This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
I've had an authenticator since it came out. The extra layer of security is invaluable, and considering how cheap the authenticator can be there's really no reason to not have it if you value your account. I have not once lost my authenticator. It lies sitting on my keyboard. If I have to take it with me for any reason it goes on my car key chain so I would not lose it.
My authenticator is my iPhone. I always have my phone near me, so it's never been an issue for me. If it were on an iTouch or the keyfob, I can see how that could be a hassle.
Out of stupid curiosity a while back, I decided to poll my server (Bladefist-US) and see what the statistical breakdown was like for people that use/don't use these devices, in some for or another.It took about 6 weeks to gather all this data, and I tried to do it at different time during the day so I'd reach as broad a range as possible. I also made a Horde alt and polled both sides of the server.All percentages are rounded for simplcities' sake.Out of 3,546 respondants:
i have never had problems with my account, i'm always cautious with key logger looking things and such, but once i got an ipod touch, i decided "why not, its free" and got the authenticatori'm one of those people who listen to a ton of music, so my ipod never leaves my sight, or when it does i know exactly where it is
After I got hacked Blizzard told me about the authenicatore app for the iphone. For me I always have my iphone next to my PC as I have it plugged in to charge and normally I got people texting and calling me. The good thing about the app is it is linked to your itunes account and not the iphone or ipod touch so if you are an idiot like me and acidently format the phone and wipe everything off it you can just plug it back into your itunes account put the application back on and it is already syncd with your choosen Battle.net account. The early vertions of the app were a pain as it took about 15 seconds to boot up and then it changed numbers so fast you got frustraited when ever you had to log on. They have now updated the app and it's a much slower timer on the numbers which allows you to put the code in with no sense of panic.I later found out my hotmail account had been hacked and this is how they got into my WOW account using the forgotten pass feature and then changing the info. I was obviously naive with my account securtiy then and now I have that extra layer of protection but make sure you don't have your itunes account on the same email as your WOW email because if they get your itunes account you can get screwed as they will be able to download the authenicatore that is syncd with your account!
I love my authenticator. When we first ordered them hubby and I ordered 3 of them, one for each of our accounts and one for son. We found out after they got here we only needed on and that we can tie all 3 accounts to the one authenticator. It works easy. We also found out that if all 3 of us use the same passcode number at the same time we only need 1 number to log in with. It has been a huge worry off our mind that we won't get hacked. We have seen too many people get hacked in our guild and have lost the things in the guild bank way too many times to allow it to happen again. We keep ours on a lanyard hanging from a thumbtack near the computers. Well worth the $6 we spent on it. As to the others, we have gifted them to friends that got hacked and lost everything. They go through the mail cheap and work great. Lisa
It does strike me, reading some of the responses in this thread and the OP itself, that the authenticator is just one more thing for people to blame for their own screw-ups. I think this post from the first page sums up my thoughts:
My authenticator stays in my 100 pound safe next to my computer. I log in once and it goes back into the safe.