Please, do share, if your not prepared to voice your concern in the open you can do so on the PBBans forums or via forum pm.
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PBBans supports Red Orchestra 2
- Thread starter MaydaX
- Start date
Evenbalance (Punkbuster) is not the same as PBBans.
Time and again it would appear that people are confusing the two.
Evenbalance makes the anti-cheat software called Punkbuster and handles their own global bans similar to what VAC does. Punkbuster anti-cheat software goes a step further than VAC and gives admins hooks and methods to further police their personal servers as they (the admins) see fit.
Unless there is some agreement unknown to me between Evenbalance and Steam, you may get banned by Evenbalance from any Punkbuster enabled servers, but your game will not be rendered useless. You can still play on any non-PB enabled server. This would be unlike VAC where your whole account may be lost. And irrc there usually is a dis-claimer in the EULA concerning Punkbuster.
PBBans is a seperate (and non-profit) entity that provides tools and a community where like-minded server admins can come together and utilize the hooks provided by Evenbalance to further enhance the success of keeping hackers off their servers. Whether or not a server streams to PBBans is strictly at the pleasure of the server operator. Making it to the PBBans list (unless it is also an Evenbalance list) will only ban you from servers choosing to use PBBans.
I understand the questions and mistrust toward Evenbalance, but I don't understand the 'attacks' on PBBans. ???
Time and again it would appear that people are confusing the two.
Evenbalance makes the anti-cheat software called Punkbuster and handles their own global bans similar to what VAC does. Punkbuster anti-cheat software goes a step further than VAC and gives admins hooks and methods to further police their personal servers as they (the admins) see fit.
Unless there is some agreement unknown to me between Evenbalance and Steam, you may get banned by Evenbalance from any Punkbuster enabled servers, but your game will not be rendered useless. You can still play on any non-PB enabled server. This would be unlike VAC where your whole account may be lost. And irrc there usually is a dis-claimer in the EULA concerning Punkbuster.
PBBans is a seperate (and non-profit) entity that provides tools and a community where like-minded server admins can come together and utilize the hooks provided by Evenbalance to further enhance the success of keeping hackers off their servers. Whether or not a server streams to PBBans is strictly at the pleasure of the server operator. Making it to the PBBans list (unless it is also an Evenbalance list) will only ban you from servers choosing to use PBBans.
I understand the questions and mistrust toward Evenbalance, but I don't understand the 'attacks' on PBBans. ???
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You answered your own question. Some people think PBBans and Even Balance are the same company. They are not.
EvenBalance is the company that created Punkbuster, the anti-cheat software.
PBBans.com is a 3rd party anti-cheat site that uses Punkbusters' UCON system to stream servers to us for a more effective way of protecting game servers.
PBBans.com is in no way affiliated with Even Balance. We only use their software and create a more enhanced system to catch cheaters.
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all servers should be streaming
PB by default is about worthless .. or atleast is was was back in the kicked for min.s for cheating days.
but say the cheater gets busted .. he is not thrown out of all pb servers right away ... usualy they get kicked for 2 min.s then delete the detected cheat .. get new cheat and play on.
if the server is streaming. that kick (for cheating) gets added to the community ban list. its really very good if admins do the part.
after moh:aa got ruined everyone was mad
cod1 was a very well policed game with a good ban list ... well known modders , forum admin.s ect. got busted
then admin.s got lazy with cod2 and the game has went down hill since.
know im not saying you have to spend hours a day looking at screenshots but make sure your streaming so you get the latest md5 checks .. that will do most the work for you. .. we had 70 something busted hacks in our server for cod1 .. maybe 15 was from screenshots .. rest was from punkbuster .. and the md5 checks u get from streaming.
i havent used PB for 5 years so my post is off for sure but the point is not .. streaming is the way to go
side note to the PBbans guys .. do you have or plan to have a server browser that shows streaming only servers ?
PB by default is about worthless .. or atleast is was was back in the kicked for min.s for cheating days.
but say the cheater gets busted .. he is not thrown out of all pb servers right away ... usualy they get kicked for 2 min.s then delete the detected cheat .. get new cheat and play on.
if the server is streaming. that kick (for cheating) gets added to the community ban list. its really very good if admins do the part.
after moh:aa got ruined everyone was mad
cod1 was a very well policed game with a good ban list ... well known modders , forum admin.s ect. got busted
then admin.s got lazy with cod2 and the game has went down hill since.
know im not saying you have to spend hours a day looking at screenshots but make sure your streaming so you get the latest md5 checks .. that will do most the work for you. .. we had 70 something busted hacks in our server for cod1 .. maybe 15 was from screenshots .. rest was from punkbuster .. and the md5 checks u get from streaming.
i havent used PB for 5 years so my post is off for sure but the point is not .. streaming is the way to go
side note to the PBbans guys .. do you have or plan to have a server browser that shows streaming only servers ?
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We have a Master Stream Index for you to look at here:
http://www.pbbans.com/master-stream-index.html
Just click on the "Streaming List" for the game you want to see and there you go.
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cool .. all them servers will be added to my fav.s and thats how i'll shop for a server to play in
keep up the great work
keep up the great work
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@Rez
The PB EULA details that concern you can be found here;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PunkBuster#EULA_Details
From what I understand, VAC is availabe on all servers and is turned on by default.
PB is entirely optional (you can even run a server without PB)
Even if you enable one of the 3 levels of PB available, streaming via PBBans is also optional.
