... Punkbuster's way of business

(Cambodunum) #1

… just wanna share my “conversation” as an serveradmin with Punkbuster/Evenbalance with ya:

Dear PB,

Since your last update for Wolfenstein - Enemy Territory, every server is laggy like hell. Or lets say nearly every player is laggin’. Is there any chance you gonna fix it or is it just not interesting enough to do it? Im pretty sure youve got enough messages about this problem. There are so many serveradmins which turned off PB in the last months. Dont think its the way Punkbuster should do their business.

No offence, but youre destroying a lovely game.

So please answer me if youre going to fix it someday.

Kind regards

… today i’ve got their (from Adam D.) answer:

Please delete the PB folder from the game installation, then run PBSetup and let it check for updates. Make sure you don’t run PBSetup from inside the PB folder.

… no more comment needed, isnt it?

(nuynuy) #2

goodgoodgood

(Burneddi) #3

PB hasn’t been updated at all for like half a year at least - this means it hasn’t detected any new cheats since that.

At the moment the situtation is that there are over ten easily acquireable public Windows cheats for this game out there that work with PB on - not to mention just about every single goddamn Linux cheat out there. What a bloody brilliant anticheat I must say.

Luckily we’re getting a new anticheat, SLAC, which is supposed to detect all the current cheats - however, it is primarily a competition anticheat and it’s quite likely it will never be available for Jaymod and whatnot.

(BackSnip3) #4

The answer is maybe odd but normal I’d say.
I never had a damn problem with punkbuster, pbsetup and pbsvc solved ALL my problems actually.So I don’t understand why thousands of people are complaining about it.
If they lag it’s their fault, they badly installed PB in some way, it’s not PB’s fault,it works well;:rolleyes:

(stealth6) #5

The problem here is that people just want it to work right off the bat and that’s not the case.
I agree with Backsnip3 if you fiddle around with it long enough it will stop bothering you, but most people don’t know that there is another tool to update PB and the auto-update system seems to be borked :smiley:

(BackSnip3) #6

Ye that’s true :confused: It’s like patching the game ^^ Some people don’t know it:(

(hellreturn) #7

There are tons of public cheat which can be found on cheating websites which will work on regular PB enabled server.

The only reason we are using PB is because of PBBans md5 and cvar scans. See cheater list below:
http://www.pbbans.com/mbi-overview-et-ov2.html

PB in itself hasn’t detected any new cheats since more then half year but PBBans cvar and md5 scans does the job for us.

Also, PBSS system is so old that it doesn’t work on Vista or Windows 7 or even DX 10.

The only updates which I now see from EB are for COD4 and BC2.

(ChimTea) #8

Thats quite a washing list.

Maybe u should donate first before they get to work on PB again :stuck_out_tongue:
** u dont have to **

(Bonghead) #9

The problem with pbbans is that they have the american way of doing things: they put ET-kids in ET-jail.
If you’ve ever fooled around with a hack, you’re gonna be on their list.

(hellreturn) #10

[QUOTE=Bonghead;234681]The problem with pbbans is that they have the american way of doing things: they put ET-kids in ET-jail.
If you’ve ever fooled around with a hack, you’re gonna be on their list.[/QUOTE]

Isn’t that they are supposed to do? You cheat, you get caught and they put you on cheater list?

Why to play with hack on PB servers or is that the excuse after getting busted?

(Burneddi) #11

Yet there are tons of public cheats on cheating websites that cannot be detected with cvar or md5 scans because they don’t use cvars or files inside ET folders.

That is why we need a new anticheat, one that actually does something other than lags the hell out of people - and this lag is something which cannot be removed with pbsetup or anything - it’s annoying little lag spikes when you least want them.

Too bad for the public mod players, though.

(Bonghead) #12

[QUOTE=hellreturn;234692]Isn’t that they are supposed to do? You cheat, you get caught and they put you on cheater list?

