VPN servers that are run by volunteers. They could be anyone and in many cases criminals. Never turn on network/folder sharing and make sure your firewall is on. Avoid opening your browser especially to sites without HTTPS connections.

Ways to improve your own VPN

If you've successfully setup your own VPN then consider these improvements:

• Connecting via the administrator user is bad practice. Consider researching how to create a new user on the server and connect via that user.
• Use Windows Firewall to restrict access to the VPN server via only your IP address
• Upgrade your server at any time using the Rackspace Control Panel. Useful if you find the bandwidth is not good enough.
• Never share you Rackspace account with anyone, otherwise they could create more servers and you'll pay the bill