Why does PunkBuster now require players to run the game as an administrator under WinXP/2K?
Because some cheats/hacks cannot be detected otherwise.
I keep getting kicked by PunkBuster for "Insufficient O/S Privileges". Is there some way to modify my system configuration to be an administrator equivalent from
PunkBuster's perspective?
Yes (under Win XP Pro or Win 2K). This can be accomplished by setting certain
privileges for the user that will run the game.
To do this, first temporarily log in as an Administrator. Then go to Control Panel =>
Administrative Tools => Local Security Policy. This will open up the Local Security setting window.
Expand the Local Policies folder and select User Rights Assignment. This will bring up a list of
security settings for the computer. You will need to add the user that will be launching the game
to have the following privileges. If the user is logged in while making changes, the user must be
logged out and back in for the changes to take effect.
- Debug Programs
- Load and unload device drivers
- Manage auditing and security log
- Modify Firmware environment values
- Profile Single Process
This is done by double clicking on the setting and then the "Add User or Group" button.
You can either type the user or group name into the field or click on advanced to select from
a list. If you select advanced, you may need to click on the "Object Types" button and make
sure all 3 boxes are checked. Then click "OK". Click on the "Find Now" button to generate
a full list of all users and groups on the system. Highlight the user you want to add the
rights to and click "OK". Keep clicking "OK" untill you are back at the Local Security Settings
window. Repeat this process for the rest of the list. That user will now be able to
play on PB servers without getting kicked for "Inadequate O/S Privileges".
I keep getting kicked by PunkBuster for "Insufficient O/S Privileges". Is there some way to modify my system configuration to be an administrator
equivalent from PunkBuster's perspective in XP Home, or for Pro Users
that get their rights reset?
Download and run these files from
any location, they will check for adware that stops you from being able
to play on PB servers. The VX2 adware edits your user rights when it infects
your computer, and many programs do not repair this when they remove it.
http://tools.zerosrealm.com/VX2Finder.exe
http://tools.zerosrealm.com/VX2Finder(126).exe
Click the "Find VX2.betterinternet info" button to make sure that you
don't have this adware. If there are no files listed, go on to the last
step. If you find the adware files, (it is usually 3 random named dll
files) Select all the files found.
Press 'Delete These Files'.
The program will delete all files but one that will be deleted on reboot. Allow program
to reboot. Once Restarted:
- Press 'Guardian.reg'.
- Press 'User Agent'.
- Press 'Restore Policy'.
Clicking on "find vx2.BetterInternet info" again should
show all fields blank.
If you have no adware files, just click on the
"Restore Policy" Button
PunkBuster kicks me for INIT FAILURE?
Usually, this message means your PB is not working properly.
You should run our PBSETUP program to make sure your PB is up to date.
However, we have recently discovered that some broadband routers routinely drop OOB (Out of Band) packets for no apparent reason.
Since all PB packets are OOB, these routers can actually block PB's communication (again for no apparent reason).
To determine if the router is the cause of this problem for you, remove the router and connect directly to the internet.
If you are able to play this way, then the cause is very likely the router.
Based on user feedback, the following router brands/models are reported to have problems.
Not necessarily all models of a brand might be affected, and the list is in no way complete but it can give you a few hints.
Also, we do not claim that our list below shows the only solution to fix your issue, nor that it will fix it for sure even though it has worked for others.
It could very well be that changing some settings in your router could help as well.
Contacting the company directly might help you as well.
- Linksys - possible solution: Use firmware 1.44.2
- Motorola - possible solution: Update to latest firmware
- Netgear - possible solution: Disable SPI (statefull packet inspection)
PunkBuster logs but does not kick me for #10006 violations?
The cause might be a router issue.
Please see the above question PunkBuster kicks me for INIT FAILURE? to see if that helps you.
PB will kick for this violation in future updates. If you wish to troubleshoot with us via icq to find out why it happens on your system, please contact us at support@evenbalance.com.
Does PunkBuster work on Vegas LAN Servers?
PunkBuster for Vegas only works properly when the Vegas Server is set up to authenticate players with the
Internet-based Vegas global auth system. However admins can set the pb_sv_gameauth setting to 0 to tell PB not to kick
players while central Authing is disabled on Internet-based Vegas servers.
How come I never get a reply to emails I send to Even Balance?
Because of the spam and junk email problem that has proliferated over the Internet, more and more mail systems
try to automatically filter out email based on where each email originates. Unfortunately, some of these
filtering schemes are imperfect. Our support staff makes every effort to answer every single email (we get
hundreds per day), usually the same day an email is received. If you have sent us an email and you do not
receive a reply within 48 hours, that is almost certainly because your incoming mail server is not reachable
from our outgoing mail server. Often this is a DNS problem that prevents our mail server from "finding" other
mail servers. However, we have also learned that some "blacklist" services have blacklisted the whole subnet
which contains our mail server's IP Address. Not because of anything we have done (we have never sent out spam
and we do not allow our mail server to act as an open relay). If you do not get a reply from us, please send
again just to be safe and if you still do not get a reply, you may want to troubleshoot by creating a "free"
web based email account (such as at yahoo.com or at hotmail.com) and use that to send your email.
