Seti @ Home FAQ

[KingJackal]

Seti@home - the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence through massive satellite arrays is one of the largest, if not the largest distributed computer. It pulls more TeraFlops than darn near any other syncronised mass of computing hardware.

A little history

To quote the NASA site:
Since the beginning of civilization, people have wondered if we are alone in the universe or whether there is intelligent life somewhere else. In the late twentieth century, scientists converged upon the basic idea of scanning the sky and "listening" for non-random patterns of electromagnetic emissions such as radio or television waves in order to detect another possible civilization somewhere else in the universe.

The Seti project was started around 1949. NASA joined the Seti project through the 60's. However, with the increasing popularity of distributed computing ( the net, OK? ), it was continued in May 17, 1999 in a distributed batch file format that allowed users to donate spare CPU cycles to the Seti effort.

It was wildly more popular than expected, and soon grew to proportions similar in processing power to even the biggest super computers on earth.

To date over 1000 possible extra-terristrial sites of life have been found. If you here about possible life-supporting planets on the news, there's a good chance it was a Seti user that found it ;).

How you can join

It's simple to join the millions of users around the world crunching Seti.

The homepage is here:
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

...don't worry if it's a little slow. The seti@home site has a tendancy of overloading the internet backbones in that region of the state.... heh :cool:.

It normally runs as a screensaver, available here:
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/download.html

The OCNZ team is where Whetu and KingJackal try and desperately try to keep up with the processing monster that is Viper_NZ :D. Our team home-page is here:
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/stats/team/team_104429.html

FAQ

Will it slow down my PC?
Nope. Generally Seti runs in the background. I've even run 3DMarks while crunching seti, and it makes NO noticable difference. It will ONLY use otherwise unused computer cycles.

So my CPU will actually be used the whole time now?
Well, with Seti running in the background, your CPU utilization will never drop from 100%. Mine hasn't really dropped below 100% in all the time it's been on in the last year or two - and it's on 24/7 :D.

Won't my CPU heat up?
Not if you're cooling it correctly. It acts as a good acid test though. If seti doesn't cause the PC to crash, then heavy gaming at a LAN shouldn't either ;).

It runs real slow
Yes. The average work unit will take possibly 10's of hours of straight processing to finish. However, there are numberous ways of speeding up seti. The best way is to download the appropriate Command Line Program from here:
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/unix.html
These versions of seti may be as many as 10x as fast as the screensaver!!

...many other questions ( and possibly these ) are covered in the Seti FAQ:
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/faq.html

Need more help?
...then post in this thread:
http://forums.overclockers.co.nz/showthread.php?s=&threadid=139

....I'm sure we'll be more than happy to help you :).

[dice]

Nice FAQ, thanks. :)

[Joshsti_NZ]

Do we get to find out (while running Seti) if we find sexy lady aliens? :cool: :D

[Method]

Originally posted by Joshsti_NZ
Do we get to find out (while running Seti) if we find sexy lady aliens? :cool: :D

read what happens on the site..

If you find somthing out of the odanary it will get sent to some other computer for further analisis, so you most likely wont know if youve foud anything. Well not for a few months anyway.

[_N_]

but you can see if you found something with setispy,
like here:

[Antimatter]

Or you can see the location of your current WU with Distant Suns (http://www.distantsuns.dk/macmirrors.html).

[_N_]

looks like this is the end to seti as we know it, I've been doing seti for over 4 years now :( , link: http://setiathome2.ssl.berkeley.edu/boinc_transition_plan.html


"We will soon release a new version of SETI@home, based on BOINC, a general-purpose platform for distributed computing projects like SETI@home. Eventually other distributed computing projects (like Folding@home and ClimatePrediction.net) will also use BOINC, and you'll be able to share your computer time among projects of your choosing."

"What will happen with SETI@home teams?
All current SETI@home teams, and their membership, will be copied over to SETI@home/BOINC. The work totals for teams will also start from zero."

"What will happen to my workunit totals?
BOINC keeps track of your computer's work in terms of actual computation, not workunits. This is necessary because BOINC projects may have workunits of many different "sizes". Because of this change, all SETI@home/BOINC accounts will start with zero credit.
However, the workunit totals from the current SETI@home will be recorded in our database, and a section of our web site will show the final totals."


