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How to Make PunkBuster Stop Kicking You

By Fenny

EDIT: If the problem percedes even if you tried everything in my guide, then comment down below AND GIVE ME THE EXACT ERROR MESSAGE YOU GET!

You know how it feels when you don't have any hacking software, yet Punkbuster STILL hates you? Well, I'm gonna make a guide on how to fix this with multiple different ways.

NOTE: I CANNOT GUARANTEE YOU THAT THESE WILL WORK FOR YOU, THESE METHODS HAVE WORKED FOR ME, AS I HAVE HAD THESE ISSUES ON MULTIPLE DIFFERENT OCCASIONS! I AM GIVING YOU GUYS INFO TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE.
NOTE: THIS IS NOT A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE. THESE ARE DIFFERENT POSSIBILITIES ON HOW YOU CAN FIX YOUR MP.

Fix 1: Make sure you PB is installed
Install it here: E:\Program Files\SteamApps\common\Battlefield 2\PunkBuster\pbsvc

Fix 2. Disable your Steam Community. (note, you cannot play on multiplayer if your community is enabled for this game. so, yeah, an anti-DRM game. That's new.)
Punkbuster doesn't seem to notice that Steam is not a hacking software, unfortunately disabling this feature will forfeit your ability to talk to your friends in-game (aka shift+tab)
1. Right click on Battlefield 2
2. Goto properties
3. Goto the first tab on the page that pops-up.
4. Uncheck "Enable Steam communtiy in-game."

Test out your multiplayer.

Now you have to update your Punkbuster.

1. http://evenbalance.com/index.php?page=dl-bf2.php - goto the NOTICE (first thing you read on the page) and click on the PBSetup.
2. It should open up a user-license window, just click on "agree," noone reads that stuff, right? :D
3. Goto "Add a Game."
4. Click on Battlefield 2.
5. It should open a window that says it's updating, if not, then click on the "update Punkbuster."

Now try out your multiplayer.

Fix 3: STILL not working? You may wanna check your firewalls. (NOTE: THE FOLLOWING STEPS ARE FOR NORTON USERS, I ASSUME THAT IT'S NOT ANY DIFFERENT FOR ANY OTHER ANTIVIRUSES ONCE YOU REACH THE FIREWALL PAGE.)

1. Goto "Security" and then goto "Manage firewall."
2. Goto your "Program Rules" (For non-Norton users, just keep clicking on tabs until you find a page with programs on it.)
3. Scroll down to "pbsvc" and if your anti-virus says that it doesn't allow the program to communicate through the firewall, then allow it. KEEP IN MIND: if there are any other punkbuster programs that don't have access through your firewall (most notably pbsvc), then allow them access.

NOW try out your multiplayer.