PunkBuster is a great utility to keep your multiplayer games free from cheaters and their devious ways.
clreadme.txt
6.24.2001
PunkBuster Client (beta) version 0.964
PunkBuster is (C) Copyright 2000-2001 by Tony Ray. All Rights Reserverd.
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Up to date information including a User Manual for the PunkBuster Client software can be obtained from our website at http://www.punkbuster.com. Thanks for using PunkBuster!
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Contents:
I. Quick Start
II. About the PunkBuster System
III. Game Launcher Integration
IV. Auto-connecting to Servers
V. Troubleshooting
VI. Future of PunkBuster
-A- Addendum A: Changes since initial Release
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I. Quick Start
The PunkBuster Client archives downloaded from our website are named according to the version. For example, pbcl960.exe is the name for the v0.960 PunkBuster Client software. When you run this program, it will suggest an installation folder for you computer, usually c:\punkbuster, and give you a chance to change that before preceding. The Installation program does three things: 1) extracts the PunkBuster software into the specified folder, 2) deletes itself (the archive), and 3) creates a shortcut on your desktop for use in running PunkBuster. Once installed, all you have to do is launch the PunkBuster Client using the shortcut called PunkBuster and leave the program running while you play. For most users, nothing else is required, everything will work automatically. The remainder of this readme is for users who want to know more about the system or need to troubleshoot problems.
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II. About the PunkBuster System
PunkBuster is a client/server software system that is designed to provide an online countermeasures system against cheating at multiplayer online games - specifically, games and mods based on the Half-Life engine by VALVe software.
Additionally, PunkBuster has a global Clan Tag Registry system built in to allow Clans to register their Clan Tags for protection on monitored servers. This prevents people from wearing their clan tag who aren't really in the clan. The list of registered tags is stored on a publicly accessible website on the Internet.
To parallel the way the Half-Life engine works, there is a PunkBuster Client to be run in the background of players' systems while they are running the Half-Life client. Also, there is a PunkBuster Server to be run to monitor the game servers. One PunkBuster Server can remotely monitor any number (in theory) of game servers remotely. The PunkBuster Server does not have to run in the background on the same machine as the Half-Life dedicated server engine.
As a player, you need to run the PunkBuster client in the background while you play Half-Life if you wish to play on a PunkBuster monitored game server. Starting with version 0.944, PunkBuster can automatically detect which Game Server you are playing on and will try to find and connect the proper PunkBuster Server so that you can be authenticated for cheat-free play. There is a Manual IP Override field provided for those few users who need to connect to a PB Server via a different (internal) IP address than the one seen by other users on the Internet.
Please visit our website at www.punkbuster.com for a user manual (work in progress).
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III. Game Launcher Integration
Beginning with version 0.944 of the PunkBuster Client, you can now export the list of PunkBuster monitored Game Servers directly to a file that can be used inside your Half-Life or Counter-Strike Game Launcher (Internet Games Screen). If you wish to use this feature, then you need to add a line to the pb.ini file in the folder where your PunkBuster software resides. You can use the Word Pad Accessory application to edit this file. If you wish to export the full server list of all PB monitored games, add the following line under the line that says DLL=pbclhl.dll:
FAVALL=
If you wish to export only monitored games where PunkBuster is Required, add the following line:
FAVREQ=
The can be any valid path on your computer. You may directly overwrite the favsvrs.dat file in your half-life or counter-strike folder or you may export to another file. For example, if your game is installed at c:\sierra\half-life and you wish to only see PunkBuster Required games in your Internet Games screen inside Half-Life, then add the following line:
FAVREQ=c:\sierra\half-life\favsvrs.dat
Once inside your Half-Life (or CS) Game Launcher, press the Refresh menu item to refresh the statistics about each Game Server. If you have problems getting this feature to work, please email us at support@punkbuster.com or visit the Player Issues forum on our website at http://www.punkbuster.com for assistance.
There are 2 ways to use 3rd Part Game Launcers with PunkBuster. 1) The sv_contact filter method works with all major 3rd party Game Launcers. 2) The Add Server List method works with GameSpy and Pingtool.
