a weird message.... someone can help!?!

[SKUNKY]

when i try to connect to any game in multiplayer I receive the following message and I dont know why :Punk buster has been kicked you out for 0mins reason : PB UNKN AUTH


could someone help me please?

[YourGrandpa]

Bad CD Key ?

[DrLex]

I have the same problem. I do have a legitimate CD key from the case of my Quake III CD, I played for years with it. I now mostly play the Urban Terror mod.

But now I get this annoying PB message on certain servers, which I could connect to a month ago! On other servers I get INVALID_CDKEY. And to yet other servers I can just connect without problems. But the problem is, there aren't that many Urban Terror servers nowadays, and this error reduces the measily amount of available servers with a decent amount of players, to an even more ridiculous amount.

I don't understand why suddenly my thrusty old CD key is marked as invalid. The only possibility is that it has been compromised, although I did everything to keep it safe. What I really don't understand, is why this key system is still online. They disactivated it a few years ago because the game had produced enough revenues. Then they re-activated it for some reason. Now the source code for Quake 3 is open source and the key server still refuses even my legal CD key! :icon33: How hard can it be to just make the server accept any key?

Anyway, the server I'm getting the PB AUTH UNKN on, is 193.27.10.79:27970
And the one with the INVALID_CDKEY is 193.27.10.82:27960.
They're both Urban Terror servers, and now I've written down the IP's, I notice they are from the same network. That's probably not a coincidence.

I already tried every solution I could find. I must have erased my q3key file a 100 times. I updated punkbuster with PBWEB. The problem occurs on both my Linux box and my Mac, by the way. Does anyone have an idea what's going wrong?

[Cooldown]

Invalid CD Key errors may occur for a wide number of reasons. The most common causes of this error are configuration issues on the client (player) machine or problems with your connection to the id's Authentication Server.

Try the following:

• - Make sure you have one q3key file located in your "Quake III Arena\baseq3" folder and that it contains the correct cd-key. If you find any q3key files in your mod folders, delete them.

• - Manually enter your CD Key into the Q3KEY file on your hard drive.
  • 1) Open Microsoft Wordpad.
    2) Open the Q3KEY file on your drive. Please note the file does not have an extension. By default the path is:
    
    C:\Program Files\Quake III Arena\baseq3\q3key
    
    3) Enter your complete CD Key in lower-case letters at the beginning of this file. Do not use any formatting or spacing.
    4) Save the file and try the game again.

• - You may also receive this error if you are moving rapidly between different servers. The Master Server keeps a record of your CD Key, IP address, and which server you're in. If you leave a server then jump into a new one the Master Server may see this as multiple uses of the same key. Generally speaking, it's a good idea to wait 5-10 minutes before joining a new server, especially if you've been dropped from the previous server due to a connection problem.

• - Be sure that your computer is not behind a software or hardware firewall of any kind. This includes firewalls built into routers or other equipment, as well as programs like Zone Alarm, Black Ice, and the integrated firewall in Windows XP. Activision does not support the use of our games from behind a firewall. If it is not possible to disable the firewall you will need to open the ports for Quake III Arena. Quake III Arena transmits and receives network traffic on ports 27950, 27960, 27965 and 27952 using both TCP and UDP. The exact details on opening these ports is specific to your firewall. For more information check with the firewall documentation or manufacturer.

• - Another common cause of problems is a poorly configured router or connection sharing solution. If you are using a router, ICS, NAT or a software gateway you may have problems playing on the internet. This is because the router may not be forwarding the correct information back to your machine. It may be possible to get around this problem using port forwarding or DMZ. You can find more information on configuring shared connections for multiplayer gaming at http://www.practicallynetworkd.com. Please be aware that like a firewall we cannot actively support using shared connections to play online.

• - Use the in-game browser to search for and join servers. Third party applications such as All Seeing Eye and those released by Gamespy may cause Invalid Key problems.

• - If you are on a dynamic IP connection try renewing your IP address.
  Windows NT/2000/XP
  • 1) First launch the Command Prompt.
    2) At the command line type "IPCONFIG /RENEW".
  - If you have PunkBuster installed edit your Q3CONFIG.CFG file.
  • 1) Open Microsoft Wordpad.
    2) Open your Q3CONFIG.CFG file. By default this is:
    
    C:\Program Files\Quake III Arena\baseq3\q3config.cfg
    
    3) Add the following to the end of the file:
    
    seta pb_system "1"
    
    4) Save the file and try the game again.

• - Make sure Punkbuster client is up-to-date by downloading PBWEB.exe, which will allow you to manually update PunkBuster. Place the file in your "Quake III Arena\pb" directory and launch the executable. It will take a few minutes for it to update, be patient.

Good Luck!

[DrLex]

• - Make sure you have one q3key file located in your "Quake III Arena\baseq3" folder and that it contains the correct cd-key. If you find any q3key files in your mod folders, delete them.

That's it!!!! There was a q3key file in the q3ut3 folder. After deleting it, I can connect to all servers!
Eternal thanks, Cooldown! :icon14: :icon14: