Kakeroo is at least the second person to say this on the forums, so I did a little digging. The real problem is described after I write below,
"===============================================
Okay I found a couple of things:"
The first part of the post is explaining the history and possible solutions for some of the problems of some of the people, some of the time.
kakeroo wrote:BBA is not in the server list. ...
Punkbuster had stopped supporting ET, RTCW and ETQW, and the ET Master Server went down. PB would not generate ETkeys for new installations, which means that installed PB clients could not generate PBguids. Jaymod, at least, requires the PBguid to be sent to the game server for the server to save XP.
From Trackbase, a new program to automatically install pb with an etkey. I assume this is an advancement on their etkey generator, where you had to place the key yourself.
http://etkey.org/pages/punkbuster/auto- ... rlekin.php
or, the Do-it-yourself etkey gen from them:
http://etkey.org/
scroll down to bottom of page where the location of 'etkey' file is shown in various operating systems.
here is their Full-ET-2.6B-Installer page (which might help you with helping newcomers to ET)
http://etkey.org/pages/enemy-territory- ... indows.php
When the ET Mastter Server went down last January, I used this solution, via Trackbase:
http://etmaster.net/
and I used the 'Edit Hosts File' method.
It seems that ID has since fixed/restored the Master Server. I am still using the Hosts-method, which the author said would redirect to the normal ET master Browser, if it ever returned. It has returned:
http://forums.warchestgames.com/showthr ... -In-Action
and I will now edit my hosts file to test the ID ED MasterBrowser.
and....I See BBA in the Browser List with a normal Hosts file.
I will have to reboot my computer now to make sure the system uses the new file. (unnecessary)
BBL ...
===============================================
Okay I found a couple of things:
1) a. you don't have to reboot to test your Hosts file, just close and restart ET.
b. The location of most Windows Hosts files is " %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\ "
c. I cannot edit the file directly. I have to save a copy of the file elswwhere, edit it there and then I can copy the edited file back over the original Hosts file.
2) People who say they can't see BBA on the Master List are correct!!
a. when I had the line " 91.220.53.73 etmaster.idsoftware.com " added to the last line of my Hosts file and I sort the servers in name order, I see:
<IoW> silEnT (No Bots
<{BBA}>1 NO RESET XP SAVE
+DarkServer=
b. when I clear the trackbase master browser address out of the Hosts file, I don't see <{BBA}> and in fact, I only see two servers with names beginning with "<", "<BHS/3 Clan Recruiting" and "<COBRA> Recruiting XPSAVE".
I believe that there are a number of other differences. I suspect that those who used the other NoETmaster fixes offered by TrackBase may see what I see when using the mod-Hosts method.
I don't have more time to work on this more tonight, but things ARE amiss.
*added* next day's results below (
http://www.bbaservers.com/ftopicp-68699.html#68699 )