Rules of Combat

As many players have found out, keeping your game updated with the latest Punkbuster software is crucial. not always will it auto update for you, as you will have to manually update it yourself. This is a very simply operation that will keep your game updated and prevent sudden server kicks as we have all seen. Below, you will find a direct lick back to Evenbalance where the auto update tool is always ready for download and installation.

There you will also find step by step tutorials if you should have issue related update problems.

PBSETUP Tool for manually updating PunkBuster™ to latest version.


Updating PunkBuster with PBSetup

PunkBuster is designed to keep itself up to date using our proprietary auto-update system. For cases where the auto-update fails, we have created a utility called PBSetup.

There are two major components to the PunkBuster system: the PunkBuster Server (runs on game servers) and the PunkBuster Client (runs on players' playing machines while they play the game). Both components are designed to automatically keep themselves up to date with the latest versions of PunkBuster. The PB Server software routinely checks with the master PB Servers and downloads new updates over the Internet when they become available and then distributes the new versions to connected PB Clients when players running an old version connect to the server.

When PB is not able to auto-update, various error messages are displayed. For PB Server Admins, messages are displayed to all players when a player joins who has a newer version of PB than what is currently running on the PB Server. Also, PB Servers running old versions will not be able to detect and deal with all of the latest versions of cheat/hack software. For players of the games, when PB can't keep itself up to date, they will be removed (kicked) from PB Servers and may see one of a variety of messages ... "Distress", "Technical Problem loading ...", or "Update Timeout".

In virtually every case where PB cannot keep itself up to date, a firewall or some type of security software is blocking communication with the master PB Servers. For users who are comfortable configuring their firewall/router or security software, port number information can be found in the FAQ section for each game we support here on our website. If this issue can be resolved, then PB will be able to auto-update and function properly the way it was designed and the use of PBSetup is not necessary.

For users who need or desire to use PBSetup to manually update PunkBuster, PBSetup download links for Windows, Linux and Mac OSX are provided below. PBSetup does not modify the Windows registry. For best results, users should create a folder on the hard drive to hold PBSetup and the various files that it will create and use during operation. PBSetup should be downloaded directly into the folder or moved into the folder after downloading to the desktop but before running PBSetup for the first time. The easiest way to create a folder is to "right click" on the desktop and choose New|Folder from the pop-up menu and then type in a folder name such as PBSetup and press the Enter key.