The sv_contact filter method:
Set up a filter in your launcher to use the sv_contact server variable (or Rule) and filter based on containing the text "{PB". If you only want to see PunkBuster monitored games in Required Compliance mode, then use "{PB REQ}" as the filter. More information about this method (including screenshots) can be found in our User Manual on the Documentation page at http://www.punkbuster.com"
The Add Server List method:
(thanks to Half-Dead for his work on this feature)
When you press the List button from inside the PunkBuster program, the current Master List of PunkBuster Servers and Game Servers being monitored is displayed on the screen. Also, two files are written to your hard drive called master.pb and required.pb. These files contain lists of Game Servers only and each can be used as a server source in the more popular Game Launchers. The master.pb file holds all currently monitored games and the required.pb file holds all games being monitored in PunkBuster's Required Compliance mode.
You should press the List button as the first step so the master.pb and required.pb files will be fresh when you follow the procedures below.
GameSpy3d (**NOTE: This does not work for GameSpy Arcade)
On the left where you see Half-Life and the Master Servers (WON, GameSpy Network), right-click on Half-Life, and choose Add Server List, then browse to the file called either master.pb or required.pb (found in the same directory from which you run PunkBuster). Select the file and give the server list a name (for example: PunkBuster). Now to import the list, just right click the new tab, and choose update. Any time you wish to update your list, simply press the List button inside PunkBuster, then update in GameSpy.
Pingtool
In Pingtool's main toolbar, choose VIEW, and check Server Source Window, in the window, right click Half-Life, and choose Add New Server Source, choose Local File for the source type, and browse to the master.pb or required.pb file as above. If you want to only get PunkBuster monitored servers, uncheck all master servers except the PunkBuster Master List, and press Go in Pingtool.
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IV. Auto-connecting to Servers
Beginning with version 0.944, using -condebug to launch your Half-Life / Counter-Strike is no longer necessary. PunkBuster can now detect Game Server connections seamlessly and automatically find the correct PunkBuster Server to connect to. A Manual IP Override field is provided for the very few users who need to connect to a PB Server using an internal IP address.
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V. Troubleshooting
- If PunkBuster fails to start or starts then exits abruptly. Look in the directory you launched it from for any file with an .err extension (such as pb.err or pbclhl.err). These files should contain any error messages that will assist in troubleshooting the problem.
- Strange Windows error messages or system crash when running PunkBuster may result from a corrupt data file. If this happens, delete the PBCLHL.DAT file that may be found in the directory from which you launch PunkBuster, then try again. That file will be automatically downloaded to your computer the next time you connect to a PunkBuster server. If you still have trouble, try re-downloading the entire PunkBuster Client archive (zip file) from our website at http://www.punkbuster.com.
- If you are behind an http proxy and can't receive the list of master servers via the web, please download the latest PB Client archive and extract the master.htm file into your PB Client folder.
- Any bug reports or other problems should be directed to support@punkbuster.com - thanks
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VI. Future of PunkBuster
Many features are planned for both the PunkBuster Client and Server pending results of the beta testing. Right now, we want to focus on getting the system to run smoothly across the board. We intend to add detection for all known cheats being used during gameplay on Half-Life based systems.
At some point, we hope to expand to other game platforms such as Quake, Unreal, etc. Once we prove that the overall system works and the community improves as a result, we will seek a way to fund expansion to other online venues.
