Hi all.

I am wondering if there is a way to remotely update my other computers via the Boinc manager as I work in another country for 50% of the year on a two week rotation and my machines at home seem to need a manual hit of the update button from time to time and I think my son if getting fed up with walking in the rain to get to my computer dungeon to do it.

Any help appreciated.

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You can do that with Logmein if your computer at work isn´t blocked by any firewall.

Just install it on both computers and you have access from everywhere.

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With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

Agreed

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Hi all.

I am wondering if there is a way to remotely update my other computers via the Boinc manager as I work in another country for 50% of the year on a two week rotation and my machines at home seem to need a manual hit of the update button from time to time and I think my son if getting fed up with walking in the rain to get to my computer dungeon to do it.

Any help appreciated.

If they just need a bump of the update button you could automate that using boinccmd.
Each machine could locally run:
boinccmd --project http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ update
or you could have one machine doing all of them:
boinccmd --host Host1 --passwd (password from gui_rpc_auth.cfg) --project http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ update
boinccmd --host Host2 --passwd (password from gui_rpc_auth.cfg) --project http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ update

You could use the windows task scheduler to run these commands via a .bat file every 12 hours or whenever you wanted.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

Here's how I used to do that with the two machines I had in my office at work.

Go to LogMeIn - Hamachi to set up a free zero-config VPN. Run that on your two machines at home, and also on your laptop (I'm guessing). Create a network that is just for you, and you can password-protect it, too. Also, during the setup process, I believe it asks if you want it to run as a system service, select yes, so that if the machines get rebooted, they'll re-establish the VPN connection once they boot up.

Now the home machines are on a VPN and can be accessible from the laptop through an AES-256 encrypted tunnel. You can either remote-desktop (if the OS is a flavor that supports it) through the 5.x.x.x address, or use BOINC Manager to connect to the remote hosts that way.

On all of the machines, your gui_rpc_auth.cfg is just a simple text file. Put an easy-to-remember password in there instead of a 32-digit hex password that it has by default, and you will need to add another simple text file named remote_hosts.cfg and add the IP addresses of the machines that are allowed to remotely connect, one IP address per line. You can have both the local 192.168 addresses, and the 5.x.x.x address(es) for Hamachi in there. That should do it fine.

I manage and observe my single-core machine in the other room through BOINC Manager on the main machine.

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Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)

Hi All.

Thanks for the suggestions, will download and give logmein a try, I thought it could be done via Boinc Manager with the select computer option but obviously not

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Hi All.

Thanks for the suggestions, will download and give logmein a try, I thought it could be done via Boinc Manager with the select computer option but obviously not

It can. However you would need to open a port in your router at home for each machine you want to connect to. Then configure port forwarding for each external port to point to the machine you want to use.

Something like
Forward 42001 to 192.168.1.1
Forward 42002 to 192.168.1.2
Forward 42003 to 192.168.1.3
Forward 42004 to 192.168.1.4
Then from BOINC Manager you would connect to your home external IP address & port. Such as 64.1.2.3:42001

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

Why not use remote desktop?

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I use a free one called TeamViewer. Just to throw another name out there. LOL

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Why not use remote desktop?

Remote desktop inhibits GPU processing.

Gruß,
Gundolf

I normally use Windows Live Mesh to connect to my various remote computers, works like a charm and allows GPU processing to continue unlike Remote Desktop.

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Problem with TeamViewer is it requires interaction on the remote end (unless you get the paid version, maybe). Hamachi Free and BOINC Manager to connect across the VPN is the simplest solution, and it is also secure.

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Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)

I'm not sure about the interaction. I think also in the free version there is the possibility to run TV on start up.
If you have the ID and set a fixed password I think it's done.

But that I did it is sometime ago. There may have been changes.

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Christoph

I use RealVNC on my LAN, you have to forward ports for it work from an external network but its pretty cool in that it serves out a java applet with which you can connect from any machine that has java (don't need to install the VNC Viewer). It also doesn't need the internet to function so if the internet goes down I can still connect to hosts on my LAN, I think other things like LogMeIn require internet connectivity for server based authentication even if you are trying to connect to a host on your local network (correct me if I'm wrong).

I've used Hamachi before for gaming and it was great, some people have said its not as good after LogMeIn bought it though, less free features, etc. They are different products however (VPN vs VNC) and should actually be able to be used in conjunction. A good solution would be to use VNC over the Hamachi VPN and you can get access to the whole machine, not just BOINC Manager control. You don't have to forward the ports like when just using RealVNC on its own, its encrypted (doubly if you want since RealVNC has options for its own encryption) and you get GUI access without the GPU issues that you have with remote desktop, you also retain the ability to connect to hosts over the LAN if the internet goes down (unlike regular LogMeIn).

