Had I known this shit, Id have just bought a COD4 server. VAC is the anti cheat that MW2 uses now. I thought we would be able to VAC ban (ie.....send in demos of hax to VAC) but we can't. NOBODY CAN>>>>>>FOR ANY GAME!! They talk about this obviously failed piece of shit like it's golden. I mean, I can ban ppl from my server but I can't fuckin demo and submit? WTF! Whats the point in that....asshole gets banned here....he goes there. Theres no accountability. If VAC does catch you....it doesnt even fuckin ban you on the spot. It may be days or weeks before the ban goes into effect. We'll see how this bullshit goes but if it's anything like MW2 I'll switch the server to COD4 in a heartbeat. I didnt spend all this time, money, and effort to be what will amount to a fuckin babysitter. AT least with COD4 we have PBB and that shit really does work.
This is taken from the Valve page and describes (in part) what VAC (valve anti cheat) is and how it works.
What is VAC?
If a user connects to a VAC-Secured server from a computer with identifiable cheats installed, the VAC system will ban the user from playing on VAC-Secured servers in the future.
While server admins may choose to ban specific players, server admins cannot VAC ban players. The VAC system is automated - contacting Steam Support to report cheaters is not necessary, nor will Steam Support act on any information provided.
The VAC system reliably detects cheats using their cheat signatures. Any third-party modification to a game designed to give one player an advantage over another is classified as a cheat or hack and will trigger a VAC ban. This includes modifications to a game's core executable files and dynamic link libraries.
I love the part above where it says how it "reliably" detects hax!!!!! I see that everyday playing MW2. Funny thing is, in my COD4 clanserver.......we almost never saw hax. You know why? Because when we did, we demoed it, sent the shit to PBB and the person was instantly banned from all Punk Buster servers....fuckin done. Then the guys at PBB looked at the code and compared it to what they know of....if it was an unknown, it was added to the hax index and ppl who have it start going down like flies. THATS why PBB works. Heres another reason taken directly from Valves site:
"If you find that you are banned from a large number of servers but your VAC status is in good standing, you have likely been banned by a third-party ban tool, such as Punkbuster. These third-party tools are used by a large number of servers sharing a common database of banned ID's. These tools are unrelated to Steam and we cannot assist you in resolving this issue.
Sharing a common data base......a master ban index........Simply put, it's the best thing out there.
This VAC shit sounds completely fuckin retarded....well....you all play MW2 so, you tell me......I feel like an idiot. I should have done my homework and looked into this myself before just accepting someones word. Had I known that I can't interact with the anticheat software being run by my server, I would have gone a different direction.
This was taken from wikipedia about VAC
VAC cannot detect 'content hacks', where, for example, texture transparency and color are manipulated, since they do not involve modification of any program code.
Sound like Greek to you?? Don't know what this means? Well I do. Here. Dig this. You'll love it. It means that you can make a hack which will render all of the walls, cars, buildings, or other objects in the map transperant. You can see the outlines and boundries of stuff but other than that you can see through everything. At the same time, you can make that hack render the players in the game as solid colored objects. What that gives you is transperant everything with 9 blue guys and 9 red guys running around in a map. The hack shows fucking everything.....and VAC cannot detect it.....