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Addendum A
new changes for version 0.964 (6.24.2001)
- fixed minor issue with new screenshot capture facility
new changes for version 0.963 (6.20.2001)
- fixed bug where PB Clients would sometimes not try to get lookups from PB Master Servers resulting in #14 violations
new changes for version 0.962 (6.16.2001)
- added support to allow connecting to PB Servers listening on the non-default port of 24347
new changes for version 0.961 (6.10.2001)
- added support for transparent client-side screen capturing to connected PB Servers
new changes for version 0.960 (5.17.2001)
- fixed a bug with the Preferences screen related to disabling signature checking
new changes for version 0.959 (5.16.2001)
- added a Preferences button/screen to allow easy customization of the PB Client (see manual on website)
new changes for version 0.958 (5.5.2001)
- fixed bug that caused a patch download upon every connection
- added Ctrl+Alt+T hotkey to retrieve mp_timeleft, mp_timelimit, and mp_maxrounds from the connected server
- fixed bug that was causing intermittant #14 violations
- removed some unneeded error messages that were flooding the console window
new changes for version 0.956 (4.18.2001)
- changed timeout computation to help avoid timeouts during auto-updates
new changes for version 0.955 (4.16.2001)
- removed dependance on Master PB Servers by adding capability for PB Client to retrieve MD5 signatures from the Web
new changes for version 0.954 (4.7.2001)
- fixed a bug that was causing the PB Client to sometimes not cycle through the list of Master PB Servers when there is a connection problem
new changes for version 0.953 (4.5.2001)
- added a console echo feature whereby all PB Console messages are sent directly to the in-game console
- added HotKey support: Ctrl+Alt+E toggles console Echo mode (on/off) and Crtl+Alt+S requests current status from the PB Server you are connected to which will list all players and their current PB Status
new changes for version 0.952 (4.4.2001) NOTE- 951 was skipped for internal testing reasons
- improved connectivity to Master Servers
- fixed the 'rules not returned' problem
- fixed the gui hanging problem when List button is pressed
- added code to help reduce instances of sending 255.255.255.255 as IP address
new changes for version 0.950 (4.1.2001)
- added ability to retrieve Server Lists and Server Lookups from Master PB Server through a new port to help when there is congestion
new changes for version 0.949 (3.31.2001)
- added ability to retrieve signatures from Master PB Server through a new port to help when there is congestion
new changes for version 0.948 (3.28.2001)
- improved efficiency of PB Server lookups
new changes for version 0.947 (3.28.2001)
- fixed the UDP RECEIVE ERROR messages that some users were getting with v0.946
new changes for version 0.946 (3.27.2001)
- Improved auto-connect procedure
new changes for version 0.945 (3.26.2001)
- the PB Client will no longer re-connect to closed connections unless necessary based on info obtained from the local Game Client
new changes for version 0.944 (3.22.2001)
- added FAVALL and FAVREQ features to the pb.ini file for use with the HL/CS in-game launcher
- added full auto-connect ability without the need for the -condebug HL/CS parameter
- replaced the old manual connect method with a Manual IP Override for the few cases when the auto-connect will not work properly
- fixed the bug that sometimes showed a garbage IP address when trying to connect
- a mod tag has been added to the master.pb and required.pb files for use with add-ons
- the PB Client no longer listens for incoming connections so portforwarding is no longer required for users behind firewall- or proxy-type devices
new changes for version 0.943 (2.13.2001)
- re-wrote the Client Software to use a launcher called pb.exe and a dll file called pbclhl.dll to replace the old method of running from pbclhl.exe and/or pbclhl0.exe
- re-wrote the auto-update code to cause the PB Client to "silently" launch updates if the user is in a Half-Life game so that authentication will work directly after an update
- fixed the intermittent bug that caused PB Clients to not re-connect after connections were lost
- eliminated repeating duplicate connection error messages
- added new button in lower left corner of PB Client screen to toggle between Game Server manual connect mode and PB Server manual connect mode; when set for Game Server (default), users simply enter the Game Server IP and Port and the PB Client will attempt to find the appropriate PB Server automatically; when set for PB Server mode, the user should enter the address of the PB Server (works just like old PB Client versions worked)
- fixed intermittent formatting glitch in displaying information when the List button is pressed to get the Master List of monitored games
- added UDP listening for future integration with Game Launchers; by default, the PB Client will listen on UDP port 24348; this can be changed with the +UDP command line parameter to specify a different listen port (for example, use: +UDP30000 to direct the PB Client to listen on UDP port 30000 instead of the default 24348); only packets sent from the local machine will accepted