I've already started doing Climate Prediction while doing seti and it's pretty cool.

[Joshsti_NZ]

Finally been able to join the OCNZ Seti team, thier website hasn't been working last couple of days.

[philipnewman]

http://setiathome2.ssl.....d=user_stats_new (http://setiathome2.ssl.berkeley.edu/fcgi-bin/fcgi?email=philip_newman@yahoo.com&cmd=user_stats_new)

My seti just runs in the back ground on one of my file server boxes :D I donno how long

Results Received 1457
Total CPU Time 2.600 years
Average CPU Time per work unit 15 hr 37 min 58.4 sec
Average results received per day 0.98
Last result returned: Sat Dec 20 02:30:40 2003 UTC
Registered on: Mon Nov 29 07:22:24 1999 UTC
View Registration Class
SETI@home user for: 4.060 years

I was 19 when i registed with this ...

[varkk]

I signed up for and downloade the BOINC beta the other day, currently the only project is the seti based one. I haven't tried it out yet as I have had difficulty getting work units from the server. (The official boinc client now includes a work unit caching feature)
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/

I hope when it goes final the setispy andsimilar people convert their cool apps over to use boinc

[raxmus]

cheers for thefaq kj. when my new comp gets in to this. i do however find it hard t believe that it is efficient enough to keep the cpu utilization at 100% constantly without affecting day to day performance? ill just have to try it and see for myself.

[KingJackal]

Originally posted by raxmus
cheers for thefaq kj. when my new comp gets in to this. i do however find it hard t believe that it is efficient enough to keep the cpu utilization at 100% constantly without affecting day to day performance? ill just have to try it and see for myself.

The performance issue has very little to do with Seti - it's got everything to do with your Operating System. Half the point of an Operating System ( NO, NOT providing a browser or a solitaire game :p ) is supporting multitasking, making your one serial processor appear to be able to process multiple tasks simultaneously by using time-sharing. If you've got Win 2k/XP or Lunix, just bring up your process list ( Ctrl-Alt-Del Windows, top Lunix ), and check out the numbers - in the 'System Idle Process' in Windows is all the wasted cycles. Seti just uses those instead of letting the OS tell the CPU to 'do nothing' repeatedly :).

But by all means try it yourself - it might even convince you that Windows DOES do something usefull ;).

[pewp2004]

whats the quickest time you have produced a seti result ?
i did one today and it came back and wanted to connect after about 2hours 30 mins
kinda weird considering the first one took close to 10 hours.. ?

[_N_]

2 and half hours sounds alright,

it might have taken 10 hours because you were doing something else and there weren't any spare cpu cyles to do the seti.

[whetu]

the first couple are usually quite long... then you'll settle in to roughly the same time... my peefoh appears to have settled on 3 to 3.5 hours per unit

[baggeh]

Originally posted by _N_

"The work totals for teams will also start from zero."

"...all SETI@home/BOINC accounts will start with zero credit. "

bugger i joined up yesterday and installed seti classic on 9 pcs :(.

Why are some people still using seti classic and credit being added to the ocnz page?

[osmium]

Originally posted by baggeh
bugger i joined up yesterday and installed seti classic on 9 pcs :(.

Why are some people still using seti classic and credit being added to the ocnz page?

I've only installed SETI this week but from what ive read of SETI vs BIONIC, bionic is still having lots of teething problems so everyone is still chugging along on classic, you dont loose you classic SETI stats, new results are displayed in old units AND new BIONIC units.

Now my Q is, is it possible to change/scale down the maximium amount of CPU time SETI uses?

I am in the middle of a case mod and have 5 of my fans unplugged - probably will be so for at least another week, during the day I have the sides off but I want to put the sides back on to leave my computer on at night.

[osmium]

answers to my previous Q's

FYI

it isn't possible to reduce the amount of CPU time seti uses.

and IMHO seti does make the odd thing load a touch slower - things like mozilla on my computer dont seem to load as fast, but in saying that my computer is due for a clean install so could just be a little buggy :). I still have seti running 24/7 though

[SledgY]

You can setup seti to only start processing after a certain amount of inactivity. Or only process at certain times.
Also tweaking some of the settings like limiting the amount of ram used and how often BOINC can write to disk can minimize any degredation in performance.

