Prop Firm IP Whitelisting: What It Is, and Why TBM Funded Doesn't Use It

IP whitelisting locks a trading account to one registered IP address, so connecting from anywhere else can flag or freeze it. TBM Funded doesn't run that system. Instead, VPN and VPS use is allowed with prior written approval, requested by email before you use it, not detected and punished after.

This one's written for traders whose home internet doesn't hand them a single fixed IP address, which describes a lot more people than a rule like this seems to assume.

What is IP whitelisting at a prop firm?

IP whitelisting is a rule that ties a trading account to one specific IP address or a short approved list, so a login or a trade from an unlisted address gets flagged automatically. Some firms treat a mismatch as a minor review; others treat it as an immediate violation, no manual check involved.

The mechanism is usually automated. A firm's back office compares the IP address on each session against whatever was recorded at signup or first login, and anything outside that record trips a rule, whether or not the trader did anything wrong. That's the part that catches people who never touched a VPN.

Why do some prop firms use it?

Firms adopt IP whitelisting mainly to catch two things: account sharing, where one paid evaluation gets traded by more than one person, and multi-accounting, where a trader runs several funded accounts through the same infrastructure to dodge single-account risk limits. A location mismatch is also a rough signal for firms restricting access from specific countries.

None of that is unreasonable on its own. Account sharing and multi-account abuse are real problems, and a firm that lets them slide is a firm quietly diluting its own risk controls. The trouble isn't the goal, it's the instrument. An IP address is a weak, noisy proxy for whether it's the same person logging in, and firms that lean on it exclusively inherit its false positives along with whatever it actually catches.

Why a fixed-IP rule misfires on ordinary internet

Most home and mobile internet connections don't hand out one unchanging IP address, so a rule built around a fixed IP flags normal, everyday usage as suspicious far more often than it ever catches a real violation.

Two everyday causes account for most of it. The first is ordinary dynamic IP addressing, where most residential ISPs reassign a subscriber's public IP periodically, sometimes every reconnect, without the subscriber changing anything. The second is carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT), where an ISP shares one public IP address across many customers because it has run out of individual IPv4 addresses to hand out. CGNAT is standard on mobile networks worldwide and widely deployed by residential ISPs across South America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and large parts of Asia, including major Indian carriers, where it's a documented default rather than an edge case. A trader on a CGNAT connection can show a materially different apparent IP address between one login and the next, from a laptop that never left the desk.

Add a mobile hotspot switch, a router reboot, a house move, or a trip, and the number of legitimate reasons an IP address changes stacks up fast. A rule that can't tell "different IP, same trader" from "different IP, different trader" ends up asking honest traders to prove a negative.

What TBM Funded does instead

TBM Funded doesn't operate IP whitelisting. There's no system that locks an account to a registered address or flags a login for arriving from a new one. VPN and VPS use is governed by a disclosure requirement instead. Using either without prior written approval ends the account, no refund, per TBM Funded's own Trading Rules and Terms and Conditions.

The mechanics are simple. Email support@tbmfunded.com stating the reason and the specific service, before using it. TBM Funded responds within 10 business days, and approval, once given, applies only to the service and reason disclosed, not a blanket pass. It's a human review of a stated intention, not an automated match against a stored address, so a router reboot or a new SIM card is a non-event rather than a violation.

That's a real restriction, not the absence of one. An unapproved VPN or VPS still ends an account. What it removes is the part where an ordinary change in your own internet connection gets treated the same as evidence of account sharing.

How other firms in the industry handle it

Policies vary more than the phrase "no VPN" suggests. FTMO's own published guidance permits VPN and VPS use for legitimate reasons, restricting it against masking a trader's location to access a restricted region, rather than banning the tools outright. Other firms publish flatter language, some prohibiting VPN and VPS use entirely, with any detected connection treated as automatic grounds for termination.

The distinction worth checking before you pay for an evaluation is whether a firm's policy is a disclosure requirement, a flat ban, or an undocumented automated check you'll only discover after a login gets flagged. All three show up as "we have a VPN rule" in casual conversation, and only one of them is a system a normal internet connection can actually live inside.

What still gets an account terminated

None of this makes VPN or VPS use a formality. Using either at TBM Funded without first emailing for approval is a termination-level violation, listed alongside copy-trading, multi-account hedging and credential sharing in the same conduct table. The disclosure step exists precisely because the underlying concern, real account sharing and coordinated multi-accounting, is real; it's the detection method that changed, not the seriousness of the rule.

In practice, if a VPN or VPS is genuinely part of how you trade, ask first. If your IP address just happens to change because of how your ISP is built, there's nothing to ask about, because there's no whitelist checking it in the first place.

Where to check before you commit

TBM Funded's Trading Rules page lists the full conduct table this policy sits in, Terms and Conditions carries the binding version, and the FAQ covers the other checks worth running before an evaluation purchase. Start with the rules, not the reputation.