we'll... I never really have issues with r/d anymore, just b/c i'm running vista atm and it has the "sidebar" thingy which allows me to run a notepad app for every copy of d2 i have running and record the time every time i join a game. it jmakes recording it super easy so i never go over the limit.
BUT, I have had ALOT of temp bans (5-10 min) from games dropping.
AND I've seen alot of post from r/d, heres a quote from a response I left on another r/d post:
In the future MAKE SURE you join NO MORE than 20 games, PER hour, PER CD key
If you do you will r/d upon leaving the 20th game for 4, 12, 24, 48 hours or more.
(I manually keep track of join times and never have a problem when doing so.)
Its also helpful to use 2 CD keys. For normal gameplay the 40 joins per hour on 2 keys should be more than enough, and for 'enhanced' gameplay , set up 'enhancements' to switch keys every 10 runs.
To make it easy some people just make sure to stay in game at least 3 mins/ leave 3 mins between joins, because ofc 60/20=3. But this, technically IS NOT the rule. if you for example were joining alot of games and got worried you might be getting close to a r/d so then started leaving 3 mins between games you could still get r/d if before you were joining and leaving more quickly. (Say you had just been muling and had 15 joins in 15 mins, THEN started doing mf/Ball runs and made sure they all lasted 3 mins... you would be r/d on leaving 5th 3 min run.)
Also: attempts to log in HAVE NO EFFECT on the length of the r/d or temp ban
You can similarly get temp banned (which is a little different) for:
•Spamming chat (wait at least 2-3 seconds before typing consecutive lines/ responses)
•Swapping characters too quickly (15 seconds on each screen will keep you safe)
•Being in a game when game drops/ server rolls back will sometimes get a temp-ban or "tag" that char, which is itself different, when "tagged" you stay logged in but cant join a game with that character for ~5 mins.
The only way around a r/d is to change your MAC/ ip. There are many thread discussions/ guides on how to do this on the general discussion forum. (both forum and a guide posted by helpful ppl above)
If you dont already know how to do this, or don't know alot about computers, your best bet is prolly to just wait it out. You'll prolly spend most of that time figuring this out if its the short ban, and for some of these methods, it involves leaving your modem unplugged for long enough to reset, which can be 24 hours or more anyway! (of which you cant do anything else online
)
So prolly best to just wait it out and take care to avoid them in future,