Whilst the SETI project was down yesterday, I decided to install the Predictor project and upgraded the BOINC client at the same time on two of my computers. I also upgraded the BOINC client on a couple more of my computers.

The Predictor project ran straight away, but now that the SETI Project is sending out WU's again I keep getting this message:

SETI@home - 2004-07-15 08:18:57 - Master file fetch failed
SETI@home - 2004-07-15 08:18:57 - Deferring communication with project for 1 weeks, 4 days, 13 hours, 43 minutes, and 41 seconds (or similar messages)

I also get this message if I try to force an update of the client. Other symptoms are that the SETI project is not updating its Credit stats in the "Projects" Tab and on one PC I have 14 results Ready to Report.

I have even Reset the project on one of the PC's (which had completely run out of work). This now reacts slightly differently as is shows two instances of the SETI@home project, updates the project stats but still doesn't get any WU's and sometimes comes up with the 'Master File Fetch Failed' error message (I suspect this is for one of the clients only.

Any suggestions?

You may be attached to the wrong URL for seti. The correct URL is http://setiathome.berkeley.edu be sure there are no leading or trailing spaces. If there were extra spaces the first time you signed up you may have extra account....xml files and extra project directories. You can spot them because they will end with _ or _.xml. These will need to be deleted or they will cause you to automatically attach to the wrong project again.

John Keck
BOINCing since 2002/12/08

> You may be attached to the wrong URL for seti. The correct URL is
> http://setiathome.berkeley.edu be sure there are no leading or trailing
> spaces. If there were extra spaces the first time you signed up you may have
> extra account....xml files and extra project directories. You can spot them
> because they will end with _ or _.xml. These will need to be deleted or they
> will cause you to automatically attach to the wrong project again.
>
John Keck
> BOINCing since 2002/12/08
>

John, thanks for the reply.

I believe I am using the correct URL for SETI, as I have another 12 computers apart from the two I mentioned quite happily crunching away at SETI WU's. The two I'm having problems with were also quite happy until I ran out of WU's on Tuesday. I only started them on Predictor on Wednesday.

What is a little confusing is that I have got some files ending in "_sah.xml" and directories ending in "_sah". On one computer, these appear to have replaced the normal directories and on the other (the one with two SETI@home projects indicated) they appear to be duplicates. I have checked the .xml file s and they are identical.

If the worst comes to the worst, I might have to drop all of the projects and possibly re-install BOINC and the clients completely, but I am loathe to loose the WU's I have completed on one machine and I hesitiate to drop the predictor WU's I have queued as I don't believe this is in the best interests of the community.