i was in a server yesterday....i beleive it wasw LtMk CTF or something.  i'm sure you can find it.

anyways, every couple of mins, the server spammed a msg like this:
"MINIMUM RATE ALLOWED 4500:  FOR ADMIN CONTACT GO TO ...."

it was osp i think (or maybe even sneaky mod)?  i really forget...i'll play it again tonight and find out.  but i'm sure, if you found that server, they would be willing to help...seemed like nice folk to me.

Or you'd think that maybe Punkbuster could step up to the plate and allow a server side configurable command like:

Set minRate "4500"

It only checks to make sure it is at least above 2500.

I am guess that Raven told them not to allow this so that every noob can play on every server even if they are too stupid to adjust their rate. This keeps the game selling for a longer period of time..

What would solve this is not only to have the server admins be able to up the minimum rate, but to also be able to add their own kick messages, something like:
"You were kicked because your RATE is set wrong. Hit ESC, OPTIONS, NETWORK SETTINGS and click the RATE option until it shows your actually connection speed."

Simple, no?