Call of Duty 4: PunkBuster Bans

Call of Duty 4: Adding / Removing PunkBuster Bans

When some one is banned by PunkBuster their GUID (their unique user ID) is added to a file on the Call of Duty 4 server. When browing the server through your FTP client you may not notice where this file is. That is because by default the folder is hidden.

The file we are looking for is pbbans.dat. To get to this file we need to browse to the following directory on our Call of Duty 4 gameserver:

.callofduty/pb/

Note: If you do not see this folder you will need to set your FTP client to show hidden folders. This is typically either under the preferences option or under the 'view' menu. The menu's vary depending on your FTP client, you should consult their website for information on how to enable hidden folders.

Once you are in the 'pb' folder you should see several files all related to PunkBuster. We are looking for the 'pbbans.dat' file. Download this file to your desktop (any any other convenient location on your computer). Open this file in NotePad (using Microsoft Word/WordPad may cause problems with re-uploading to our Linux servers). If you have any bans on your server you will see something similar to the format below:

[date] "GUID""player name" Reason for hacking

To remove a ban, simply remove the line with their GUID on. To add a ban, follow the template above. The important one to get right here is the players GUID, this is not the 8 digit version, you need the 32 digit version. Once added, the player will then be banned through PunkBuster