The RC5 client, what to do for networked computer's

[Skinny Boy]

I joined the mech team over the vacation, and I have another computer I would like to add to the mix, but the web page and help file's are a little vauge on how to, and what to do, to accomplish this.

Anyone else doing this, and can you tell how it is done? TIA.

[Floppyman]

Sorry but I don't quite understand. You can use multiple computers just use your same email in each one and the blocks will automatically be added to our team and your account. Is this what you were referring to?

[Skinny Boy]

Nope, from what the web site say's, I can run multiple computer's from the same client software on a shared drive, thereby using the computing power of both to work on the same blocks I think, or something like that.



"Sharing buffers on local area networks
If you want to run the client on several computers from a shared network drive, you have a couple of options. By default the client looks for an .ini file (where client configuration information is stored) with the same name as the client. So for instance if your client is called dnetc it will look for configuration information in a file called dnetc.ini. One solution then would be to create several copies of the client, each with a different name; one for each of the required configurations. Another option is to set the RC5INI environment variable during each computer's start up sequence. The client will preferentially use configuration information stored in the configuration file pointed to by RC5INI. In this way you only need one copy of the client software but you can have several different .ini files, one for each configuration that you need."


As stated here:
http://www.distributed.net/docs/tutor_netopt.html

about half way down the page.Any idea's?

[Floppyman]

Oh ok...try this. As it says in what you posted, the client will look for an ini file that is the same name as the client. For example...dnetc will look for the ini file dnetc. Rename one client to dnetc 1 or something like this and it will make a ini file dnetc 1. If I understand the instructions right if you do this you can run multiple clients of the same network drive. Try it and lemme know if it works. HTH

[Skinny Boy]

I guess it's working out? I did what it said, and renamed the dnetc.ini to the example given, then I had to configure it to not check the keyserver, and had to put in the path to where it could pick up key's, and some other minor thing's.

I think it is doing what I wanted because when the second computer flush's, it doesn't show a keyserver address, and the 1st computer jumped over some unit's and packet's that were in the buffer's. So we'll see what happen's.

The whole reason I wanted to do this was so it wouldn't be duplicating work, and share all the work between the 2, so I could do more packet's faster. Hope this does it.

[Byte 2.0]

I have to add, that is a cool idea. I understand what you mean about it skipping over some units....I wish seti at home had a way to allow networked computer to share the work load like that...From what you said I believe you have it going....good job to both of You....

[Skinny Boy]

Figuring it out was just a matter of doing what they said, but let me tell ya, they leave alot to the imagination as far as what exactly has to be done. All the piece's are scattered about in the read me's, and the help file's and the FAQ's. But it is working now.

Just a note from recent trial's, this won't work if zone alarm is running on the main client. For some reason it disconnect's the client, and prevent's the xfer of the packet's between the computer's.

Maybe that is where the proxy software come's into play for getting around firewall's.

Thanks for another view Floppyman.

Is Seti similar byte? I seem to recall what it's about, but have never really checked it out.

[Byte 2.0]

Skinny Boy

Seti in a netshell is the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. They gather data from Arecibo radio telescope break it into work units and let people at home process it on there computer and return it. It is an on going cycle, much like RC5. The main difference is that Seti can give you a fun little screen saver. Currently I have plans on running some of the RC5 units myself since I have run seti for over a year...

[Skinny Boy]

Sounds interesting, pretty much what I read about it, and gathered from discussions. I guess I never really had any interest in running that one though. I don't even know why I started running RC5, just to see what it was all about I guess, now that I am running it, it is interesting to see the progress.

Not much activity from the pcmech team as of late, guess everyone is busy w/ the holiday's and new game's and such :)

I was wondering though, who the "The Financial Architects Team (Ieper)" member is, and how many computer's they have running this, because they do alot of unit's per day, almost 6 time's my # on my best day so far. Woo Hoo.

[Floppyman]

To answer your question, the financial architecs team is none other than our very own mosquito. I guess he's got this running on work on all the computers, and yeah it helps the team out quite a bit. I found that when I leave my comp on all night 24/7 I can do 1000+blocks each day. When I turn it off I get about half that. Oh yeah, also wanted to thank you two for joining again. Every block completed helps our team out.

[Skinny Boy]

That's a big help, I would say. I've been leaving both of mine on 24/7 while doing this, so that when I'm not at it doing something, they can hammer away at it.

No problem on the joining part, figured if I'm going to be running it, might as well be part of one of my favorite site's team. Go PCmech.