Unable to play, get kicked for unknown reasons after 1 min

(jmfaust) #1

I reinstalled Wolf-ET last night, applied the v1.02 patch and manually updated PunkBuster. Now whenever I connect to a server, I get to play for about 1 minute then I get kicked for “unknown reasons”. I have scanned the messages that fly by and I have not found any warnings in the first minute that I am logged in that shine light on my problem.

This is a real shame as I have played off and on (mostly on) for many months (I started shortly after wolf-et first came out, can’t recall when that was).

Does anyone have any idea what my problem is. I have searched the forums here and elsewhere, and while I found that others have talked about this problem, I found no solutions.

(swoop) #2

I am having the same exact problem and I just reinstalled ET yesterday. I then uninstalled and reinstalled today to no avail. I’ve manually updated pb and everything.

The problem, for me anyway, is Punkbuster. Before I get kicked, I get a message that says “PB Client in Distress: Cannot Authenticate with PB Server.” Some servers I get kicked from say “server disconnected for unknown reason,” while others say I was kicked by PB.

I’ve tried playing on about 5 different PB required servers and got kicked after 1 minute. I played on one non-pb server and played a full round.

I’ve been to the PB website but they offer no help at all. I can’t figure out what’s going on so I guess I’ll just email them.

support@evenbalance.com

(jmfaust) #3

I sent the punkbuster folks an email referecing this thread and another I started on planetwolfenstein. I suspected PB was to blame, since that is the only thing that would kick someone off of a server for normal play (i.e. not doing anything to bring forth the wrath of the Admin, like TKing). If others who are having similar problems do so as well perhaps this will encourage the folks over at evenbalance to fix the problem sooner, rather than later.

([PBSTAFF]Stuart) #4

This problem arises from the update that we put out on monday and some servers not getting the update. The A1327 file is an old file, the current and one you will get with a manual update is A1331. Normally PB will fall back on the old version if it has it. However, if you did a fresh install, you have NO old versions. the solution to this is to type /pb_security 0 into the console before joining a server to tell your PB client that you will allow an older version to be downloaded and run. Once you have the older version, you should be ok.

-Stuart

(Lekdevil.NL) #5

Stuart, good to see you here :). The problem of servers not updating themselves seems to be a recurring issue, unfortunately. I know that on many occasions the problem is caused by misconfiguration of a firewall on the server’s network. However, I’m wondering if the effect of this on the clients couldn’t be lessened by some simple modifications in the PB system.

At the moment, the PB master will only send the PB security codes of the latest server, client and anticheat versions. This means that anyone who reinstalls his client, removes his pbcl.db file, or just returns to the game after some time off will not receive any security checksums of previous PB file versions. Without those checksums, the client will go into distress when joining an non-updated server, as shown in the posts above.

Wouldn’t it be an option to let the PB master give out the checksums of both the latest and the one or two previous versions of the PB files? Unless I’m missing something obvious here, it seems to me that this will greatly improve the stability of the PB system as a whole (all servers and clients combined) during an auto-update period.

Just my 0.02. Cheers.

(pgh) #6

Nice one… a second thread that should be stickied imo.

2 threads in 2 days that question, answer and explain fully 2 regular problems related to ET… keep it up!

Also, I noticed a few servers were kicking when some clients were putting pb_security on 0 :o was with the early etprobugfix so I dunno if its related to that…

(jmfaust) #7

Thanks for the help, I was up and running in no time. This thread should definitely be made sticky to help others.

(Lekdevil.NL) #8

Added: I just noticed that A1331 has been released to PB clients, but not to PB servers yet. That’s “standard procedure” for PB, as it allows the clients to receive updated security checksums before the servers update to a newer version. It also adds to my argument to provide security checksums of multiple versions to the clients, since the PB servers are still running A1327 at the moment.

Anyone ininstalling the PB client and manually updating during the period until A1331 is released to the PB servers, will encounter the same problem jmfaust and swoop are having.

I hope this makes sense. If not, have a drink and try again. :slight_smile:

(pgh) #9

Some of us dont drink…

… not me tho. :stuck_out_tongue:

(meLonF) #10

hehe, i wish i had found this thread last night … had the same problem last night and spent about 2 hours trying to fix it :banghead:

i found a slightly different (albiet less elegant) solution … I had a backup of my entire ET directory (from prior to the reinstall) so i just copied the entire PB directoy over and it worked again :smiley:

thanks for posting some very useful info. i know what to do if i get a similar problem again :clap:

(shazmax) #11

Yea I had a similar problem - checked evenbalances website and tried the /pb_security 0 and it worked. Whether or not its a good idea to keep it that way I’m not sure - for it stated that you should do that for servers that you trust. I removed my ET because I was having some high ping issues which normally on the server that I played on - didn’t make sense. To verify whether it was an issue with their server, some estranged pakfile, punkbuster, or my isp I removed wolf ET and reinstalled it. Strangely enough after I was able to get on with the /pb_security 0 my ping was surprisingly back to normal. I was assuming it was my isp - but go figure.

([PBSTAFF]Stuart) #12

LekDevil, thanks for pointing out the lack of secuitry info for servers. This has been fixed and all ET servers should start updating shortly. We missed that when we did our update checklist. Sigh. Sorry guys. The delay betwwen client and server should never be that long. We have switched to releasing both client and server at the same, or near same time. So if you see it again, tell me.

-Stuart Dunsmore
sdunsmore@evenbalance.com