About PunkBuster running as a service and other short stories

[TERATOGEN]

My problem with this game is the Punkbuster.

I don't like cheaters but I don't like my privacy being invaded even more. Read their new PBEULA.txt. They can look anywhere in your PC and send back to their servers anything they want. This time they simply have gone too far with this. There are lots of private things stored on my PC: addresses, back accounts, credit card numbers, phone numbers and bunch of other stuff. Well they cover their asses with EULA and then do whatever they want. Would you like to come in into my house and go through my things saying "We are allowed to do so because you bought a game that uses PB and you agreed to the EULA and after all if you are an honest guy then you have nothing to hide?" I'm sorry the answer is "No, you can not!" This is the worst case of invasion of privacy and abuse of power I have ever seen or heard of.

I also don't like them running their services 24/7 and wasting my system recourses. They don't feel like informing you about it so they just install their program, set it to run automatically every time you start your PC and then you're sitting there and wondering how come I spent all this money for this top of the line PC but it runs so slow. Often the answer is people like those behind the PB installing bunch of crap on your PC without informing you about it and then running it all the time. Nowadays there are so many of these type of insolent fellows on the internet that often more than a half of your system resources are being used by their spying programs and you don't even know about it.

On top of that their software is often flawed and can open your PC to anybody on the internet. Do you think they take responsibility for that? Nope, their software is optional so it's your own problem if your PC is being opened to the whole wide world because of them. They can patch it later but they do not guarantee anything.

PB can also ban you from the game and they don't have to give you any kind of explanation they can just do so and there's nothing you can do about it. I personally have never been banned by PB but some of my friends have been.

Even after uninstall QW:ET the PB remains on your system and runs every time you start your PC. Look in the services PnkBstrA.exe and PnkBstrB.exe they stay there and they start automatically. This is 24/7 spy ware that is going to reside on your PC sending anything they want back to them even if you uninstall all games that support PB.

Here's how to remove this crap:
Download the following program http://www.evenbalance.com/downloads/pbsvc/pbsvc.exe
Open the program above and click the "Uninstall" button. This will remove the PnkBstrA.exe and PnkBstrB.exe services.
Some may need to remove the registry entries.
Back up your current registry just in case then go to START, RUN, type regedit and search for these: PnkBstrA, PnkBstrB and PnkBstrK, just right click on the folder when you find it and delete it.
Also in C:\windows\system32\drivers is PnkBstrK.sys that is safe to delete.

I will not install any games that come with this crap ever on my PC again! Unless there are significant changes in the way they implement it.

[Axz]

You must buy x360 if you want play without any anticheat programs.

bye bye

[reyalp]

Don't forget to pass your beta key on to one of the many people who would like a chance to test.

[sponge]

Indeed, you'll be better off with an XB360, because with Vista's enhanced security model, this is the "right" way to implement programs which need Administrator privileges from a LUA, and many other apps will likely be following this route in the future.

I'll completely ignore your claims of spyware since I know you don't have any concrete evidence of data it is sending out, and you are clearly talking out of your ass with limited knowledge of how things work.

[RaVE]

You won't be playing a lot of games in the future, then. You might want to uninstall a lot of EA's online games, such as BF2 and 2142 if you've got them, seeing as how they use punkbuster too. Punkbuster sucks but it's not impossible to deactivate it whenever you're not in game. Just shut the service down and viola!

[romeo]

i see you r not the smartest apple on the tree and you dont know the first thing about punkbuster. i wont miss you from the battlefiled because i hate the kind of people who can only whine. anyway you have any proof of ur claims? i've been using pb in lots of games for years now, but i think it is the first time you encountered it, wonder which of us has more experience with it.

[Bhopx]

i dont think that punkbuster adds itself to your startup list, because i do not see it on mine. i did notice that it was running on my processes list even though i just closed quake wars. i dont like it either, but it seems that it's necessary to play hacker-free games. i dont have any important information stored on my computer anyway.

and to the poster above me, yes he is right that punkbuster is practically spyware, from the punkbuster EULA:

"Licensee further acknowledges and accepts that PunkBuster software may be considered invasive. Licensee understands that PunkBuster software inspects and reports information about the computer on which it is installed to other connected computers and Licensee agrees to allow PunkBuster software to inspect and report such information about the computer on which Licensee installs PunkBuster software. Licensee understands and agrees that the information that may be inspected and reported by PunkBuster software includes, but is not limited to, Licensee's Internet Protocol Address, devices and any files residing on the hard-drive and in the memory of the computer on which PunkBuster software is installed. "

translation: installing punkbuster means we can do whatever we want with what we find on your computer.

[crowbar]

PM me your key please........ I have someone who is not worried about PB.

[zig-zag]

You do realize some servers will opt out of running PB once the game is out, hence why it asks if you want to install it in the first place. BTW, it does add itself to startup, end process and reboot, and boom it's back. It uses 4MB of ram and 0% cpu, if your new state of the art PC can't handle that...

[Bhopx]

i dont understand why something like that should be running on startup. is it maintaining a connection with some punkbuster server even when you arent playing a game? if so that bothers me.

[zig-zag]

Originally Posted by Bhopx

i dont understand why something like that should be running on startup. is it maintaining a connection with some punkbuster server even when you arent playing a game? if so that bothers me.

