Open a cmd window (Start > Run > cmd)
Type ipconfig /flushdns into the cmd window

F.

Ahh.. O.K., then I made it correct..

A small (black) window was shown for ~ 1 sec. , nothing else.

This is all? No loong HDD activity or Windows unstable?

Sorry, Sutaru, I should have been clearer (though it sounds like your method works just as well).

Open a cmd window (Start > Run > cmd): This will open the (small black) Cmd window (like a DOS box)

At the cursor in the Cmd window, type ipconfig /flushdns <Return>

When you are in the Cmd window, you can also display the current entries in the DNS cache by typing ipconfig /displaydns

F.

---

A 'dummie' question..
Where I should insert 'ipconfig /flushdns'?

In Start/Execute.../ ipconfig /flushdns / OK

Or in Start/All programs/Accessories/prompt (german: "Eingabeaufforderung") (like DOS OS)

In that case there is no difference between this two ways (or any other case, when you just want to execute one command). If you first open cmd (Eingabeaufforderung), than you can see the confirmation, that the cache was deleted, that's all.

---

In that case there is no difference between this two ways (or any other case, when you just want to execute one command). If you first open cmd (Eingabeaufforderung), than you can see the confirmation, that the cache was deleted, that's all.

Too true, but I thought it would be useful for future reference for Sutaru.

F.

---

I've looked a few screenfuls back through the log and all I've noticed are a few:

[SETI@home] Sending scheduler request: To fetch work.
[SETI@home] Reporting 1 completed tasks, requesting new tasks for CPU
[SETI@home] Scheduler request completed: got 0 new tasks
[SETI@home] Message from server: No work sent

It was given some more work eventually.


Checking the DNS for Berkeley I see for my system:

host boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu
boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu has address 208.68.240.18
boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu has address 208.68.240.13

ping boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu
PING boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu (208.68.240.18) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu (208.68.240.18): icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=207 ms

ping boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu
PING boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu (208.68.240.13) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu (208.68.240.13): icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=186 ms

ping boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu
PING boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu (208.68.240.18) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu (208.68.240.18): icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=215 ms

ping boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu
PING boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu (208.68.240.13) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu (208.68.240.13): icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=184 ms


All looks fine and the round-robin for the DNS checks out ok as expected.

On the Windows side of the world, I hope Microsoft have indeed finally fixed that crucial bit of brokenness silliness for their latest version of Windows (after how many years)?...


Happy crunchin',
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

The edit of the hosts file work for me now over ~ 24 hours, without a prob.
DL work well, also with loong breaks between work requests.


A 'dummie' question..
Where I should insert 'ipconfig /flushdns'?

In Start/Execute.../ ipconfig /flushdns / OK

Or in Start/All programs/Accessories/prompt (german: "Eingabeaufforderung") (like DOS OS)

Open a cmd window (Start > Run > cmd)
Type ipconfig /flushdns into the cmd window

F.

That doesn't seem to help my Win 7...

---

Official Abuser of Boinc Buttons...
And no good credit hound!

That doesn't seem to help my Win 7...

Didn't work for my Vista either, so I've edited my hosts file and will take the entries out in about 24 hours.

F.

---

Just had to do another restart, at least that seems to work although sometimes it takes a couple tries.

---

Official Abuser of Boinc Buttons...
And no good credit hound!

Nur mal kurz in Deutsch.. (my english isn't well current.. it's late in Germany now.. )


Ich drücke Start/Ausführen...
schreibe dann: ipconfig /flushdns
und drücke dann "OK".

Richtig?

So habe ich es gemacht.


So, oder über die "Eingabeaufforderung".

Richtig?


Ohh..

---

That doesn't seem to help my Win 7...

Didn't work for my Vista either, so I've edited my hosts file and will take the entries out in about 24 hours.

F.

Didn't work for my XP either, if the adresses are wrong on the DNS server you use, you will get them again and again until the server updates his list, in my case it took over 12 hours.

---

Ich drücke Start/Ausführen...
schreibe dann: ipconfig /flushdns
und drücke dann "OK".

Richtig?

Richtig. Über die Eingabeaufforderung siehste halt noch die Nachricht, dass es gelöscht wurde, das ist aber hier nicht so wichtig, deshalb kann man sich in diesem Fall den Umweg über die Eingabeaufforderung sparen.

---

Nur mal kurz in Deutsch.. (my english isn't well current.. it's late in Germany now.. )


Ich drücke Start/Ausführen...
schreibe dann: ipconfig /flushdns
und drücke dann "OK".

Richtig?

So habe ich es gemacht.


So, oder über die "Eingabeaufforderung".

Richtig?


Ohh..

Yes, that's fine, Sutaru. Your English is much better than my German but I can recall enough to read your post ;-)

What I was suggesting was:

Drücke Start/Ausführen...
schreibe dann: cmd
schreibe dann: ipconfig /flushdns

But both ways work equally well.
F.

