Stop / Start Your Clients - DNS Update

[bryanRS]

Hi All,

Thought I'd drop in and ask to you please stop & start your clients. We've moved to a new data site, and BOINC caches its DNS info too long (3+ days or so), so a stop & start is needed. Nice thing is that this is a permanent change, so no more DNS interference.

Thanks!

Bryan
Stats Administrator
BOINC Developer
Riesel Sieve Project

[Jeff]

Thanks for the update

Jeff

[NeoGen]

I saw the news on the main RS site. :)

I wonder if that new 3mb/3mb connection is gonna be enough when you open account creation at beta stage. :P

[bryanRS]

We're taking that into account, and are in the process of distributing our bandwidth needs to ~10 different download sites. This would take all needs off the 3/3 server other than the scheduler and website. If that's not enough, we have plans :)

But yes, it will be interesting to see how quickly that 3/3 disappears.

[dAVE]

I’ve had a problem connecting to the project and got in touch with Bryan, I’ve just had this reply:
dAVE,

You're not doing anything wrong - our server move had a big downside - a faulty modem for our BPL connection. It was a new modem, and we didn't know it was faulty - one is on order from the ISP, but it won't be in until Thursday Tried arguing with the ISP, but that didn't work.

I'm in the process of trying to get the data to another server site - if I can accomplish that, we'll be back on-line very shortly. It's a bit difficult right now, as the site keeps cutting me off.

I'll let you know when things change.

Bryan

[bryanRS]

Thanks dAVE - I often don't have time to post everywhere when we're having issues, as I'm usually trying to fix them :)

We've put together a band-aid solution, although a good one. We have a temporary home for the BOINC server at a totally different location (actually, it's a mirror server, basically). What this means is that, unfortunately, a client exit/reopen is needed again, and will be needed (eventually) when we go back to the original server (probably Friday/Saturday, when we're SURE the modem is working 100% to our needs - which will include stress-testing things).

You will know you're on the wrong server if you receive the following message in your BOINC client:

Please exit & reopen your BOINC client. Due to some equipment problems, we've undergone a
temporary DNS change, and your DNS record has not been updated. Sorry for the trouble. Stop by #rieselsieve on
irc.freenode.net to see us and for more info. Thanks! ~The Riesel Sieve Team

Thanks everyone for their patience - I know things have been a bit bumpy at times, but it's definitely fixable. Good to get them out of the way in the alpha!

Other parts of the site (forums, llrnet, stats) will not be moved, at least for the time being. As the outages seem to spring up when we upload large amounts, the hope is that by moving the BOINC server, the other parts will be at least (relatively) more stable. New equipment arrives Thursday morning.

Edit: One side effect is that the stats will not update (probably, unless I get adventurous) for the BOINC pages until we're back on the main server. Sorry - there's a number of cron jobs that would need to be transferred over, and I want to make sure that the results are getting accepted correctly. Maybe I'll shoot for a daily update or something, so that people see some progress from the pages. Just a side-effect of the move I guess.

Bryan
Stats Administrator
BOINC Developer
Riesel Sieve Project

[AMDave]

Thanks for the extra-fora visit and news, Brian.

You are spot-on. This is exctly what alpha is for - to give the tyres a good hard kick.

These hiccups are all excellent positive test results pointing to vulnerabilities in the framework that can be planned for and addressed.

Succeptibility to hardware failure is a tough nut to plan for. In the long run it would be handy to have backup parts available for (well everything :roll: BUT...) the connectivity as it is a critical component for continuity. It doesn't have to be on-hand here and now, though. A note to get and test a spare in the long term plan would be great. I fell foul of that a whlie ago on. 12 months later I now have a spare router on hand and had to use it to resolve a fault 2 just weeks ago.

All your effort now will pay off in the long term.
Keep at it.
You are doing great.

[bryanRS]

Thanks dAVE. We've been talking the last few days about the things we can do to help provide failover/backup for whatever arises, hardware, software, or otherwise. This temp server will become my testing ground, which would mean next time, we could move over in a matter of minutes. I'm also going to get the server to upload the critical DB data off-site at regular intervals, so that I don't have to go through the painstaking task of trying to get it off a disconnecting server (it was quite a game last night trying to do that).

It has shown us were some of the weaknesses (both computer and human) are right now, and the things we need to fix. On that note, the "No Work From Project" and upload errors are fixed - that was a human error (mine :lol: )

Should be a smooth-sailing day for at least the rest of today **crosses fingers**

Thanks!

