WCG Causing Network Connection Problems

[steinfal]

I have installed world community grid on several machines at work. The problem is that some of the employees have uninstalled it on their own because they say it is causing network connection problems. Here is what they are saying.

UPS online worldship and or FedEx is not connecting. These both are sharing the ethernet connection with WCG.

Client Access, an IBM program used to access their server via TCP/IP, is very slow while WCG is running.

I had WGC on my computer for a while with none of these problems, but it is not always happening. Is anyone is out there experiencing problems like this?

[vaughan]

Just a guess here, but could it be setup as a screensaver only so that when the computer is being used for FedEx etc then BOINC WCG wouldn't be running at all?

[NeoGen]

Welcome steinfal! :)

I've been taking peeks at your site from time to time ever since I saw the link on the "Affiliates" box on the mainpage. Nice page you got there, just wish it had more frequent news updates. :)

I never tried WCG, but those symptoms you describe are odd... the program isn't supposed to draw too much bandwidth. Could it be that the tcp/ip port that WCG uses is the same that those applications use too? (Man, that would be so unlucky... lol)
Might also be priority issues... like if for example WCG has a higher process priority than those applications, then no matter how much they try WCG always gets the bigger piece of the cpu, so they get delayed on everything they do...

[moving fusion]

I use BOINC on both a windows and Linux machines that have a connection to an AS400 via Mocha TN5250 http://www.mochasoft.dk/ and I have never had a problem like that.

My version of IBM Client Access doesn't work with XP as my AS400 is very old...

See http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/forum_thread.php?id=35 for port details.

[steinfal]

Wow, I had no idea these forums had this much activity. Thanks a lot. Here are a few more thoughts.

The problem is intermittent in Client Access which makes me think it happens only when it is communicating with the server. In FedEx it also interferes with the communication, so I am guessing that the guess about the ports may be right. I really wish I knew how to do that paste quotes thing, I am not a frequent forum user.

Point of clarification: I don't think the windows client for WGC is BOINC. IBM ported WGC to BOINC after they took over the cancer research project so that it would run on Linux (I don't know what the Mac client is). The windows client is the old United Devices which is pre-BOINC. The windows client is the one I am having problems with.

About the frequency of news updates on my site. I think I should have more news also, however I am struggling with what to include and what to leave out. I am trying to appeal to the average PC user since that is how we can get access to the most CPUs. I think the average user does not want to read about some of the more technical news (software updates, new proteins, etc.) so that is why I leave some of the news out.

[Steve Lux]

To paste quotes just highlight and copy what you what to quote, click on the "[ quote]" tab above the dialog box, paste in the quotation, then select the "[ /quote]" button again. Or you can simply type it in by hand.

Two notes: I added an extra space after the "[" symbols above in order to deactivate the quote function.

The "quote" tab seems to always assume you want quotation at the bottom of your post, so if you want to paste the quotation within the post just type it in by hand.

[steinfal]

To paste quotes just highlight and copy what you what to quote, click on the "[ quote]" tab above the dialog box, paste in the quotation, then select the "[ /quote]" button again. Or you can simply type it in by hand.

I see! Thanks!

[vaughan]

Hi steinfal,

You could add that BOINC Riesel Sieve (http://boinc.rieselsieve.com/) has just made the change from Alpha to Beta project status. This means the application is maturing nicely ie pretty stable, and that account creation is open for new users.

This project suits AMD processors so it would be nice to get some new recruits to our team. :thumbleft:

[steinfal]

You could add that BOINC Riesel Sieve (http://boinc.rieselsieve.com/) has just made the change from Alpha to Beta project status.

I am open to ideas on this, but I don't have any math projects on the site because I cannot see what their practical application is. What do you do with a prime number after you find it? I don't have to completely understand these projects, not that I really could, but I can't find any sections on the math websites that talk about practical applications. If you know of any, please tell me and I would add the projects (and your news).

[Evil-Dragon]

Prime finding often has pratical applications with improving cryptography. Most cryptographic systems use prime numbers in one way or another, so finding more helps improve cryptography strength in this area in computing.

[NeoGen]

Maths projects are famous for finding primes, but every once in a while it comes up a different one. The (now finished) project Zetagrid tried to prove the Riemann's hypothesis if I'm not mistaken. They did it by brute force up to a very very large number, but naturally that this isn't accepted as full proof on the maths community.


ZetaGrid in practice:
At the IBM Development Laboratory in Böblingen ZetaGrid solves one problem in practice, running on six different platforms: The verification of Riemann's Hypothesis is considered to be one of modern mathematics most important problems.
Maybe soon more projects will follow suit and try to explore other realms of mathematics apart from just prime finding. :roll: