Punk Buster is out of control
 

Since pb last updated i see 50-70 people an hour kicked on our servers. b4 it was 1-10 now it is out of control. people are getting kicked for all kinds of reasons that have nothing to do with cheating.
it is now impossible to keep the servers full.

to make matters worse since pb did its update they have shut down thier forums and their email. they have unleashed hell on us with no way to contact them. now is the time to rally together and get their contract revoked. personally i wish we as players and admins could file a class action suit against pb to show them that their product is hindering our game play and fun.

we need to start a petition or something. anyone have experience in this?

Hello Guest. Well Can u tell me wut they are getting kicked for?? That would be the best place to start is to find out wut they are gettin kicked for and list some on here.

No offense but this is like your 4-5 post about why you hate pb. If you don't like it disabled it on your server simple as that, and don't play on servers that have pb enabled. Or maybe we could help if it you told us more details? :deal: .

there are at least 10 different messages people are getting. u can disable pb but all those people that are trouble makers that were banned return. that is what we use it for. the local ban.cfg file can only hold a few ip's. most of the items that people are getting kicked for are due to pb and thier update. clients in distress. pb notices an error and kicks them. pb is kicking multiple guids. pb is kicking for "spaces" in peoples names. pb is kicking for non asci characters. pb is kicking because the clients are not updating correctly. there is a ton of different errors. bani has been asked to try and replace pb for those admins that like just a few of the features pb does well. however it will take time for him to code them in. frankly there should not be this many problems all at once. it is a true sign that they didnt test this b4 unleashing it. we are also working on a way to downgrade pb back to .991 that was bug free and then lock the firewall to prevent pb from grabbing the update. however all the info was in the forums that are no longer up and running.

anyhow i have notified activision of the situation that pb is causing and i am sure i will hear back on monday. i asked for what they want us admins and players to do...wether it is a petition phones calls or emails. and fyi this is the 2nd post.

we are starting a petition to have pb's contract cancelled if anyone is interested.

here are the redhat linux server instructions to flash pb back to .991 and block the update ports.

first get into ur server via putty or whatever u use.
then type this to block pb.

iptables -A OUTPUT -p udp --dport 24300 -s 0/0 -d 0/0 -j DROP
iptables -A OUTPUT -p udp --dport 24347 -s 0/0 -d 0/0 -j DROP

if u get an error with the above input type this

rmmod ipchains

then this again

iptables -A OUTPUT -p udp --dport 24300 -s 0/0 -d 0/0 -j DROP
iptables -A OUTPUT -p udp --dport 24347 -s 0/0 -d 0/0 -j DROP

copy this file to ur ./wolf directory.
http://lad.goodnet.com/~swat/filez/pb.tar.gz

then back up 3 files in ./wolf/pb pbsv.cfg pbbans.dat pbpower.dat

now delete everyting in ./wolf/pb
now delete the /pb directory

now type this while ur in the ./wolf directory to get .991 installed

tar -xzvf pb.tar.gz

recopy ur pbsv.cfg pbbans.dat and pbpower to the ./wolf/pb directory and restart ur server.

now ur on .991 and pb cant update ur shiznit no mo.

THANK YOU bani for helping out with this fix.

One thing I know, is PB will kick players for having the same CD key. This happened today. I own two copies of RTCW, and 2 of our computers had the same CD key today, because of a mixup when it was reinstalled on the second computer. It said, "you are banned for 60 minutes...."

So, it is possible many people are being kicked for having the same CD key numbers and someone else. Also, as the game matures, it is possible there really ARE a lot more cheats available out there, and PB is actually catching these cheaters.
Other than the cd key mixup of today, I have never been kicked by PB before. So, I don't have a major beef with it. (if it is weeding out cheaters, then that's ok)

What bugs me is that PunkBuster won't tell you when the update is released. People had asked and PB wouldn't tell them. I also didn't notice a thread on the forum or anywhere else listing the changes. Maybe I missed it. That means going through your configs and comparing them to the documentation on their site.
This one got a lot of people upset:
PB_SV_ExtChar [0/1]
The default setting of 0 tells PunkBuster to disallow extended ASCII Characters in player names; for the purposes of this command, characters that cannot be easily entered with simple keystrokes are considered extended

It automatically kicks people for their names that they have been using for months. I would have thought that they would have released it set to off.
I have not gone through to find all the changes. From what I have heard, it is really messing servers and players up.
This update could have been released a lot better. A little "heads up" would have been nice.
I feel for the admins that couldn't get on their own servers or didn't realize that PB had updated. Talking about a mess. Of course their forums went down.

u may have a point. however bani has almost coded all the tools i use in pb so that we will no longer require it. i wanted to post what the grand dad of all servers says about pb but i cant seem to locate happy penguins webiste addy. when i find it i will post it because they have some huge insight i believe into the whole cheating myth.

this is what the owner of hp has to say about pb. i totally agree.

Why do you not run Punkbusters?

The main reason is because it is too intrusive. I have no idea what files or processes are being monitored, altered, or moved.
The other reason is that I do not see a need for it. I have yet to see a real cheat Return to Castlewolfenstein. Sure you have
all had your things were you think someone is cheating but never has been proven. You would think out of the thousands of
people playing that cheats would spread like wildfire, but I have not seen it. If there are cheats I do not believe they have
been found and exploited. I know lots of people think that someone is cheating because they just got done emptying a clip
into the back of someones head and then you die from a pistol shot, but sometimes the dice just don't roll your way. I have
had this done to me and done this too people. Lady luck is picky. Plus I do not think that it is the job of some 3rd party
software to manage flaws in the Wolfenstein binaries. If indeed a cheat does surface it shouldn't be covered up with
Punkbusters but instead fixed in the core of the code and a patch released. This would be Nervs' department most likely.