How to stop banned players coming back to your RedM server

A ban only works if it stops the person, not the name they used. On a roleplay server the usual failure is simple: the player makes a new character, or joins from a second Steam account, and is back in the saloon an hour later. This guide covers what a ban should match, why the obvious shortcut (IP bans) backfires, and how a shared network stops a known cheater before they reach your server at all.

Ban the account, not the character

A RedM player connects with several identifiers at once. The ones that matter:

• license and license2: tied to their Rockstar/Cfx.re game licence.
• fivem: their Cfx.re account.
• steam: present if Steam is running.
• discord: present if Discord is running and linked.

A ban that stores one of these can be sidestepped by changing that one. A ban that stores all of them, and refuses a player when any one matches, means they have to change everything at once. That is the difference between a ban that lasts an hour and one that lasts.

Framework character bans are weaker still: they block one character, and the player makes another. Ban the account.

Why IP bans are a trap

An IP address feels like the strongest identifier and is the weakest. Home addresses change when a router restarts. Families, flatmates, universities and mobile networks put many people behind one address. An IP ban locks out the innocent brother and misses the cheater with a new router. Leave the IP out.

Account bans with poggy_core

The free Poggy Core (Free) keeps account bans for every Poggy script, on VORP Core, RSG Core and QBCore RedM. A ban covers every identifier the player connects with (license, license2, fivem, steam and discord) and never uses the IP. From the server console:

poggycore ban 12 7d Griefing at Valentine bank           # player online, server id 12
poggycore ban license:1a2b3c perm cheat Speed hack       # a player who already left
poggycore baninfo                                        # every active ban
poggycore unban 41 Appeal accepted                       # ban id 41, with a reason

Lengths are 30m, 2h, 7d, 1w or perm. Lifting a ban keeps it on record, marked as lifted, so you can see a player's history later. Bans can also be made from /poggy → Poggy Core → Bans, or from Poggy Tickets (Free)'s staff panel, where every ban needs a reason; handling reports and tickets covers that side.

The connect check fails open. It reads from memory, and if anything goes wrong (an error, a database it cannot read) nobody is refused and the console prints one line saying why. A ban system that breaks should never lock out your whole player base on a Friday night.

The shared ban network

A cheater banned on one server usually moves to the next. The Poggy ban network lets servers running poggy_core share that knowledge without sharing anyone's personal data.

What is shared, and what is not

Only bans a server marks with cheat are shared; rule-break bans stay on your server. Even then, the network receives one-way hashes of the player's identifiers, never a name, a reason, an IP or a raw identifier. The raw identifiers stay in your own database. The public list is a hash and a count, with no server names.

How a player gets blocked

• Each server that bans a player for cheating is one vote.
• At three or more votes, the player is refused on every server that enforces the network.
• At one or two votes, they are let in, and your staff are told when they join.
• A server's votes only count once its key is 14 days old and it is sending heartbeats, and it is suspended automatically if it bans far more players than its size explains (more than 15 cheat bans in a day, or more than 3 per 10 players online).
• Lifting a ban takes its vote back. Votes expire after 12 months, and a timed cheat ban withdraws its vote when it runs out.

So no single server, however angry, can shut a player out of the network alone.

Turning it on, or off

It is on by default from poggy_core 0.20.0: the server registers itself, with nothing to sign up for. Both halves can be switched off separately in /poggy → Poggy Core → Bans: enforce (refuse blocked players) and submit (share your cheat bans). If you trust a player the network has blocked, poggycore banallow <identifier> <reason> lets that one player into your server, and counts as a vote against the block. poggycore bannet shows the network's status.

You can set a server name and an appeal link, or hide your name entirely, in the same place.

Appeals

A player refused by the network is sent to poggy.app/appeal. They sign in with their Cfx.re account and see how many votes they have and which servers banned them, with each server's appeal link (or "a server that prefers not to be named"). Nobody can look up anyone else. Poggy does not judge appeals; each server decides its own, and a lifted ban comes off the count, usually within fifteen minutes.

A ban policy checklist

1. Ban accounts, never characters, and never by IP.
2. Mark a ban cheat only for cheating: injectors, speed hacks, spawned money. A rules argument is not cheating, and the network is only useful while that stays true.
3. Write the reason every time. The next staff member reads it, not the player.
4. Give every ban a length unless it is cheating or a repeat.
5. Publish how to appeal, and answer appeals.