The use of any PBBans banlist for any game is also optional.
One of our core ethics is to give admins that use our service, on servers that they pay for, as much choice as possible.
We believe in transparency, honesty and integrity, and thats part of the reason why we have gone out of our way to come here and allay (or try to
) the fears of players who have no experience of the "mysterious" PB and how it works.
No anti cheat solution is perfect, everyone knows that, but we firmly believe that PB coupled with streaming to a top notch anti cheat site is a lot more effective than anything else out there.
Its that simple for us
The PB EULA details that concern you can be found here;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PunkBuster#EULA_Details
From what I understand, VAC is availabe on all servers and is turned on by default.
PB is entirely optional (you can even run a server without PB)
Even if you enable one of the 3 levels of PB available, streaming via PBBans is also optional.
The use of any PBBans banlist for any game is also optional.
One of our core ethics is to give admins that use our service, on servers that they pay for, as much choice as possible.
We believe in transparency, honesty and integrity, and thats part of the reason why we have gone out of our way to come here and allay (or try to
) the fears of players who have no experience of the "mysterious" PB and how it works.No anti cheat solution is perfect, everyone knows that, but we firmly believe that PB coupled with streaming to a top notch anti cheat site is a lot more effective than anything else out there.
Its that simple for us
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Not biased are you?
TBH I've banned obvious cheats on players after spectating them and having other experienced administrators confirm my suspicions many times while Punkbuster was running in our COD WAW server when we had one up. And this wasn't an isolated one type indecent either. There were a number of aimbot cheats, speed cheats, and wall hacks that went totally unchecked by punkbuster. So, sorry, that dog dont hunt.
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I'm kind of confused by this. Does "Stage" 0 mean that that is going to be a server side option to disable PB entirely? Or is PB eventually going to be on as well as VAC by default ?
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unless vac is disabled as well
True, but VAC will be running by default. It's up to the server admin if they want VAC running as well.
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Did you stream your w@w server via a third party anti cheat service ?Not biased are you?
TBH I've banned obvious cheats on players after spectating them and having other experienced administrators confirm my suspicions many times while Punkbuster was running in our COD WAW server when we had one up. And this wasn't an isolated one type indecent either. There were a number of aimbot cheats, speed cheats, and wall hacks that went totally unchecked by punkbuster. So, sorry, that dog dont hunt.
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No. We did not see any appreciable benefit in doing that vs the inevitable lag at the time.
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Streaming does not cause any lag what so ever.
Appreciable benefits:
If a player raises a bannable cheat violation on your server he is banned instantly from every server of the same game genre that streams via PBBans, within 1-2 seconds.
You can submit screenshots showing hack use for adding to the Master Ban Index (MBI)
You can submit demo's for review for adding to the MBI.
You can access the Master Config Index (MCI) for cheat related cvar and MD5 scans that are kept bang up to date.
Theres a lot more but I dont want this to look too much like a PR post.
There are 6,279 players on the PBBans w@w banlist (and counting) you will probably find that a lot of the obvious cheaters you took the time and trouble to spectate, and have experienced admins confirm as cheaters, were already on our banlist.
PBBans has a "flag" you can enable - enforce bans - when this flag is enabled the PBBans Hub checks the pbguid of every player that connects to your server against the MBI, if the players pbguid is found on the banlist the player is kicked before he can join the server.
The enforce bans flag lets the PBBans Hub take the strain thus saving valuable server resouces.
The enforce bans feature will keep out anyone on the MBI, even if you empty the banlist by mistake.
All our banlists are available to the public to download and use;
http://www.pbbans.com/master-ban-index.html
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If you look at MW2, neither VAC nor PB would have made a huge impact due to the lack of server files.
I may not have this correctly, but as I understand it, VAC require the games developers to give them the tools i.e. parameters or cheats to look out for. They then scan and scan until they have enough caught and then bring down the ban hammer. VAC ban means you cannot play any other game that uses the same game engine. So when the developer stops working on a game, VAC no longer receives updated info to keep up the enforcing.
The biggest issue for me with VAC is the total lack of "human touch". Once you're banned you're done for. VAC will as a rule not remove any bans and so appealing is not encouraged. False positives that have been corrected I believe were done due to the huge outcry on the Steam forums and Steam had to give away some goodies to say sorry too.
PBBans I would consider a firm but fair enforcer. Mistakes do happen and the gamers have a possibility to appeal and have the ban removed.
The combination of the 2 WITH the continued support of TWI however, can only be good for gamers and we should be more than a little happy that they are so serious about cheating. I know I am.
I may not have this correctly, but as I understand it, VAC require the games developers to give them the tools i.e. parameters or cheats to look out for. They then scan and scan until they have enough caught and then bring down the ban hammer. VAC ban means you cannot play any other game that uses the same game engine. So when the developer stops working on a game, VAC no longer receives updated info to keep up the enforcing.
The biggest issue for me with VAC is the total lack of "human touch". Once you're banned you're done for. VAC will as a rule not remove any bans and so appealing is not encouraged. False positives that have been corrected I believe were done due to the huge outcry on the Steam forums and Steam had to give away some goodies to say sorry too.
PBBans I would consider a firm but fair enforcer. Mistakes do happen and the gamers have a possibility to appeal and have the ban removed.
The combination of the 2 WITH the continued support of TWI however, can only be good for gamers and we should be more than a little happy that they are so serious about cheating. I know I am.
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