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Yeah, Hamachi v2 (what is currently available) did remove a bunch of features and functionality, but from a VPN standpoint, it functions exactly the same. I don't like the new build, which is why I'm still using the old build (1.0.3.0) from back before LMI bought them out. A year or so ago, there were some stability issues with the mediation servers constantly going down or if you had ~10 hosts in one network, 1-4 of them would be relayed instead of directly connected, but I haven't seen any issues like that in a while.

If the mediation server does go down, you will lose remote connectivity to the hosts, but if you have two machines at home and your laptop that you use from elsewhere, the two machines at home will still have a tunnel established between them, even though the mediation server has gone down.

I still highly suggest it, and that's the last I'm going to say it in this thread. I don't want it to sound like I'm trying to promote it or anything, but it is a really simple solution that works.

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Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)

Hmm, I installed TeamViewer on both my laptop and my desktop, never had a problem. And I use the free version. No interaction other than running the program, and connecting to my desktop, and done. LOL Not sure if it affects GPU crunching though, as I don't run any. But I know when I connect to my desktop, the wallpaper I have changes to just the standard blue background, and then changes back when I disconnect.

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Hi all.

I am wondering if there is a way to remotely update my other computers via the Boinc manager as I work in another country for 50% of the year on a two week rotation and my machines at home seem to need a manual hit of the update button from time to time and I think my son if getting fed up with walking in the rain to get to my computer dungeon to do it.

Any help appreciated.

If they just need a bump of the update button you could automate that using boinccmd.
Each machine could locally run:
boinccmd --project http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ update
or you could have one machine doing all of them:
boinccmd --host Host1 --passwd (password from gui_rpc_auth.cfg) --project http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ update
boinccmd --host Host2 --passwd (password from gui_rpc_auth.cfg) --project http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ update

You could use the windows task scheduler to run these commands via a .bat file every 12 hours or whenever you wanted.

Two of my computers have trouble updating. Sometimes they haven't updated for days. I took your advice, created an update batch job and scheduled it. I don't think it can get any simpler than that. I don't have to babysit my remote computers anymore, I just check on them when I want to. Free at last!!

Doug

Hi all.

I am wondering if there is a way to remotely update my other computers via the Boinc manager as I work in another country for 50% of the year on a two week rotation and my machines at home seem to need a manual hit of the update button from time to time and I think my son if getting fed up with walking in the rain to get to my computer dungeon to do it.

Any help appreciated.

If they just need a bump of the update button you could automate that using boinccmd.
Each machine could locally run:
boinccmd --project http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ update
or you could have one machine doing all of them:
boinccmd --host Host1 --passwd (password from gui_rpc_auth.cfg) --project http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ update
boinccmd --host Host2 --passwd (password from gui_rpc_auth.cfg) --project http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ update

You could use the windows task scheduler to run these commands via a .bat file every 12 hours or whenever you wanted.

Two of my computers have trouble updating. Sometimes they haven't updated for days. I took your advice, created an update batch job and scheduled it. I don't think it can get any simpler than that. I don't have to babysit my remote computers anymore, I just check on them when I want to. Free at last!!

Doug

In the words of Ron Popeil. "Set it & forget it!"

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

In the words of Ron Popeil. "Set it & forget it!"

I was just out on the American River with my "Pocket Fisherman" and all the time peacefully knowing my computers would update precisely at 6:00 am.

Doug

Hi all.

I am wondering if there is a way to remotely update my other computers via the Boinc manager as I work in another country for 50% of the year on a two week rotation and my machines at home seem to need a manual hit of the update button from time to time and I think my son if getting fed up with walking in the rain to get to my computer dungeon to do it.

Any help appreciated.

If they just need a bump of the update button you could automate that using boinccmd.
Each machine could locally run:
boinccmd --project http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ update
or you could have one machine doing all of them:
boinccmd --host Host1 --passwd (password from gui_rpc_auth.cfg) --project http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ update
boinccmd --host Host2 --passwd (password from gui_rpc_auth.cfg) --project http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ update

You could use the windows task scheduler to run these commands via a .bat file every 12 hours or whenever you wanted.

Two of my computers have trouble updating. Sometimes they haven't updated for days. I took your advice, created an update batch job and scheduled it. I don't think it can get any simpler than that. I don't have to babysit my remote computers anymore, I just check on them when I want to. Free at last!!

Doug

Just to trow in another option: BoincTask. http://www.efmer.eu/boinc/boinc_tasks/index.html
You can set it to update at a specific interval.

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TThrottle Control your temperatures. BoincTasks The best way to view BOINC. Anza Borrego Desert hiking.