Why does PB spam "PB Server running Old Version" on some servers and how do I make it stop?
Some PB Server admins are not able or willing to fix their firewall so that their PunkBuster
server can keep itself always auto-updated to the latest version. Therefore, when a new PB update
comes out, their server(s) will continue running the old version until updated manually. When
players join a PB Server that is running an old version, that old PB will try to 'downgrade' each
player's PB to match the old version running at that server and the "PB Server running Old Version"
message is generated every few seconds during this process. We encourage players to avoid servers
like this as PB often does not work efficiently nor catch the latest cheats when old versions are
running. If the attempts to 'downgrade' your PB fail, then you will be kicked. If you trust the
server admin, you can enter "pb_security 0" into your console to allow your PB to be downgraded. If
you know how to get in touch with the admin, please let him/her know of the problems caused by not
having a properly functioning / auto-updating PB Server.
I'm a server admin, is there anything special that needs to be done in order to run multiple game servers with PB from the same server computer?
Yes. The default behavior of PunkBuster is to use the "System\pb" folder as a "home" path for reading/writing/creating
PunkBuster files. If you run multiple instances of the Vegas server on the same computer from the same game installation,
this default behavior may prevent PunkBuster's auto-update system from working properly. When launching Vegas servers, it is
common for Admins to create a separate server ini file to contain settings for each server instance. For example, if
you run 2 servers, you may have a server1.ini and a server2.ini each specified on the respective command lines used to launch
the servers. You should edit each of the server ini files and look for the [Engine.User] section. If it
does not exist, then create it. PunkBuster looks for a line styled "fs_homepath = [path]" to know where its "home" path
is located on your system. Each running instance of the PB Server should have fs_homepath set to a unique location.
For example, you might create folders called "/pb1", "/pb2", etc.
The full path name should be specified in the fs_homepath line.
Then, in win32, use something like fs_homepath=c:\pb1 ... in linux, use something like fs_homepath=/home/user/pb1.
After making this change and restarting the game server, enable PB with the pb_sv_enable command so that the pbsvgame.cfg file will be created in the new homepath pb subdirectory.
I keep getting kicked off of servers and I see messages about technical errors
for pbcl.dll or pbag.dll, or messages about DISTRESS or Update timeout ... what is wrong?
These problems are almost always caused when your PunkBuster can't keep itself updated for some
reason. Sometimes they are caused when the server you are trying to play on is running an old
version of PunkBuster.
If this happens to you on every PB server you try to play on, then please click
here for help on getting your PunkBuster updated.
If this problem happens only on one or a few PB Servers, then the cause is most likely that those servers are outdated; in that case, you should avoid those servers.
If you must play on these servers enter "pb_security 0" at the game console - this will make the PB Client disable security checks for the (old) update. Do this only on PB Servers you trust.
How do I enable PunkBuster?
On the game's Options screen from the main menu, go to the Multiplayer area and you will see a PunkBuster checkbox.
This checkbox is used to Enable and Disable the PunkBuster client. Alternatively, you can use a text editor
to edit the pbclgame.cfg file in the "System/pb" folder and enter the line: "cl_punkbuster 1" (to enable) or
"cl_punkbuster 0" (to disable). If you edit the file while the game is running, you will need to exit the game and restart
for the change to take effect. For Admins running Vegas game servers, you need to join the server
logged in as a server administrator and use the following console commands (without the quotes): "admin pb_sv_enable" or
"admin pb_sv_disable". Alternatively, edit the pbsvgame.cfg file in the "System/pb" folder and use "sv_punkbuster 1" or
"sv_punkbuster 0" respectively. Again, if pbsvgame.cfg is edited or changed, the server instance must be restarted for
the change to take effect.
My computer locks up or "chugs" sometimes while I'm playing with PunkBuster Enabled, what can cause this?
PunkBuster "pushes" hardware and the Windows Operating System more than most software and uses functions
in the Windows API (low level functions) that aren't used by most other programs. As such, there are a few
cases where using PB can actually expose flaky hardware or other situations that don't cause problems for other
software. Here are a few things that have helped other users make these problems get better or go away completely:
- If you are running Windows NT4/2000/XP, try lowering the priority of the game process. You can do this by opening the Task-Manager while the game is running.
Lowering the game process priority does not reduce game performance (or just very little depending on the number of programs you are running next to the game).
- Make sure you are using the latest version of PunkBuster (the latest version is always on our Download page) - also this link may help manually update your PB to the latest version when necessary
- From the game's main screen, press the tilde key (the ~ key) to bring down the console and enter the following line (without the quotes): "pb_system 0".