Bryan
Stats Administrator
BOINC Developer
Riesel Sieve Project

[NAWY2J]

ok i have been having stop start errors and then my computer kept on restarting all the time then my computer did that and it did not come on again it just shut down and didnt reboot plz can u help?

[Big Whiskey]

Hi NAWY2J and welcome to the forums

unfortunately I'm off to work

quick guess is computer needs a cleaning, CPU heatsink, mobo and powersupply

if you can try switching powersupplies to see if it boots

I'll check back later tonight

Big Whiskey

[NAWY2J]

thanx m8 when will u be back well i hope u could help

[gatekeeper53]

NAWY2J,

There are several people here that are willing to help. Have you taken the side off the case and inspected the insides for dust build up?

[NAWY2J]

me and my bro tried to get all the dust off and tried it again and it still wont boot up but when i cut off the light on the motherboard was still on and the monitor was.:(


But least people are trying to help:)

[NAWY2J]

opened the pc case and started to clean things up. this is what I have cleaned up so far: motherboard, CPU heatsink and fan, PSU, general dust. And it still wont go on. the only sign I can see that there is power going to the mother board is the motherboard's power LED. here are my pc specs:

ABIT KV-80 socket 754
2 gig ram (cheap ram from scan.co.uk)
gainword nvidia 7800 gs 512 mb (AGP)
110 gig seagate hdd (ide)
160 gig seagate hdd (ide)
powersuply : 560 watt thermaltake pure power

[Ototero]

I would suspect the power supply. Can you borrow a replacement to test the theory?

[NAWY2J]

I have a spair 230 watt power supply? will that do? or will it overload it ?

[NAWY2J]

I have a spair 230 watt power supply? will that do? or will it overload it ?
will a 230 watt powersupply work ?
BUMP

[Ototero]

Probably, but unplug any DVD, CD and the 2nd hard disk. At least that way if the machine powers up, you'll know where the problem is.

[NAWY2J]

ok, thanx for the help it was dust in the graphics card in the end. :icon_mrgreen: Now I load up the pc and I get this message:
Ide channel 2 no 80 conductor cable installed
CMOS checksum error - defaults loaded. what do i do now?

Sorry i'm a n00b just found out, it says press F1 to continue

AND ONCE AGAIN THANKYOU FOR THE HELP

[Ototero]

The IDE error is a loose ribbon cable. The CMOS error is maybe a dead motherboard battery.

[NAWY2J]

The IDE error is a loose ribbon cable. The CMOS error is maybe a dead motherboard battery.

but is that serious?

[Steve Lux]

The IDE cable is required to communicate with your drives and the battery keeps your system time and your BIOS settings. If you use a thumb drive and never - ever turn off your computer it's not serious.

(I'm being facetious - yes, these issues need to be fixed and in most cases you can do that yourself if you're handy with tools.)

Cut the power, unplug the computer, open the case and using a flashlight determine what type of battery is being used. You may be able to get a battery from your local electronics store or the electronics department of a large department store. For the last 10 years or so most batteries are a silver disk about 1" or 25mm in diameter. Remove the old battery and put in the new one. Re-seat all of the ribbon cable connectors to your drives. Close up the case, plug your computer back up and turn the power on. You will have to go through the BIOS and POST checks, but in most cases computer defaults are set to what the system is supposed to be set to.

Another possibility I just thought of; If you were vacuuming the motherboard you need to verify that you still have a jumper located next to your battery. If your vacuum pulled the jumper off you may have simply disconnected your battery and may not need to purchase a new one. In many systems there will be three pins next to each other near the battery. There should be a jumper across two of those pins. If the jumper is still there - do not remove it.

If you still have problems you can post here again with details for further help.

[Evil-Dragon]

Nope, just needs a new battery to replace the dead one. Should be loads one ebay and they should be dirt cheap (hopefully)

One of these should do the trick: http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&satitle=cr2032&sacat=-1%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D3&sadis=200

(check the code on the battery first!)

[NAWY2J]

thanx m8 just the prob is now it still restarts and microsoft says that they had to recover from a serious error and the comp had to restart and now it say it is a driver http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=322205 plz can any one help asap cose i was trying to get on to a game today and it restarts again.

[NAWY2J]

the jumper cable is still in.