I recently downloaded and installed BOINC, but have no idea how to participate in SETI@home using BOINC. I have not been able to find any instructions on how to participate in the project. Selecting "Attach to new Project" brings up a box that requests URL and Account Key. I have my account key, but cannot find the URL to use for the SETI@home project. Anyone know where to find this URL?

I'm having the same problems.
I think the URL is
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu

It still doesn't work for me though. Screensaver is saying it is idle. Ho hum.

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It still doesn't work for me though. Screensaver is saying it is idle. Ho hum.

Vicky, according to your account, you have two work units. One returned as a -9 overflow unit, the other is still being worked on. So you are attached to Seti. Why would you want to attach again?

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My name is Grant Hodge, I have over 5060 units of SETI on the original
program. I am trying to get them transfered to BOINK. I seem to be a
member as it recognizes me. But I can't get any of those 5K + units transfered. What do I do. Very complicated, it seems.
Grant
PS My computer is 3.2 ghz with over a gig of RAM. I do a unit is just over three hours.

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My name is Grant Hodge, I have over 5060 units of SETI on the original
program. I am trying to get them transfered to BOINK. I seem to be a
member as it recognizes me. But I can't get any of those 5K + units transfered. What do I do. Very complicated, it seems.
Grant
PS My computer is 3.2 ghz with over a gig of RAM. I do a unit is just over three hours.

Grant, you should create a new thread for asking questions, not just append to this thread...

You should activate your Seti Classic account with this form.
Once done, you will see your Seti Classic stats under 'your account'.
Be aware, though, that it is a state as of 15 March 2005, not the actual one, because there is no dynamic link between the Seti Classic and the Seti BOINC stats.
Once Seti Classic will be shut down (probably before the end of this year) they will copy the stats again, so nothing is lost.

:-)= Greybeard

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All about BOINC: BOINC-Wiki (by Paul D. Buck)

Dali, check what I wrote earlier. Hope it helps you.

No. Until now this program downloaded 40 MB !!! and do nothing. I reinstalled the software again, with deleting of all settings and files before I made the new installation. Every time the same problem: currently idle. This is unbelievable.

Thanks and good bye Seti.

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I don't need to knoe 'how' to set this program up. I just need a 'Project URL' that will be accepted! Any ideas where I'd find that?

Dali, check what I wrote earlier. Hope it helps you.

No. Until now this program downloaded 40 MB !!! and do nothing. I reinstalled the software again, with deleting of all settings and files before I made the new installation. Every time the same problem: currently idle. This is unbelievable.

Thanks and good bye Seti.

I don't need to knoe 'how' to set this program up. I just need a 'Project URL' that will be accepted! Any ideas where I'd find that?

It would be found in the email that also gave you your account key. It's http://setiathome.berkeley.edu

MJ

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Sorry, I should have been more specific. I've tried the URL in the email. I've tried just about every possible URL I could think or or find. Nothing works. The probram does not accept them. I can't find anywhere else to ask for help.

Alice

I don't need to knoe 'how' to set this program up. I just need a 'Project URL' that will be accepted! Any ideas where I'd find that?

It would be found in the email that also gave you your account key. It's http://setiathome.berkeley.edu

MJ

Sorry, I should have been more specific. I've tried the URL in the email. I've tried just about every possible URL I could think or or find. Nothing works. The probram does not accept them. I can't find anywhere else to ask for help.

Step one would be to start again from scratch. There's a new, updated version of BOINC available for download, grab that. Among other improvements, it's more user-friendly to attach to projects. You've got the welcome letter with the URL and your Key. When BOINC Manager is installed and running, go to Projects in the menu bar, click on Attach to Project and follow the wizard's instructions. If you have problems, go to the Messages tab, copy the entries and paste them into a message here. I think you'd get a better response if you started a new thread, rather than having it buried in this one.

MJ

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I don't need to knoe 'how' to set this program up. I just need a 'Project URL' that will be accepted! Any ideas where I'd find that?

It would be found in the email that also gave you your account key. It's http://setiathome.berkeley.edu

MJ

That url would be nice if it worked. This is my first time setting up this crappy program that won't even accept its own information. Perhaps instead of telling people that they did something wrong and that we need to start all over again and again and agian you should provide a program that works!! This is a sad day, get your head out of your butt and fix the problem!

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That url would be nice if it worked. This is my first time setting up this crappy program that won't even accept its own information. Perhaps instead of telling people that they did something wrong and that we need to start all over again and again and agian you should provide a program that works!! This is a sad day, get your head out of your butt and fix the problem!

Well, lets see. It's worked for over a quarter million users so far on over half a million computers. So because you can't get it to work, it's broken? I think not.

