Battlefield 2 installation using BF2-Hub
In 2014 the company GameSpy was shut down and so were their servers. These servers were necessary to log into Battlefield 2 multiplayer and to manage your ranks. In the same year some committed bf2 players set up bf2hub.com which now provides similar services. To make use of these new services, however, your bf2 installation needs to be adapted:
1. BF2 Installation
First install bf2 as usal, alongside all the patches (1.41 -> 1.5 -> 1.5 hotfix)
2. Edit hosts-file
To be able to connect to the new bf2hub-server your windows hosts file will have to be edited: these changes will be made automatically for you once you have downloaded and installed the bf2hub-client https://www.bf2hub.com/home/downloads.php
Alternatively you can choose to make the necessary changes yourself (and thus ignore bf2hub-client completely): using a text editor (such as notepad) in administrative mode (Windows 10: All Apps -> Windows Accessories -> Notepad -> Right click: More -> Run as administrator), create a new file hosts.ics inside the folder C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\ with the following content:
# BF2Hub - begin of redirect (established on 2015-08-07 18:04:39)
92.51.181.102 battlefield2.available.gamespy.com
92.51.181.102 battlefield2.master.gamespy.com
92.51.181.102 battlefield2.ms14.gamespy.com
92.51.181.102 gpsp.gamespy.com
92.51.181.102 gpcm.gamespy.com
92.51.180.45 eapusher.dice.se
92.51.180.45 BF2web.gamespy.com
# BF2Hub - end of redirect
Basically your game and game-login should work now using the BF2Hub-servers.
3. Punkbuster installation/update:
Most game servers are protected against cheaters using a software tool called punkbuster from Even Balance (http://www.evenbalance.com/). If this software is not installed on your pc or the version is too old you will be kicked shortly after you have joined a game server. As Even Balance ended support for bf2 as well, you have to edit its configuration and update the anti-cheat software manually:
3a. Punkbuster installation:
Punkbuster services should already have been installed with your default setup of bf2. If you're unsure wether or not punkbuster is running, you can download the punkbuster-service-installer from http://www.evenbalance.com/downloads.php, which checks and corrects the punkbuster installation if necessary (direct link: http://www.evenbalance.com/downloads/pbsvc/pbsvc.exe).
3b. Punkbuster update:
To manually update punkbuster you need a program called pbsetup.exe which you can download from evenbalance as well: http://www.evenbalance.com/pbsetup.php (direct link: http://websec.evenbalance.com/downloads/W/gui/pbsetup.zip).
Unzip the file pbsetup.zip and open up the decompressed folder: you should find a file called pbsetup.exe inside. As soon as you execute this file a list of supported games is being downloaded and two new files will be created inside the decompressed folder (pbgame.htm, pbuser.htm). As you might have noticed looking at the dropdown-list of supported games (button "Add a Game"), Battlefield 2 wont show up yet.
Now, close pbsetup.exe again and open the newly created file pbgame.htm using a text editor (notepad); change the whole content to the following text: link
Save the changes and open up pbsetup.exe once again. The dropdown-list of supported games should now include battlefield 2. Execute the punkbuster-update for battlefield 2 (current client-version should be v2.306 | A1393).
Battlefield 2 should run now without further hassle. If you still have trouble, however, speak to us in our TS (bf2l.de); we are glad to help.
|