- Never close other programs from your Windows Task Manager before playing the game, either leave them running or close them through the proper interface - killing a process doesn't always work completely even if it stops showing in the Task Manager and renegade threads seem to conflict with PB more than other programs that may be running in memory. There is a free utility that some players use called EndItAll to close all extra programs before they play to avoid software conflicts, crashes and lockups. You can get it from here.
- Check the add/remove programs list in your Control Panel and uninstall any programs that you don't use or that you don't know what they are.
- One program that seems to conflict with PB more than others is Norton Anti-Virus. If you have it installed, try uninstalling it to see if the lockups go away. Some players have reported that when this is the culprit, they can reinstall Norton Anti-Virus and the lockups don't come back.
- Other background programs that seem to conflict with PB for some users are Sound Blaster Live software and helper programs that come with video cards (especially ATI keyboard shortcut programs).
- Some players discovered that they had a computer virus and that the lockups vanished after it was fully removed.
- Experiment with the pb_sleep setting ... try setting it to 20, 250, or 500 to see if that affects your game performance. A few players have reported that all the problems go away when they "tweak" this setting.
- In extreme cases, a few users have reported that replacing their RAM (memory) or video/sound cards fixed the problem.
How do I know if I am PunkBuster Authenticated?
Old versions of PunkBuster went through "Authentication" procedures every few minutes and announced when each player had been Authenticated. The newer, integrated version is constantly Authenticating players during gameplay. To check your current status, press the tilde key (~) to bring down the Game Console. Enter "pb_plist" into the Game console (without the quotes) and then press the Enter key. The current PunkBuster status of all players will be displayed - use the PageUp / PageDown keys if necessary to scroll the console text up and down. There are 3 modes of PunkBuster status: INIT, UPDT, and OK. If it says OK next to a player's name, then that player is currently Authenticated.
What is a guid?
In general, GUID is an acronym that stands for “globally unique identifier”. The guid inside PunkBuster is used to identify players with something more solid than their playing name or IP address. Your guid is loosely based on the cdkey that was used to install the game on your computer. When Server Admins kick or ban a player from their server(s), PunkBuster uses the player's guid to enforce the kick/ban. Since it is based on the game installation, it is a better way to identify individual players than by looking at their IP address or playing name. For those concerned about privacy, PunkBuster uses a 128-bit one-way hash (a mathematical function) to generate the guid from the cdkey so that no one can figure out or compute your cdkey by knowing your guid.
What do the AuthRate and RecentSS columns mean in the pb_plist output?
The AuthRate column shows how many times per minute PunkBuster has successfully Authenticated each Player. This value should normally settle to between 2 and 3 for all players after they have a status of "OK". The RecentSS column indicates how many screenshots the PunkBuster Server has requested from each player during the past few minutes. This value is available to all players so that "home team" Server Admins don't abuse the screenshot facility, for example by only capturing screenshots of opponents.
PunkBuster includes a "BadName" Facility that some Server Admins use to prevent players from including "bad" words (such as racial slurs or profanity) in their playing names. If you wish to play on such servers and you get a message asking you to change your name, then you will need to change your name quickly to avoid being removed from the Server. There are 2 easy ways to change your name while playing. One way is to just click on your name on the Game's Limbo Screen and just edit the name directly. Another way is via the console, press the tilde (~) key to bring down the game console, and change your name by entering "name new_name" without the quotes, then press the "Enter" key.
What does "Received Master Security Information" mean?
During gameplay, the PunkBuster Client will be contacting the Master PunkBuster Servers about new PunkBuster system, database and data files (see section PB Subdirectory and File Information for more information about these file types) as well as other crucial information. This message states that the new information has been received successfully from the Master PunkBuster Servers. If new versions of PunkBuster are transferred to the PunkBuster Client from the PunkBuster Server to which the player is connected, the received files will be validated for integrity based on this Security Information. PunkBuster Server software also confirms the integrity of newly obtained files based on similar Security Information. This is all part of a complicated system designed to prevent Server Admins (and other people) from sending viruses or other unwanted files to your computer using the PunkBuster auto-update system.
Do I have to re-configure my firewall or proxy to use PunkBuster?
In general, if a connection can play the Game online successfully without PunkBuster, then there will
be no need to make any changes to a firewall or proxy that may be in use when PunkBuster is Installed and
Enabled. PunkBuster communicates over the Internet (and in LAN environments) using the same network
channels created and used by the Game, and therefore requires no changes. If, however, you had to adjust
your firewall to use the game in the first place, you may need to extend that adjustment to include ports
used by PB's auto-update feature. PunkBuster for Vegas uses outgoing UDP Port 5437 to communicate
with Master Servers. This is the same port used by default by Vegas for gameplay.
How do I uninstall PunkBuster?
If you do not wish to use PunkBuster any longer, you may remove the entire "System/pb" folder inside your game folder. By removing this folder, the PunkBuster software will no longer be available. PunkBuster does not save information to other locations of your hard drive, nor does it change your system registry.
Can I link to your site?
Yes, but please do not mirror our download files. One of the following buttons can be used to link to us if you like.