It appears that you've activated your account, and need to attach a computer. The extra spaces problem has bitten even experienced people. Firewalls can block the data until they're configured. The internet sometimes has blockages and high traffic periods. Do you want to tell us what problem you are seeing? Please feel free to start a thread that gives us something to go on. Just saying "fix the problem" doesn't give anybody anything to work on.

And, by the way, most of the people answering questions here are not the developers. We're users just like you, who have bothered to read the material available, work with the program on our own setups, and want to help other people get it running.

MJ

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That url would be nice if it worked. This is my first time setting up this crappy program that won't even accept its own information. Perhaps instead of telling people that they did something wrong and that we need to start all over again and again and agian you should provide a program that works!! This is a sad day, get your head out of your butt and fix the problem!

Make sure that both Boinc.exe and Boincmgr.exe are allowed access through your firewall!

Make sure you do not have any preceding or trailing spaces at the address or the 32 character key.

We have tested this program with a lot of computers under a lot of options, going from Win95 to WinXP 64bit, Linux, Unix, Macintosh, 32kbaud to highest entry point ADSL, Cable and Satellite, all kinds of firewalls.

If you can't connect, it's user error. If you can get on here to complain it means you managed to be able to fill in some things correctly. Maybe that you want to check things on your side, before spouting nonsense into the world.

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That url would be nice if it worked. This is my first time setting up this crappy program that won't even accept its own information. Perhaps instead of telling people that they did something wrong and that we need to start all over again and again and agian you should provide a program that works!! This is a sad day, get your head out of your butt and fix the problem!

Make sure that both Boinc.exe and Boincmgr.exe are allowed access through your firewall!

Make sure you do not have any preceding or trailing spaces at the address or the 32 character key.

We have tested this program with a lot of computers under a lot of options, going from Win95 to WinXP 64bit, Linux, Unix, Macintosh, 32kbaud to highest entry point ADSL, Cable and Satellite, all kinds of firewalls.

If you can't connect, it's user error. If you can get on here to complain it means you managed to be able to fill in some things correctly. Maybe that you want to check things on your side, before spouting nonsense into the world.

Gee, Jord, gimme a break! It's not a crappy program, it's just very irritating to try and install. Doug66 is just frustrated. So am I. I started another thread and I'm slowly getting there. I've got 2 of my three computers set up now. The last one suddenly asks for proxy info when I try to connect to the project. I don't use a proxy. The connection is not set up for a proxy. I've given up for tonight.

The program appears to be changing things that it should not change. It also does not give any intelligible error messages.

For instance I explicitly put boinc.exe and boincmge.exe both on the white list. For some reason boinc.exe was then blocked. But the program gave no help at all. It merely said the project URL was not found. This isn't very helpful.

Alice

That url would be nice if it worked. This is my first time setting up this crappy program that won't even accept its own information. Perhaps instead of telling people that they did something wrong and that we need to start all over again and again and agian you should provide a program that works!! This is a sad day, get your head out of your butt and fix the problem!

Make sure that both Boinc.exe and Boincmgr.exe are allowed access through your firewall!

Make sure you do not have any preceding or trailing spaces at the address or the 32 character key.

We have tested this program with a lot of computers under a lot of options, going from Win95 to WinXP 64bit, Linux, Unix, Macintosh, 32kbaud to highest entry point ADSL, Cable and Satellite, all kinds of firewalls.

If you can't connect, it's user error. If you can get on here to complain it means you managed to be able to fill in some things correctly. Maybe that you want to check things on your side, before spouting nonsense into the world.

Gee, Jord, gimme a break! It's not a crappy program, it's just very irritating to try and install. Doug66 is just frustrated. So am I. I started another thread and I'm slowly getting there. I've got 2 of my three computers set up now. The last one suddenly asks for proxy info when I try to connect to the project. I don't use a proxy. The connection is not set up for a proxy. I've given up for tonight.

The program appears to be changing things that it should not change. It also does not give any intelligible error messages.

For instance I explicitly put boinc.exe and boincmge.exe both on the white list. For some reason boinc.exe was then blocked. But the program gave no help at all. It merely said the project URL was not found. This isn't very helpful.

Alice

Hi Alice, hope I can help.

I've been having similar problems today. I think it asks for proxy info when it is unable to access the seti site and as seti seems to have been going up and down today that is probably why it seemed to work ok for two but not for the third.

Hope this helps. :)

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That url would be nice if it worked. This is my first time setting up this crappy program that won't even accept its own information. Perhaps instead of telling people that they did something wrong and that we need to start all over again and again and agian you should provide a program that works!! This is a sad day, get your head out of your butt and fix the problem!

Make sure that both Boinc.exe and Boincmgr.exe are allowed access through your firewall!

Make sure you do not have any preceding or trailing spaces at the address or the 32 character key.

We have tested this program with a lot of computers under a lot of options, going from Win95 to WinXP 64bit, Linux, Unix, Macintosh, 32kbaud to highest entry point ADSL, Cable and Satellite, all kinds of firewalls.

