HUGE Network Issue

Hi all,

I've been having a lot of trouble recently (every since about 3 months ago, though I don't think that's a factor) playing games with anti-cheating software installed. I'll give as much detail as possible:

Everything was fine for as long as I can remember having this computer. Every since a few months ago, I've started getting disconnected from Source and Half-Life 1 engine games periodically because, "A secure connection to the Steam VAC servers could not be made." This angered me, because it made virtually every game I had through STEAM unplayable. After trying unsuccessful remedies (will mention below) I finally got sick of tolerating it and stopped playing.

A few days ago I bought Battlefield 2 for my PC. I had played the demo before and experienced no problems. Upon updating my game, I realized PunkBuster had apparently updated too. Every few minutes, I would be disconnected with a message saying, "PnkBstrB.exe (sp?) initialization error." This was very weird, since I had absolutely no problem in any other games but these two cases.

Thing I've tried:
- Google (I've reached the end of the plausible search results on many different occasions)
- Forwarding my ports (For all HL1 and HL2-powered games and BF2)
- Bypassing my router and connecting straight to my modem
- Playing on VERY low ping servers (some servers with as few as 2 other people in them)

Things to be noted:
- My friend noticed I had been logging in and out of Steam Friends frantically whilst I was ingame. This is even furthered by the fact that as soon as I am disconnected, I lose my connection to Steam friends as well. Sometimes the majority of a chat box will be covered with "Lost connection," "Reconnecting," and the like.

Any, ANY help would be dearly appreciated.

 

ok first off make sure every thing is updated to the latest vers with regards to the games inc network drivers, run a manual PB update to make sure thats ok too since you got that error. Have you reinstalled steam also? make sure you do a clean install by removing all of it inc the program folder. make sure you back up anything it keeps if applicable.

im not sure how steam works but try setting up another account to see if its still the same?

i know its pretty basic stuff but you didn't mention it so i thought i would point it out

 

Thanks for the reply,

Yes, I've done all of that too. The problem persists.