- addressed the problem where no PB screen / systray icon is displayed for some users when the PB Client is started
new changes for version 0.942 (1.17.2001)
- fixed the repeated error messages related to qconsole.log file
- added new command line parameter +NOLISTEN to tell the PunkBuster client to not listen for Incoming connection attempts from PB Servers (this should allow users of some Proxy software such as MS Proxy to use PunkBuster on multiple machines behind the Proxy)
- added code to address auto-updates failing to start automatically the first time after the update
new changes for version 0.941 (1.16.2001)
- addressed a glitch that caused auto-connect to fail sometimes for some users
new changes for version 0.940 (1.15.2001)
- added new command line parameter called +ONLYLIST that causes the PunkBuster client to immediately exit after retrieving the current master list of monitored games
- addressed the "handoff" problem that kept pervious versions from re-starting properly after an auto-update
new changes for version 0.939 (1.13.2001)
- the client now does a self-check based on the current Digital Signature obtained from a PB Master server in order to attempt to detect file corruption
new changes for version 0.938 (1.12.2001)
- fixed glitch that caused program hang ups for some users
new changes for version 0.937 (1.12.2001)
- fixed auto-connect bug in win2k, the auto-connection procedure described in section III should now work properly under all operating system flavors except NT4
new changes for version 0.936 (1.11.2001)
- profile screen changed, removed profile password and made all fields plain text
- new Status button added to allow players to retrieve list of players on the same monitored Game Server along with each player's current status
- the pbclhl.exe file can now be renamed and run as whatever filename desired
- the "rename warning" message has been removed
- the opening "help" text is now somewhat context sensitive to the local environment and connection type
new changes for version 0.935 (1.8.2001)
- nice new auto-connection method to do away with manual connects and NAT-related issues for most users (see section III in this clreadme.txt file for documentation).
- client now sends "keep alive" packets to PB server every 10 seconds to hopefully cut down on dropped connections
- if there is an error obtaining the List of servers from a PB Master Server, you no longer have to wait 1 minute to try again
- the required.pb file is working again with the list button
- the client now closes old open connections with PB servers when a new connection is initiated
- new command line +LIST parameter for client can be used to have PunkBuster automatically write the server lists to the master.pb and required.pb files upon the launching of PunkBuster for better launcher integration
- the client now detects if it has been renamed and, if so, issues a warning message to the user just after startup
- the auth key fields in the profile screen now show the actual number instead of asterisks
- the client will now try 10 times rather than 5 to connect to a PB Server before giving up
new changes for version 0.934 (12.26.2000)
- removed the confusing error message about a missing pbclhl.dat file when program starts
- fixed intermittant glitch in the List procedure that sometimes corrupted the master.pb file
- new command line +NOSIG parameter for client can be used to disable digital signature checking of updates so that all are accepted (useful for debugging and also possibly for secure LAN environments)
- new required.pb file is generated (in addition to master.pb) when the List button is pressed that contains only games in Required Compliance mode
new changes for version 0.933 (12.16.2000)
- upgraded Client security by adding ditigal signature checking; the digital signatures are kept only at the PunkBuster Master servers and are randomized every 5 minutes; the PunkBuster Client starting with this version will reject any auto-updates whose digital signature does not exactly match the signature supplied by a PunkBuster Master server
new changes for version 0.932 (12.14.2000)
- fixed a bug that caused recurring technical violations
new changes for version 0.931 (12.14.2000)
- new system tray icon, click once with either Left or Right mouse button to hide and unhide the Client main window
- new command line parameter +HID can be used to launch the Client in hidden mode (for example "pbclhl.exe +hid" in shortcut target field
- fixed intermittent bug relating to Acutal IP output
- added a new self check to monitor overall system integrity
new changes for version 0.930
- when list is pressed for master server list, a file called master.pb is written to the hard drive for use as a server source in game launchers (such as GameSpy and Pingtool)
- fixed an intermittent output overflow bug (caused text format problems)
- Client obtains and outputs dynamic Actual (Internet) IP address of your machine to help troubleshoot some auto-connection problems
- URL support added to connect field, enter either IP or URL for manual connections
new changes for version 0.929
- removed confirmation Yes/No box when exiting the program
- text output is sent to file called pbclhl.err if program can't start for some reason
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