---

didn't work "equally well" to me because the command needs administrator rights on Vista so I had to run cmd.exe as administrator first.

in german:
funktionierte bei mir nicht "genauso gut", weil der Befehl bei Vista Adminrechte braucht, deswegen musste ich vorher cmd.exe (die Eingabeaufforderung) als Administrator ausführen

Thanks Link and Fred W for to explain it for a 'dummie'..


------------------------------------------------------------------------------


If the 'ipconfig /flushdns' don't work for you..

[Message 950653]

But, in some days if the Berkeley crew looked to the prob - I guess this won't longer work. So you need to delete this two IPs again out of the hosts file.

---

Wow, I just ran Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit and had to do the ipconfig /flushdns to even get it to work...

Will I have to do this everytime it fails?

---

What if Fiction was Fact and Fact was Fiction and vice versa?

I started to try to write an over simplified story of how DNS works (with respect to Seti). After a couple of hours of typing and correcting to the "specific" situation decided that the TRUTH is the better answer. The truth is go buy the book that I have referenced below. OS does not matter!

Having gone to sleep one more than one occasion while reading DNS&Bind (and through multiple revisions, it really does cure insomnia). You have to understand what it is talking about. Then handed my personal copy to someone that made a big DNS Mistook and stated you will report on the 1st 3 chapters in the morning. Then we will discuss the mistake you made.

Host and LMHost files are for IP Addresses that NEVER Change. Administrators that provide Application Services to normally "local machines" will force entries into those files. They are not really meant for Internet use. Windows, Unix, Linux etc.. Those files require knowledge about what you are doing and WHY!

Anyone creating a Host file or LMHost file needs to know how to undo it as soon as Seti resolves the server issue.

If I stated my preference it would be a Host file, so as soon as you save it and flush the Cache it will (should be) read it.
The correct entry for the Host file would be
208.68.240.18 boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu #Seti Download Server

After you are done, the way to disable it would be to place the # symbol in front of the entry or delete it.
# 208.68.240.18 boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu #Seti Download Server
Then flush the dns cache.

The problem is that in XP you are (might be) the adminstrator, in Vista and Win7 you have to have Administrator rights to the file while editing the file. If you do not know how to do that then WAIT. Seti will fix the issue in the morning (Monday) and you do not have to UNDO anything you might have did. NO Harm, NO Foul.

Regards

Edit: I am Certain that as Matt has made the round robin DNS work for the Download Servers he knows how DNS is supposed to work. At this point working to get around what he spent some much time getting work is a bit counterproductive.

Patience is the Key.

---

Please consider a Donation to the Seti Project.

What I think is happening is that Windows will keep both IP addresses cached and in the same order for the default Maximum TTL, even if the record has a shorter TTL.

Since the default for the Maximum TTL is 86400 (1 day) your formula is right, but the it'd take a day to time out and re-randomize the lookup.

... and as you pointed out, there is a 50% chance of getting the same order on a random lookup.

I suspect that this kind of issue never lasts for more than a couple of days, so on that time scale it's hard to be sure what happened.

-- Ned

@Ned,
I'm sure it is worse than this. I set my registry for max and min times to 300 secs and I can track the switch-over by pinging. But once Boinc has failed to download (by picking up the .13 address) that download remains stuck until the whole Boinc app is restarted during a period when the ping comes up with .18.
So it seems that Boinc is caching the IP (not the url).

F.

That seems to point to libcurl (as it handles all of the network issues).

It would be great if some other folks could confirm this:

• With <http_debug>1</http_debug> in cc_config.xml, confirm that BOINC is using the wrong IP.
  
  
• Then "ping" to confirm that the OS knows the right IP.
  
  
• Then "net stop boinc" and "net start boinc"
  

If it then uploads and downloads successfully, we have our smoking gun.

---

If it then uploads and downloads successfully, we have our smoking gun.

OK, haven't made cc_config yet on this fresh Win7 x64 install

but here's a start ( Will try enable http debug a bit later):

(with My hosts entry commented out)

30/11/2009 4:02:53 PM SETI@home Scheduler request completed: got 1 new tasks
30/11/2009 4:02:55 PM SETI@home Started download of 16no06aa.29101.20522.14.10.108
30/11/2009 4:02:58 PM SETI@home Temporarily failed download of 16no06aa.29101.20522.14.10.108: connect() failed
30/11/2009 4:02:58 PM SETI@home Backing off 1 min 0 sec on download of 16no06aa.29101.20522.14.10.108
30/11/2009 4:03:18 PM Project communication failed: attempting access to reference site
30/11/2009 4:03:23 PM Internet access OK - project servers may be temporarily down.
30/11/2009 4:03:58 PM SETI@home Started download of 16no06aa.29101.20522.14.10.108
30/11/2009 4:04:01 PM Project communication failed: attempting access to reference site
30/11/2009 4:04:01 PM SETI@home Temporarily failed download of 16no06aa.29101.20522.14.10.108: connect() failed

meanwhile ping gets a good response as expected:

C:\Users\Jason>ping boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu

Pinging boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu [208.68.240.18] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 208.68.240.18: bytes=32 time=225ms TTL=48
Reply from 208.68.240.18: bytes=32 time=207ms TTL=48
Reply from 208.68.240.18: bytes=32 time=194ms TTL=48
Reply from 208.68.240.18: bytes=32 time=217ms TTL=48

Ping statistics for 208.68.240.18:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 194ms, Maximum = 225ms, Average = 210ms

Will turn on that flag & repeat with http debug output (as requested) a bit later.

