Punk Buster False Hack Ban

[phxazbob]

I have been playing Battlefield 2 Bad Company online since I purchased it at least 10 years ago. Starting two weeks ago, every time I entered a server to play, I was immediately dropped from the game with the warning saying I had been banned for two minutes for 'WALLHACK 62002.'
Now, I'm a 64-year-old man who wouldn't know how to hack if given instructions and nobody else has access to my PC.

I quickly found that Punk Buster (Even Balance) customer service is a total joke, providing absolutely no assistance. Seriously, the worst customer service I've ever experienced.

The only thing that changed on my PC between the last time playing and being banned was I ran SpeedGuide.net's 'TCP/IP Optimizer'. Do you think this program could have created a false positive with PB, or is their software just buggy?

BTW, according to the website 'PBBans' many, many people have been banned on BF2 servers for this same hack in the last 30 days - these leads me to believe this is a PB problem.

Someone told me to just buy another copy of the game (PB works off the code supplied with each copy), but I'm not going to be extorted to spend another $40 for something I already own just because some company can't correctly provide their service.

Thank you!

 

[drivinfast247]

Is PB up to date?

 

[phxazbob]

Is PB up to date?

Yes, PB as well as BF2BC is up to date

 

[Calvin7]

PB explanation:
To be clear: we are not saying that you cheated as we have no way to know who triggered the violation. If it is certain that no one playing on your computer ever had a cheat/hack violation triggered by PunkBuster, then your GUID (cdkey and/or game account password) has been stolen by or leaked to someone who has used it on a different computer to trigger the violation. We do not have the means to help you find out who is responsible for compromising your GUID.

 

[phxazbob]

PB explanation:
To be clear: we are not saying that you cheated as we have no way to know who triggered the violation. If it is certain that no one playing on your computer ever had a cheat/hack violation triggered by PunkBuster, then your GUID (cdkey and/or game account password) has been stolen by or leaked to someone who has used it on a different computer to trigger the violation. We do not have the means to help you find out who is responsible for compromising your GUID.

ABSOLUTELY WRONG - I, ME, am actively being banned - this is not the result of a global ban (yet).
Right now I can enter any BCBF2 server and do nothing - within 30 seconds I am banned for 2 min for WALLHACK. This has nothing to do with anybody else - it is a false positive being generated by PB software in response to MY play.

PS: I've seen this canned response given to just about everybody online who has reported this. This is what passes for 'customer service' at this company.

 

[phxazbob]

I purchased a brand new copy of BF2BC from Steam and within a minute of playing, was banned for 2 min for 'WALLHACK'. Bastards.

 

[punkncat]

I want to say that if you haven't played a title under a certain time you can refund them through Steam. Not sure the exacts on that. Might check into it.

 

[punkncat]

Looking back at this, and reading online would indicate that you may have been hacked. I would look to see if that optimizer thing you used is implicated in any bad reviews. Might run a virus scan to see if you have anything.

 

[phxazbob]

Looking back at this, and reading online would indicate that you may have been hacked. I would look to see if that optimizer thing you used is implicated in any bad reviews. Might run a virus scan to see if you have anything.

Steam was nice to refund my purchase price since I played the game for literally one minute.

I did the above. SpeedGuide.com is legitimate, with no reports of hacking and I have thoroughly swept my PC including for rootkits - all clean.
If I could only figure out what code is involved in the WALLHACK hack, I'd eradicate it, but anything I've found online associated with it is definitely not on my PC. So frustrating.

 

[punkncat]

Something else I considered. I was reading where there are only about 200 active users of the service? A post had indicated that the recent bans had been about 10% of the user base?
I wonder if they are just working towards closing the server, rather than being the bad guy that just "turns it off" with citing widespread "hacking"?

I cannot tell if you are very vocal over a spread of forums about this, or if the same issue and very similar wording have been used, but there are quite a few posts about on this.
Being as old as the title is, I think I would chalk it up to the fun time it was and move on to another title. Pretty rare to see an online server stay populated that long this side of WoW.

 

[phxazbob]

Something else I considered. I was reading where there are only about 200 active users of the service? A post had indicated that the recent bans had been about 10% of the user base?
I wonder if they are just working towards closing the server, rather than being the bad guy that just "turns it off" with citing widespread "hacking"?

I cannot tell if you are very vocal over a spread of forums about this, or if the same issue and very similar wording have been used, but there are quite a few posts about on this.
Being as old as the title is, I think I would chalk it up to the fun time it was and move on to another title. Pretty rare to see an online server stay populated that long this side of WoW.

You just might be on to something - BF2 is an old title.
Despite their numerous denials, there have long been questions about EA's (and probably other developers') collusion with Even Balance in driving players from older games. If this could ever be credibly established, I, for one, have the time, money, and pissed-offness to initiate a class action suit against Even Balance as it appears they have long played the part of judge, jury, and executioner in unfairly depriving thousands of individuals the use of products they paid money for in good faith.
I would love to speak to anyone who has worked for or has intimate knowledge of Even Balance's relationship with developers, as well as their history of glitches resulting in false positive bans.

 

[phxazbob]

I finally received a reply from these incompetent dweebs - the standard cut-n-paste response they apparently use for everyone.
Obviously, nobody spent a minute actually looking into this. They screwed over the wrong person - I am not going to let them get away with it.

Note #13: We do not find this violation to be triggered in error, and it will not be removed.

The supplied GUID has been associated with hacking or interfering with the normal operation of our PunkBuster software and has therefore been compromised resulting in a global ban from PunkBuster enabled game servers. We have no way of knowing who was actually playing with this GUID at the time the violation was triggered. We also have no way to know if the violation was triggered on your specific computer. Our system does not collect personal information and furthermore we have no way to attach a cheat/hack violation to a specific person. This ban will not be lifted as then the person who did trigger the violation would again be able to join PunkBuster Servers using this GUID.

To be clear: we are not saying that you cheated as we have no way to know who triggered the violation. If it is certain that no one playing on your computer ever had a cheat/hack violation triggered by PunkBuster, then your GUID (cdkey and/or game account password) has been stolen by or leaked to someone who has used it on a different computer to trigger the violation. We do not have the means to help you find out who is responsible for compromising your GUID.

 

[phxazbob]

I am able to play with no false positives on XPX15 servers running PB. What is different about the coding on these games?
God, I hate Punk Buster...