# PunkBuster gone too far!



## infrared (Jul 27, 2007)

A while back i found pnkbstrA.exe in my task manager and thought nothing of it since i was playing a game at the time and guessed that it must start with the game..

Only to find that the version of punkbuster installs several files, and a service.

I don't know about you lot, but this really pisses me off. i uninstalled it all, cleared up the services it created etc, and the next time i opened a PB game it all reinstalled. What gets to me is that they don't ask permission to do this. In my opinion, being able to install files to the System32 folder without permission is a big no-no. 

Now every time i do some benchmarking, i've got yet another unwanted process to close.


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## wazzledoozle (Jul 27, 2007)

I hate punkbuster. Especially when you have to manually update it :shadedshu


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## infrared (Jul 27, 2007)

I wouldn't mind at all if they'd 

1. Presented me with an agree/dissagree option before going ahead and installing this crap
2. If it only opens during gameplay, and not while i'm half way through a 3dmark run.

It makes a hell of an impact on benchmarks, and a lot of people have a lot of lag while it's running, because its constantly scanning the running processes for 'suspicious activity'.


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## Jonnycat (Jul 27, 2007)

There are two services, pnkbstra and pnkbstrb.   If you do not like punkbuster, you can just uninstall it from your system, and play your game on non-punkbuster servers (depending on the game).  

If you want to b*tch about something, b*tch about the cheaters/hackers who make punkbuster necessary in the first place.


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## DaMulta (Jul 27, 2007)

It stops cheaters....They get a A+ from me. Hey they want me to install this and this and this to stop people from cheating I'm down.


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## infrared (Jul 27, 2007)

Don't get me wrong, i hate cheaters, and think PB do a good job of preventing it, but I just think this is a bit unnecessary, and like i said in post 3, i wouldn't mind if they went about doing this differently.


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## PVTCaboose1337 (Jul 27, 2007)

I know...  I hate it too...


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## DaMulta (Jul 27, 2007)

Maybe it's the only way for now to stop them and they have to run something like this. Don't blame them totally for this issue we don't know the ends and outs of stopping these things.

If people like(Not going to name names)wouldn't cheat to gain score in a game in the first place we wouldn't have issue s like this.

infrared do they have something posted on there website about this?


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## error_f0rce (Jul 27, 2007)

That's odd.  I'll have to check mine when I get home.  Thanks for the heads-up!

Yeah, installing anything to a sys folder should require some kind of user authorization.


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## DOM (Jul 27, 2007)

But it should only run during games I havent played like in a week and it running for what  can they even do that ??


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## Jonnycat (Jul 27, 2007)

If you need to modify services on a frequent basis, you can use "sc" (service control) in a dos box to automate the process.


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## infrared (Jul 27, 2007)

See what i mean? most people aren't even aware it's on there system. IMO that falls in the blatent spyware group.



Jonnycat said:


> If you need to modify services on a frequent basis, you can use "sc" (service control) in a dos box to automate the process.



Ooo, thanks for that


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## Jonnycat (Jul 27, 2007)

You installed punkbuster, you read the EULA, you agreed to the terms of the EULA.  If you do not agree with the EULA, uninstall punkbuster, it's really just that simple.


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## PVTCaboose1337 (Jul 27, 2007)

How many people actually read the EULA?


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## infrared (Jul 27, 2007)

Damn fine print lol.

People here are also discussing it. Some interesting points being made:

http://clanf8.clanservers.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4132


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## Ben Clarke (Jul 27, 2007)

No-one. And when it installs through playing a game, it does'nt let you read the EULA anyway.


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## Jonnycat (Jul 27, 2007)

Ben Clarke said:


> No-one. And when it installs through playing a game, it does'nt let you read the EULA anyway.



It did on every game I have installed that installed punkbuster on it's own.


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## Darknova (Jul 27, 2007)

infrared said:


> See what i mean? most people aren't even aware it's on there system. IMO that falls in the blatent spyware group.



Indeed, anything that installs without permission is spyware IMO and will get immediately uninstalled and blocked.

If I got a box asking me to install then fine, at least I'll know what I'm getting installed on my PC.

It should be illegal.


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## PVTCaboose1337 (Jul 27, 2007)

Looking at this program a bit more, when you close it, open up...  say BF2142, and play, It lets you play for about 30 seconds and then is like "Punkbuster error."  Annoying.  Now If someone could come up with a way to "fool" the game into thinking the Punkbuster program is running, then we would be in business.


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## Jonnycat (Jul 27, 2007)

PVTCaboose1337 said:


> How many people actually read the EULA?



Willfull ignorance of a contract that one agrees to abide by does not invalidate the contract, nor does it give the complaintant any basis for a legitimate complaint (other than willfull ignorance).

I see this as a complete non-issue; punkbuster uses specific methodologies to detect and label game cheaters, and if you do not like their methodologies, you can just not install the program in the first place.


