Punkbuster removal

[Colt556]

Ok, so, just saw a thread that dealt with this subject and the ending post made by a mod which was as follows.

BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzz, I'm sorry you lose.

If you would have posted a thread with a reasonable reason why you did like it or even give ANY reason I'd skip by this thread. But you clearly didn't think your cunning thread through.

Sooooo to that end, I figured I'd make a thread that actually had a reason instead of personal hate. So lets get on with the show, shall we?

I have allways had problems with PB, from the MD5 shader errors to the handshake error and everything inbetween. And it's really killed my willingness to play PR. Since .8's release it's only gotten worse, luckily for me I somehow magicly fixed it (Don't bother asking, don't know how) and so I can actually play.

But my luck extends to noone else. My friends have, for all intents and purposes, quit PR because of PB. Every time we try to play a game atleast one of us, if not all of us, gets kicked by PB for some reason or another. And because most servers have a wait period after getting kicked, it gets very frustrating. Accompany this with the long load times our older PC's get, and well you get the picture.

Another friend of mine quit back in .75 because his PB kept him from playing, he'd get kicked every single time, guaranteed. And it was allways for a differant error. And then of course you can just look in the help sections of the forum and see how almost every other thread has something to do with PB.

In the end PB will kick 95% of the PR community, for some random reason that allways changes from one kick to another. It renders the mod virtually unplayable, and whats the point of making a mod noone can play? So I propose we abandon PB, and simply rely on good admining.

Lets not kid ourselves either, PB doesn't keep the cheaters out, I've played with many cheaters during my team on PR and PB never kicked them. So PB is FAR from a fool-proof system. This inability to safe-guard servers, and it's endless kicking of everyone is just further reasons why it should be left behind.

Many other games survive with just admins, I'm sure a PR server could too.

[STORM-Mama]

Good suggestion! I have to manually update PB and start PnkBstrB in services.msc everytime I want to play the game. This to avoid the "Handshaking error" (and, yes, I've manually deleted all PB-files, reinstalled them, etc. a couple of time but in the end I will always have to do like this anyway).

Of course I can't be completely sure, but I bet PB causes more porblems than it solves.

[Outlawz7]

Well, the problem playing without PB is: how do you which player out of 64 on the server is cheating?
High K-D ratio? Hey, he could be a chopper or tank gunner.

I played a game that had no official anti-cheat support and relied on custom written software and admins to get rid of the cheaters, who could keep on coming and coming since there was no full proof way to ban them. Was ok playing with 20 people who all knew each other, but on full public servers?
There was at least always one dodgy player and even if he didn't go around headshotting players through walls, he at least used some sort of high speed running hack or unlimited ammo etc..

[Colt556]

Well, the problem playing without PB is: how do you which player out of 64 on the server is cheating?
High K-D ratio? Hey, he could be a chopper or tank gunner.

I played a game that had no official anti-cheat support and relied on custom written software and admins to get rid of the cheaters, who could keep on coming and coming since there was no full proof way to ban them. Was ok playing with 20 people who all knew each other, but on full public servers?
There was at least always one dodgy player and even if he didn't go around headshotting players through walls, he at least used some sort of high speed running hack or unlimited ammo etc..

Yeah but, PB doesn't kick the cheaters either. Sometimes it does, but just as many times the cheaters can be left alone. Ultimately, it will be the admins discresion, sure it's not fool-proof but then neither is PB, and atleast then the rest of us can still play.

[EinEcki]

It would be a good idea to disable PB on some servers and see what is happening then.
But server admins are bound to the server license and I think this license says that disabling PB is forbidden due to those shader checks.

[Cassius]

Well there are people who seem to overcome the issue. I reinstall punkbuster from the CD before I start the game, its a 40 sec delay, I can live witht that. Hopefully one of the updates will fix the issue.

[justman2005]

i think PR could do wihtout punkbuster but admin rights will have to be given to a whole lot more people to over come the lack of automatic checks.

[Chanvlan]

all the handshaking problems have been fixed now for most of the community?

are you still having problems, use this post here Handshaking Fixed!

it helped me alot!

[Colt556]

The problem with PB errors is that what may fix it for someone, doesn't work for others. And the Handshake error is NOT fixed for most of the community. When I'm ingame I can almost guarantee that majority of my squad, at any given time, has PB errors on a regular basis. They simply soldier on.