[osmium]

Originally posted by SledgY
You can setup seti to only start processing after a certain amount of inactivity. Or only process at certain times.
Also tweaking some of the settings like limiting the amount of ram used and how often BOINC can write to disk can minimize any degredation in performance.

I know BOINC has the ability to task share/ allocate resources but I am still using seti classic (from what i've read BOINC has too many bugs in it)

here is a screnie of the options I have with seti clasic

[SledgY]

There was a new version of BOINC released a couple of weeks back. It's working pretty well now. You can control the amount of memory used etc with Seti Classic as well. There are command line switchs for it.

[ReneInNZ]

Hi, I just joined the team, currently working on the 4th, 5th and 6th work units, hope i am able to contribute just a tad more ..

[ReneInNZ]

Hello guys and gals (well i presume some of us must be gals)

Some advice please, i have been using the display version
of Seti home on my computers, some of them are older machines
and take simply ages (days) to compleate a work unit.

So the question and advice i seek is the command line version.
1 do it run faster ?

2. Not having good memory of DOS
(time moved on windows became comfortable)
what do i need to know to use it ..

:rolleyes: thanks in advance ...
have fun

[RobbyW2]

Well I don't know about the windows command line version, but the linux one is easy enough to use

[SledgY]

1 do it run faster ? Just a little ;) Acutally it's quite a bit faster. My suggestion now would be switch to BOINC (http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/). It seems as if they have sorted out their problems. Haven't run out of work in a while.

[ReneInNZ]

Thanks Guys,

I will give that a try Sle ...

[_N_]

if you wanna run the CMD version, get like SetiDriver, that runs the CMD version, but from a windows app, so, it does all the hard work for you, :)

[-NiBbLeT-]

BOINC version 4.13 out now! This release seems to be very stable anyone still on classic should upgrade to BOINC now as it is quite hassle-free :)

[ReneInNZ]

:( Thanks Nibblet,

Sadly i downloaded the BOINC version,
and others recommended.

Sad little Nerd i am, as i could not discern any
SETI activity, nor could i find a way to view activity,
Sob .. (forgot my DOS commands)
well i gave up on em, and returned to the standard ..

Giggle :cool: me quite like the way i am climbing up
our "Team" ladder, sadly that will slow to a crawl once
i get past those who seem to have dropped out ..

for now i can bask in my own glow of "99 of 128"
and climbing steady. Giggle:rolleyes:

[-NiBbLeT-]

After downloading BOINC, you need to sign up for seti@home on the seti/boinc website http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/
After you receive the email go into the BOINC client and select Settings -> Attach to project.. and put in the url and account id. Hope that helps, if not there is a guide on the BOINC website with more detailed instructions.

[imdying]

Originally posted by ReneInNZ
Sad little Nerd i am, as i could not discern any
SETI activity, nor could i find a way to view activity,
Sob .. (forgot my DOS commands)
well i gave up on em, and returned to the standard ..Perhaps running the task manager CPU performance graph in a window beside it will let you know if it's running?

You have an ah... interesting prose :p

[ReneInNZ]

Why thank you kind sir,

how odd my phrase so odd ..
well years Nerd and Mad scientist !

:(

www.angelfire.com/hi2/reneinnz (http://www.angelfire.com/hi2/reneinnz)

[imdying]

omg, there it is again!

[ReneInNZ]

:p Giggle .... (blush)

[ReneInNZ]

Hi guys and gals,

I am somewhat curious as to why data sent to BOINC
do not show as "Work Units"

[H2gO]

*and a little girl waits*

User page updates aren’t as frequent as the original seti classic
however they will be updated given time once they have sorted out their bugs


;)

[-NiBbLeT-]

Roelof J Engelbrecht, author of SetiSpy, passed away on 21/11/2004. May he rest in peace. :(

[H2gO]

www.broadbandreports.com have set up an Honor Guard in Memoriam account
I for one have moved my account their way :) *in the short term*