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## newtekie1 (Jul 27, 2007)

Jonnycat said:


> Willfull ignorance of a contract that one agrees to abide by does not invalidate the contract, nor does it give the complaintant any basis for a legitimate complaint (other than willfull ignorance).
> 
> I see this as a complete non-issue; punkbuster uses specific methodologies to detect and label game cheaters, and if you do not like their methodologies, you can just not install the program in the first place.



QFT

Every game that uses punkbuster asks you if you want to install it before installing it while you are installing the game.  If you choose to install Punkbuster you have to agree to the EULA.  If you don't agree to it then don't install it, it is that simple.

Don't lable something as spyware and claim it is "installed without permision" just because you gave it permission but didn't actually read what you were pemitting.


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## Steevo (Jul 27, 2007)

Comodo firewall catches lots. It even checks the crypto signature of each file, so if ite gets infected with viri or spartans, or trojans, it will alert you. Same for updated programs. Plus it is the only firewall to pass everything on leak tests.




Get it.




Change the permissions on the service or, create a service account, change permissions, force the service to logon as that account. PM me and I can get you the files for XP Pro to allow multiple users on one system, and with a multi-core system it hurts less.


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## Chewy (Jul 27, 2007)

good point infrared! its nice but they should only have it runnning while gaming.. well atleast now we know when running benchmarks.


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## newtekie1 (Jul 27, 2007)

Chewy said:


> good point infrared! its nice but they should only have it runnning while gaming.. well atleast now we know when running benchmarks.



I do agree with that, it should only be running when games require it.  That is kind of lame.


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## Casheti (Jul 27, 2007)

infrared said:


> A while back i found pnkbstrA.exe in my task manager and thought nothing of it since i was playing a game at the time and guessed that it must start with the game..
> 
> Only to find that the version of punkbuster installs several files, and a service.
> 
> ...



yea I know about this. It installed itself when I enabled PunkBuster on FEAR Combat. Kaspersky asked me whether I wanted to allow it or deny it but I allowed it because it's the only way I could play on PB enabled FEAR servers.

Never had this with any other game.


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## Jonnycat (Jul 27, 2007)

Oh look, our resident cheater Casheti is sharing his perspective about punkbuster.


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## Casheti (Jul 27, 2007)

Don't cry...


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## DaMulta (Jul 27, 2007)

It's because of people like Casheti that we have to deal with these things.....Btw getting shot one hit one kill without even seeing that person sucks.....


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## Casheti (Jul 27, 2007)

Casheti said:


> Don't cry...



He's right.


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## hat (Jul 27, 2007)

Punkbuster has no effect on my performance at all. Infared, your system pwnz mine and you're complaining about punkbuster lol. Punkpuster takes 0% of my CPU, 3,904K of RAM, and 2,338K of my page file. My body uses more resorces when I fart.


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## Steevo (Jul 27, 2007)

Look at CPU time useage while gaming.


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## DRDNA (Jul 27, 2007)

PB doesnt even stop all the cheats ...its just about a worthless application...seems to stop older cheats but lots of cheats are getting buy PB....thats why when you play on a PB server you still see people cheating.


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## russianboy (Jul 27, 2007)

lol casheti quoted himself 

I hates the punkbuster....it kicks me for no reason whatsoever.


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## EviLZeD (Jul 27, 2007)

russianboy said:


> lol casheti quoted himself
> 
> I hates the punkbuster....it kicks me for no reason whatsoever.



it used to kick me i had to update it and it stopped i was playing cod2 and i discovered the service to lol was annoying...


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## infrared (Jul 27, 2007)

Steevo said:


> Look at CPU time useage while gaming.



I starting doing that... then fear crashed... thanks PB!! 

EDIT: There's no way of proving this was down to PB, but it didn't used to crash before the PB updates. Very frustrating


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## tkpenalty (Jul 27, 2007)

infrared said:


> A while back i found pnkbstrA.exe in my task manager and thought nothing of it since i was playing a game at the time and guessed that it must start with the game..
> 
> Only to find that the version of punkbuster installs several files, and a service.
> 
> ...



Same thing here, I havent played 2142 in ages.. and wtf ITS RUNNING?!?!!


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## PVTCaboose1337 (Jul 27, 2007)

Its spyware...  EA gathers personal information and sells it!  Conspiracy!  I know it.


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## Dippyskoodlez (Jul 27, 2007)

infrared said:


> I don't know about you lot, but this really pisses me off. i uninstalled it all, cleared up the services it created etc, and the next time i opened a PB game it all reinstalled. What gets to me is that they don't ask permission to do this. In my opinion, being able to install files to the System32 folder without permission is a big no-no.



Try re-reading your EULA when installing your game.

Every game that contains PB, has a second PB eula you agree to.

Yes, you already agreed to it.

Why do you think I don't run games that are infected with bullcrap like that? Punkbuster keeps cheating asswipes out, but it isn't very good when it messes up. :/

Wolf is the only game I have that is, but on OS X it has no service or process that wastes space like windows, so it doesn't really matter.