Like Ecki said, it'd be nice to get a PR server that was governed by admins instead of PB, and see what happens. See if PB really keeps out a good deal of cheaters, or if it's just a hassle that plagues almost everyone. I know if a server did that, and had a dedicated admin force to govern it at all times, me n my friends would deffinently get back into PR.

[wooly-back-jack]

PB has been annoying but if you disable it all those cheats that have already been banned on pb servers will come flooding back.
Keep it I say.
It has been really annoying for me with the handshaking errors and lost connection to server.

Just uninstall PB services, (as stated in the other thread)and wipe the contents of your BF2/PB folder, reboot, reinstall services and then:

1. Create a folder in Program Files called 'PunkBuster'
2. download this file to your new 'PunkBuster' file
3. Run the PBsetup.exe that you have just put in your PB folder.

this will detect all punkbuster games on your system (if it doesn't for some reason you can select the game from a list) and give you the option of updating them.

working for me so far

[hall0]

The problem of pb in BF2 is there arent any alternatives around.

There was battleye put this program stopped with BF2

[Japub]

Why not run a few test servers as someone said? Wont hurt anybody. I'm tired of PB (even though my PR runs considerably steady now without any PB errors).

[youm0nt]

The problem with these PB fixes is they're remedies to fix the problem. Yeah, you found a fix, followed the instructions, and then you go into a server and it works. But was that a permanent fix to the solution? Would you be able to get into a server the next day without any PB problems?

[LithiumFox]

I actually used to have the handshaking failures. Haven't had them for some time actually. I've been fine.

PB kicks for people using things that could be used for cheating. It can't kick all cheats as they have to figure out how people cheat to begin with. Like the almighty "UAV" hack. Once they implement it into punkbuster, then it's effective.

It's kind of like virus protection. It can't keep all viruses out, but it keeps a majority of the major ones.

PunkBuster is useful. I know it kicks for direct-draw overlays, and probably any program that modifies how the game is running as it's going.


The BIGGEST issue is just making sure that you're pb didn't update crappily.

What i did with PRV0.8 was reinstalled BF2, installed PRV0.8, installed PB using their thirdparty installer, then updated it using pbsetup. Worked like a charm. 4 weeks, only one handshaking failure cause my game crashed the time before that.

Punkbuster shall and should be kept. At least it offers some protection from the major threats of cheaters.

[gazzthompson]

if pb is removed the world and his wife could download some shitty free hack and hack us all to high heaven, least these sad acts have to pay now...

[mammikoura]

In the end PB will kick 95% of the PR community, for some random reason that allways changes from one kick to another. It renders the mod virtually unplayable, and whats the point of making a mod noone can play?

Game-monitor disagrees with your facts. "virtually unplayable, kicks 95% of community, no one can play" Whine whine whine.... at the moment, according to game-monitor, there are over 900 people happily playing pr on servers which have punkbuster enabled.

If you really want to try running a server without punkbuster then I suggest you discuss with the devs and try to get their permission to run a single pr server without punkbuster. Then see how it goes and report back with results.

[Sudano68]

At least if we play with cheaters I can get into the game.. Punkbuster sucks more than cheaters, and I hate cheaters. Find anything.. please, just get rid of this PB-BS.

[wooly-back-jack]

I have just started getting the 'lost connection ' **** again ffs!

[Masaq]

Here's how to deal with punkbuster:

1. Uninstall it.
2. Restart your PC
3. Uninstall any games that use it.
4. Restart your PC between each uninstall.
5. Reinstall BF2.
6. Resinstall 1.41 Patch FULL.
7. Restart your PC.
8. Load up BF2, load a local map to check the game runs etc. Set your profile's settings.
9. Install PR 809 CORE and LEVELS.
10. Restart your PC.
11. Load up your profile in PR, load a local map to set your shaders and check your video and audio
12. settings.
13. Close PR.
14. Run PBSVC.exe to check installation and re-install PB.
15. Restart your PC.
16. Run PBSETUP.exe.
17. Check your hardware and software firewalls. Ensure that the ports used by PB are open/the program is given an exception.
18. Run PR.

[Tazz]

See on every server I've played on someone got banned by PB because of some type of hack...

PB has to stay. One cheater got banned by PB is better than no one will ever be banned.