No, and your task manager will show 0% network utilization. It works that way because of Vista security.

[Zeldor]

Yeah, Vista messed with many copy protections. And as always those copy protections hurt legal copies mainly. But it is online game so it needs one. I trust SD, but I wouldn't trust anything from EA.

[sponge]

Originally Posted by Zeldor

Yeah, Vista messed with many copy protections. And as always those copy protections hurt legal copies mainly. But it is online game so it needs one. I trust SD, but I wouldn't trust anything from EA.

That has absolutely 0 to do with the reason why they did this. OSes with real multi-user security models like OS X, Linux, and Unix, have the same methodologies, that Windows is catching on to with Vista.

[Iori]

all this because some people out there are unts and write hax and viruses... bastards!

[ImDatKiLLaBeHinDYoU]

Originally Posted by Zeldor

Yeah, Vista messed with many copy protections. And as always those copy protections hurt legal copies mainly. But it is online game so it needs one. I trust SD, but I wouldn't trust anything from EA.

PunkBuster is not going to do any damage to your computer or it will spy on your computer to know all your personal files, etc.. I've been playing games that require PunkBuster for a long time and guess what? It didn't do sh!t. PunkBuster only searches for hacks on your pc and detect em. Otherwise punkbuster company would be in trouble right now. Get your thoughts str8

[Nappy]

I love how people complain but never have a better suggestion. Can you suggest an effective alternative? No?

Bye!!!!

[Alera]

I believe the reason the process is there is due to an issue that cropped up a while ago with W:ET. Something to do with having to be logged on as admin to play on Punkbuster games? Can't remember...But anyhow. Punkbuster has been scanning your memory and your harddrive for ages, only now do you worry? Sheesh. It's like with Blizzards EULA, they can ban you for any reason they want but very rarely does it occur...

PB pretty much just scans your HDD for cheats. I highly doubt it's going to steal your personal information to earn a quick buck...

[gSTRUCTOR]

What a bunch of mindless fanboys, this guy posts a well written, fact based argument and all you can do is look like a SD muppet? bah muppets are smarter tbh.

I was surprised to not have feedback from the community when asking for the unranked server files so anyone can have a server, buy if you act like this with something much more serious, its all downhill from now i guess.

One thing is clear, PB doesnt keep crackers out(ffs dont use the term hacker), apart from that PB consumes resources and is know to cause lag, now on top of that they make you agree that all your data are belong to them, whats the part you cant get? youre all getting used to spend megabucks in hardware while youre forgetting to defend your rights, bots.

We need cheating countermeasures? yes. PB is the solution? no. Cant be fixed for quakewars? ok can live with it. Should we, as gamers, ask for a better solution? YES! SI! OUI! DOMO ARIGATO GOZAIMASHITA!

[Brinkman]

Originally Posted by gSTRUCTOR

What a bunch of mindless fanboys, this guy posts a well written, fact based argument and all you can do is look like a SD muppet? bah muppets are smarter tbh.

does your ass get chapped riding his nuts all day and night?

well written? bahhahaha yes all he does is whine whine whine with nothing else to add to these "issues" he's having with the game.. nothing constructive.. just whaaaaaaaaaaaaa'ing

there's no reason to make this thread other than for attention

[reyalp]

Originally Posted by Alera

PB pretty much just scans your HDD for cheats. I highly doubt it's going to steal your personal information to earn a quick buck...

PB does not, and never has done general scans of your HD. Things like MD5 tool checks at files inside the game directory, but these configured by the server admin rather than PB.

[Archange1]

I agree that PB shouldnt be running in the BG all the time, and someone seriously should chase Even Balance up with their EULA (if at least to make it say its not going to use any personally-identifiable information), but id have thought have really sensitive stuff -like CC numbers, bank account numbers, etc- on your PC wasnt a good idea to begin with...

If PB was doing something really nasty on your PC in terms of privacy invasion, they would have been found out already, or are just shooting themselves in the foot bigtime.
Further more, game dev companies wouldnt go with Even Balance if they knew they were breaching privacy laws.

[Zeldor]

ImDatKiLLaBeHinDYoU:

I am FOR things like PB because I have seen the difference between servers with PB and without on W:ET. But it seems that there are always some problems with it. I couldn't play W:ET for very long time because there was some conflict between PB and my ATI card. But it isn't the topic to discuss about it. Just getting frustrated because game is almost unplayable due to tremendous lag

[b0rsuk]

Another person can't understand the difference between beta and demo. It doesn't even matter that there will probably be servers with PB off. I won't miss you, because even without PB you'd find something to bitch about.

As for ATI, it shouldn't be used as a yardstick for anything. Lots and lots of people complain about ATI drivers. It has been this way for years and doesn't seem to be getting better.

[un1zo.]

Originally Posted by TERATOGEN

My problem with this game is the Punkbuster.

I don't like cheaters but I don't like my privacy being invaded even more. Read their new PBEULA.txt. They can look anywhere in your PC and send back to their servers anything they want. This time they simply have gone too far with this. There are lots of private things stored on my PC: addresses, back accounts, credit card numbers, phone numbers and bunch of other stuff.

Punkbuster have been doing that for years.

[mf-]

Does not worry me, this is my gaming computer. Got nothing on hear anyone could steal except my precious myspace account.