Blizzards "warden" does an excellent job, honestly.


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## wazzledoozle (Jul 28, 2007)

Dippyskoodlez said:


> Try re-reading your EULA when installing your game.
> 
> Every game that contains PB, has a second PB eula you agree to.
> 
> ...



So excellent in fact that my friend has been running a glider in WoW for 3 months now without getting caught! The gold pays for wow plus some


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## Ben Clarke (Jul 28, 2007)

PB sucks. In AA, I get killed loads of times by someone who isnt even there. And it icks you if you are AFK for 1 min. You could be throwin up or somethin...


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## hat (Jul 28, 2007)

lol that would suck... go to take a piss and OMGWTFBBQ I BEEN KICKED


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## bigboi86 (Jul 28, 2007)

I play BF2 and use punkbuster servers... but the service doesn't run on my computer.

EDIT: Oh yea, you suck casheti.


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## Casheti (Jul 28, 2007)

bigboi86 said:


> Oh yea, you suck casheti.



I thank you.


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## little geek (Jul 28, 2007)

Ben Clarke said:


> PB sucks. In AA, I get killed loads of times by someone who isnt even there. And it icks you if you are AFK for 1 min. You could be throwin up or somethin...



i know what you mean, and why is it i blanked my pc yesterday and i played battlefield off my slave drive from a previous install and punkbuster just now runs all the time it didnt ask me to install its self, i like what punk buster does but is it needed all the time?


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## Jonnycat (Jul 28, 2007)

Ben Clarke said:


> And it icks you if you are AFK for 1 min. You could be throwin up or somethin...



That is a server-specific setting that is set by the server administrator.  Punkbuster only enforces the rules and limits that the server administrator sets up for that particular server.  If you do not like the setting, your complaint is with the server administrator, not the Punkbuster application.


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## Solaris17 (Jul 28, 2007)

OR we could talk about PB instead of bashing casheti i hate cheaters but bashing members is like cheating and the ban stick never misses even the newstuff


and btw i hate how it runs in the background it should only start during games


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## bigboi86 (Jul 28, 2007)

Solaris17 said:


> OR we could talk about PB instead of bashing casheti i hate cheaters but bashing members is like cheating and the ban stick never misses even the newstuff
> 
> 
> and btw i hate how it runs in the background it should only start during games



It's all good, he kind of asked for it  It's not exactly bashing him either, he doesn't mind.


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## Solaris17 (Jul 28, 2007)

well at least you took it sweriously enough to consider stopping but him wanting it is no excuse sorry guys i have rules to follow though in my years hear i like all of you their are things i wont let slide this is one of them lets not bash ppl.


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## Dippyskoodlez (Jul 28, 2007)

wazzledoozle said:


> So excellent in fact that my friend has been running a glider in WoW for 3 months now without getting caught! The gold pays for wow plus some





But when he gets the ban hammer, blizzard hits like a train.


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## Jonnycat (Jul 28, 2007)




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## infrared (Jul 28, 2007)

^LOL 

Something for casheti


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## Casheti (Jul 28, 2007)

I Want To Join 0mg!


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## Casheti (Jul 28, 2007)

I would put it in my sig but

a) It's too big
                                     b) I already have a sig.. if only we could have dual sigs


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## hat (Jul 28, 2007)

I like the sig size limit. I've seen webpages with people's avatar being like 640x480 and thier sigs taking up almost the whole viewable webpage...


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## imperialreign (Aug 24, 2007)

little late to this, but dug it up out of boredom . . .

IMO, PB can squat on it - I totally agree with the point behind it, the reason for it's existance, but it firing up whenever you're not IN a game is crap.  Sure, installing means you agree to the EULA, and even if you were to setup a special folder for installation, how many other programs will dump things into WIN/SYS32?  PB isn't the only program at fault for that . . .

But, honestly, I don't use it - there's gonna be cheaters out there under any circumstances, and people that are constantly finding new ways to flaunt the rules and get away with stuff - I guess we just have to deal with it or not play at all.  But, if you do want to play, play harder and better - make their asses work for that cheat.


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## niko084 (Aug 24, 2007)

YES!

That is incredibly ridiculous....

In fact if punk buster had it their way they would be violating many countries laws to stop cheating.... Not a fan of cheaters, but seriously there is a line *it's not like murder and rape here*

Poor programming doesn't help.


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## fishnchips (Oct 15, 2008)

what is punk buster doing about the cheaters on cod4 they updateing yet? caint stand this game when you shoot ppl half a clip to full or they stand next to a nade and run off when it blows up next to them as if nothing has happend..are they buying the hacks out there to combat them? cod5 better be better than cod4 in mp


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## niko084 (Oct 15, 2008)

Punkbuster is equally as nice as it sucks...

That annoyed me too, I noticed it first shot because of my registry watcher, and I stopped it... But how annoying.


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## fishnchips (Oct 15, 2008)

what do you mean by registry watcher?


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