BOINC 6.2.18 upgrade

Following on from last nights LAN upgrade I ran around updating the version of BOINC (which is the framework software used for all this distributed processing). I had version 5.10.45 on all my machines, but the current release version is 6.2.18 which has been out for a few weeks now.

Its not hard to upgrade the machines, just takes a bit of time to do each of them. While I was at it I took the opportunity to apply windows patches, delete log files and defrag the hard disks.

The basic software on my crunching machines is Windows XP Pro and BOINC. For Seti I also use the optimised application (AK_v8). Both Einstein and Orbit are running the "stock" application provided by the project.

Network upgrades

I just spent the last couple of hours upgrading the farm's network to gigabit. The file/proxy server now has a new network card in it and the switch for the farm has been replaced with a gigabit one. Unfortunately the ADSL connection to the outside world is the slowest part (not to mention a tad unreliable). Not too much I can do with it at this point.

This upgrade is more for future use than anything else. Its possible the file server may also become a BOINC storage server, although I am not aware of any projects currently using them. More likely, if the BOINC developers ever get around to writing it, a Superhost.

Here is a link decribing the Superhost idea http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/SuperHost

2 million and counting

My current target is to get Seti up to 2 million credits, its looking like 23 days away. I am currently on 2.3 million for all projects (1.73 million for Seti). This has not been helped by both Seti and Einstein reducing their credits so they can be on par with other projects.

My ISP seems to be having some troubles recently and the internet connection has been dropping out. I have to reset my router to get it going again. This is compounded by the fact the BOINC machines are only allowed to connect to the internet during my ISP's off-peak hours (6 hours per day) and if the connection has dropped out I usually don't find out about it until the next day.

A treat

I treated myself to a new 22" widescreen flat panel monitor. Staring at the old 15" one was getting a bit hard and I couldn't make the Boinc Manager window large enough without having to use a horizontal scroll bar.

Suprisingly the Acers didn't have the option to select 1680 x 1050 resolution and they are less than a year old. I spent a bit of time on the Intel website searching for an updated video chipset driver. Installed it on each of the 4 machines and now I have a nice crisp wide screen display.

Finally a piece of hardware that works straight out of the box - unlike my KFSN4.



This is a Boinc Manager screen showing the various tasks.