MBI entry bans of the esl

Moinsen.

With some Happening in the last days I want to write my first journal now.

Before I start I want to say that the players concerned don't be important, but the main idea of the whole thing.

Of late there are more and more bans in the ESL because of cheating (12 pp + 2 years ban) with the reason of MBI entrys. The MBI=MasterBanIndex is a tool of pbbans.com and works together, surprise, with the punkbuster. probably you all now yawn.be which take all the informations from that MBI. In the MBI entry there is always a reason for it like a CVAR violation, some kinds of hacks (aimbot,wh,multihack,pbhack or whatever) and the md5tool violation.
The thing I want to rewiev is the md5tool voilation. I guess that not everyone know what the md5tool is so I quotate a definition:
"Starting in January of 2004, PunkBuster Server Admins have the option of using the new PB MD5Tool facility to check the
digital signatures of files and/or portions of files in each player's game directory and child subdirectories during
gameplay."
So, if any file in the ET folder is modded, changed in another way or is just however damaged, the md5tool will kick the player from the server. But changes like this could be also created by normal faults which you have in every game. To that point another quotation:
( i have to add that this quotation comes of a forum so it doesn't have to be true.)
"Vom MD5-Tool gekickt zu werden kann nichts heißten.
Das MD5Tool überprüft die Digitale Signatur von Dateien im ET Verzeichniss, d.h. wenn jmd. seine ET.exe modifiziert wird er
vom MD5Tool gekickt.
Wie z.B. wenn man mit 2.60 Patch auf nem 2.60b Server spielt. Oder wenn man ein *.pk3-Hack benutzt, etc. Mehr Infos.
Ansonsten OMG BAN!!!!!1"
"jo wie (name leaved out) schon sagte, kommt häufiger vor , muss deswegen nich gleich bedeutet das er Cheatet.
Daher sollte man mit PunkbusterKicks auch vorsichtig sein. Nicht jeden bedeutet, dass der Gamer gecheatet hat oder Sonstiges."
For all who don't speak german a little translation:
kicked by the md5tool doesn't say anything. The md5tool analyse files in the ET folder, that means if anyone modding his et.exe the md5tool will kick him. Like e.g. if someone plays on a server with 2.60b but playing with 2.60 or if someone uses a *.pk3-hack.
As "name" just said things like that often happen so it doesn't mean directly that someone is cheating. So You should be careful with punkbuster kicks. (last sentence i leaved out cuz it doesn't make sence in german either).

I faced with this md5tool a long time ago, at the time I started playing ET. There was a time in which I and also my mates became kicked via the md5tool. Infact that we was noobs and didn't know anything about pb, md5tools and so on we didn't know what to do. We just wanna to go on playing. What would be if my ETpro guid never changed and I play an improtant match today, someone would check up my guid in yawn and see, that I got MBI entrys because of md5tool kicks. At the next day I'll be banned by the esl with the reason of cheating and MBI entrys. Well, this example is very extreme and excessive but imagine, maybe someone is testing a config in which come uo with a CVAR violation e.g. kik_aim 1 or smth. or someone sends me a map.pk3 which is damaged. Now i get a MBI entry because of md5tool kicks and get banned with the reason of cheating.
If the esl doesn't have their "methods" to check these md5tool kicks I have to say that those bans aren't fair. The esl always saying: We only ban players for 2 years if we are 100% sure that someone is cheating or cheated. How could they are 100% sure if a md5tool violation not always have to be a hack, but just could be a simple fault in any ET file.

Maybe there are any additionally information in the MBI entry which I can't use as a definitely proof for cheating?

so far...

I hope that you take this seriously and don't just answer with stupid comments ( you all should know what i mean), and btw. I'm sorry for my bad english :/


Best regards, Kallomena