---

"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.

Here you go Ned:

See what you make of this...

C:\Users\Jason>ping boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu

Pinging boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu [208.68.240.18] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 208.68.240.18: bytes=32 time=194ms TTL=48
Reply from 208.68.240.18: bytes=32 time=196ms TTL=48
Reply from 208.68.240.18: bytes=32 time=197ms TTL=48
Reply from 208.68.240.18: bytes=32 time=284ms TTL=48

Ping statistics for 208.68.240.18:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 194ms, Maximum = 284ms, Average = 217ms

30/11/2009 4:29:06 PM [http_debug] HTTP_OP::init_get(): http://boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu/sah/download_fanout/315/16no06aa.29101.20522.14.10.108
30/11/2009 4:29:06 PM [http_debug] HTTP_OP::libcurl_exec(): ca-bundle 'D:\BOINC\ca-bundle.crt'
30/11/2009 4:29:06 PM [http_debug] HTTP_OP::libcurl_exec(): ca-bundle set
30/11/2009 4:29:06 PM SETI@home Started download of 16no06aa.29101.20522.14.10.108
30/11/2009 4:29:06 PM [http_debug] HTTP_OP::init_get(): http://boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu/sah/download_fanout/32d/16no06aa.29101.22158.14.10.162
30/11/2009 4:29:06 PM [http_debug] HTTP_OP::libcurl_exec(): ca-bundle 'D:\BOINC\ca-bundle.crt'
30/11/2009 4:29:06 PM [http_debug] HTTP_OP::libcurl_exec(): ca-bundle set
30/11/2009 4:29:06 PM SETI@home Started download of 16no06aa.29101.22158.14.10.162
30/11/2009 4:29:07 PM [http_debug] [ID#3] info: timeout on name lookup is not supported
30/11/2009 4:29:07 PM [http_debug] [ID#3] info: About to connect() to boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu port 80 (#2)
30/11/2009 4:29:07 PM [http_debug] [ID#3] info: Trying 208.68.240.13...
30/11/2009 4:29:07 PM [http_debug] [ID#4] info: timeout on name lookup is not supported
30/11/2009 4:29:07 PM [http_debug] [ID#4] info: About to connect() to boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu port 80 (#3)
30/11/2009 4:29:07 PM [http_debug] [ID#4] info: Trying 208.68.240.13...
30/11/2009 4:29:09 PM [http_debug] [ID#3] info: Connection refused
30/11/2009 4:29:09 PM [http_debug] [ID#3] info: Trying 208.68.240.18...
30/11/2009 4:29:09 PM [http_debug] [ID#3] info: Failed connect to boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu:80; No error
30/11/2009 4:29:09 PM [http_debug] [ID#3] info: Expire cleared
30/11/2009 4:29:09 PM [http_debug] [ID#3] info: Closing connection #2
30/11/2009 4:29:09 PM [http_debug] [ID#4] info: Connection refused
30/11/2009 4:29:09 PM [http_debug] [ID#4] info: Trying 208.68.240.18...
30/11/2009 4:29:09 PM [http_debug] [ID#4] info: Failed connect to boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu:80; No error
30/11/2009 4:29:09 PM [http_debug] [ID#4] info: Expire cleared
30/11/2009 4:29:09 PM [http_debug] [ID#4] info: Closing connection #3
30/11/2009 4:29:09 PM [http_debug] HTTP error: Couldn't connect to server
30/11/2009 4:29:09 PM [http_debug] HTTP error: Couldn't connect to server
30/11/2009 4:29:09 PM Project communication failed: attempting access to reference site
30/11/2009 4:29:09 PM [http_debug] HTTP_OP::init_get(): http://www.google.com/
30/11/2009 4:29:09 PM [http_debug] HTTP_OP::libcurl_exec(): ca-bundle set
30/11/2009 4:29:09 PM SETI@home Temporarily failed download of 16no06aa.29101.20522.14.10.108: connect() failed
30/11/2009 4:29:09 PM SETI@home Backing off 28 min 2 sec on download of 16no06aa.29101.20522.14.10.108
30/11/2009 4:29:09 PM SETI@home Temporarily failed download of 16no06aa.29101.22158.14.10.162: connect() failed
30/11/2009 4:29:09 PM SETI@home Backing off 1 min 0 sec on download of 16no06aa.29101.22158.14.10.162

... now switching back to temporary hosts file entry, works again.

---

"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.

Here you go Ned:

See what you make of this...

(Much removed)

If I'm right, just stopping and restarting BOINC should have fixed it, without the need of a hosts file.

---

If I'm right, just stopping and restarting BOINC should have fixed it, without the need of a hosts file.

I agree. Should have, but didn't.

(Will induce again, by removing hosts entry, for next download cycle to verify)

---

"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.