Why to play with hack on PB servers or is that the excuse after getting busted?[/QUOTE]

If you f. ex. cheat because you’re new to a PC, new to ET, but still curious and dumb enough to try a public hack that has been punkbusted since ages ago, mainly because you want to know if these “hacks” even work (and this was before youtube) or if it’s all just talk, then you end up on their list forever.

I won’t stream to PBBans because of situations like that. Players with a coloured ET-past are welcome, just as long as they don’t aimbot/wallhack on MY server. Not everybody can be allround leet from day 1 (including even knowing what a hack or for that matter PBBans is), and most players probably have done something stupid at some point in their ET-lives.

(stealth6) #13

mm I can agree that curiosity can be a factor in trying hacks, but it is definetly not the only reason, ever.
I can also agree that people shouldn’t be banned forever if it was a genuine mistake and they are really sorry, which can happen, but this is impossible to administrate. How can you define if a person is honest or not…

So for that reason I think pbbans is fine, it’s a shame for those few people, but then they’ve learned their lesson for the rest of their gaming career :smiley: and there are ways to get rid of a pbban too…

Also I would put money on the fact that you have hackers on your server :smiley: , unless your server is locked or you only have 10 regulars.

(hellreturn) #14

[QUOTE=stealth6;234878]mm I can agree that curiosity can be a factor in trying hacks, but it is definetly not the only reason, ever.
I can also agree that people shouldn’t be banned forever if it was a genuine mistake and they are really sorry, which can happen, but this is impossible to administrate. How can you define if a person is honest or not…
[/QUOTE]

Partially agree. But why trying it on PB servers? Want to test it? Run local server or go on NON PB server.

It’s just a guid ban but PBBans does help to know who cheated on which server or how many times. I normally end up with manual or IP bans for cheaters busted more then 2 times.

[QUOTE=stealth6;234878]
Also I would put money on the fact that you have hackers on your server :smiley: , unless your server is locked or you only have 10 regulars.[/QUOTE]

Agreed, since there are always private cheats not detected by cvar or md5 scans. But there are also private cheats which are detected by generic cvar scans…

Ex: http://www.pbbans.com/mbi-viewban-8c538379-vb182856.html

Above cheat is being sold for 20$/months on cheat website and there it says undetected … :smiley:

There are only 3 major reasons why clans don’t stream to AC sites…

  1. They have cheaters in there clan.
  2. There members want to cheat themselves.
  3. They want to harbor cheaters on there server to keep it popular.

Back on topic… I did reported to PB (EB) about there pb_sv_restriction 0 bug… in 2009 but it’s still not yet fixed!

No wonder Brink is coming with VAC. Not saying VAC is better but then again you can’t say EB is good either… :slight_smile:

(stealth6) #15

The best AC would just be if these 10 year olds just stopped hacking in the first place…

(Bonghead) #16

You are both the finest ET-gents around.

But allow me to present another scenario:
A 13 year old kid tries a hack in 2003.
He then forgets all about ET and moves on to become a …something big.
He then remembers this game, and attempt to play it again, for the first time, now at the age of 20 (yes, it might be vague, but it’s less vague if you’re f. ex. from a poor country).
He will be kicked from a lot of servers, because his old PC is still on the PBBans-list.

If you think this is fair, then I disagree with you.

(Nail) #17

if he’s still using his old P3 to play games, he’s screwed anyway

(Bonghead) #18

Yes, then he’s screwed. If he for some reason or another have not gotten a new PC in the meantime, then he’s screwed.
You know, it happens. In places like Afghanistan, Africa, South America. And China.

Most respectfully, sir. I love your site.

(Nail) #19

unless he has a PB hardware ban, just deleting the etkey will fix him right up

thanks, hopefully we’ll be back online soon

(Burneddi) #20

[QUOTE=Nail;235184]unless he has a PB hardware ban, just deleting the etkey will fix him right up

thanks, hopefully we’ll be back online soon[/QUOTE]
Haven’t seen those hardware bans for ages, I think they don’t give them anymore.