If you can't connect, it's user error. If you can get on here to complain it means you managed to be able to fill in some things correctly. Maybe that you want to check things on your side, before spouting nonsense into the world.

If he can't connect one moment but can get on to complain the next then IT COULD BE THE SITE GOING UP AND DOWN now couldn't it? Or maybe the network access to seti giving intermittent problems.

And in my experience that is exactly what has been happening today. So it's not always user error is it? So maybe he wasn't spouting nonsense, a little agressive I agree.

BTW way the latest version of BOINC doesn't ask for the 32 character key.

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Don't despair. To quote Strother Martin in "Cool Hand Luke", "What we have heare is a faailure to communicate."

Things will eventually work out once you hit the right combination, permutation and sequence of factors. I was tearing my hair out trying to convert from Classic to Boinc on a two computer Siemens home network (infrastructure mode) card, Siemens wireless router and Motorola Surfboard cable modem. After getting all kinds of "Can't find this and that" or "Can't connect to this and that", I discovered the firewall "Exceptions" in the previous answer to this question and entered them in the Windows XP Home firewall. Things immediately got better! Then it was "Account key missing". I must have re-entered that d--- key a dozen times before I started pasting it in another 346 times. STILL NO LUCK! Then discovered a little obscure note somewhere on this site about ignoring the instructions to use the account key for existing accounts and just use e-mail address and PASSWORD (OLD PASSWORD from Seti Classic logon). IT WORKED. Put the second computer to work last night using the same email address and password. Boinc understands exactly what I wanted to do and now shows credits for 1600Blazer and 1533Blazer and Classic work units as of 15Mar 2005. To quote George Hamilton in "The A-TEAM", "I love it when a plan comes together."

That url would be nice if it worked. This is my first time setting up this crappy program that won't even accept its own information. Perhaps instead of telling people that they did something wrong and that we need to start all over again and again and agian you should provide a program that works!! This is a sad day, get your head out of your butt and fix the problem!

Well, lets see. It's worked for over a quarter million users so far on over half a million computers. So because you can't get it to work, it's broken? I think not.

It appears that you've activated your account, and need to attach a computer. The extra spaces problem has bitten even experienced people. Firewalls can block the data until they're configured. The internet sometimes has blockages and high traffic periods. Do you want to tell us what problem you are seeing? Please feel free to start a thread that gives us something to go on. Just saying "fix the problem" doesn't give anybody anything to work on.

And, by the way, most of the people answering questions here are not the developers. We're users just like you, who have bothered to read the material available, work with the program on our own setups, and want to help other people get it running.

MJ

Well with 33373 hours of computer time invested, I must say goodbye. I volunteer to help and get a program that takes over my system. I am sorry for the attitude that has developed. in this group that I must be stupid or "that's the way it works". I hope you have a lot of people to replace those (like me) who are leaving.

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A few new users have problem with the URL when connecting to the project in Boinc.

I had the same problem on two of my computers.

What I found out then, was that my sollution was to restart the computer and try again. Then it worked excellent for me.

Also remember the huge amount of new users that are trying to connect at once now. It is possible that the servers and/or database can be overloaded. If so, try again in an hour or two. You can also try to connect to another Boinc project and see if that works better.

If none of the above works, you should take a look at your firewall-settings. I haven't had any problems there, so I can't help with that. But my expirience with Boinc so far is very good, and I hope you will have the same when you get things up and running.

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Greetings from Norway.
Crunching is fun!

Actually there is one main concern I have with the New BOINC software. There is no realistic error reporting. When an error during installation or setup is encountered, relevant information is not provided to the user so that they know what to do.

Case in point, when a proxy or firewall is in place and all that happens is the window comes back up to enter your proxy information. There is no additional messaging saying what error happened or what was encountered or what to do differently. Just gives you the same window as before.

Or after you get it installed and it seems to be working, you reboot and then it just won't connect, it doesn't say why it won't connect or give any additional information.

So if you are a fairly competent, (or think you are), user, you start doing the basics, proxy settings, popup blockers, internet security programs, firewall. Hoping on the off chance you can find what is causing the interference.

Unfortunately, we are donating our computer cycles and processing power, the old system didn't need all this troubleshooting and I believe that the new system should keep that same basic functionality.

We didn't need a separate manual to learn how to install the Classic client, we didn't need to go to the forums to realize that the problem was so extensive. We didn't have to wonder if we came home if the program was even going to be runing or not, it just did. BOINC falls short of the shoes it has to fill if you are going to turn off the old client at least make sure the new one lives up to the features of the old client, and not just from the programmers point of view, the people you are asking to run this.......

Sincerely,

Matt Wyckoff

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Actually there is one main concern I have with the New BOINC software. There is no realistic error reporting. When an error during installation or setup is encountered, relevant information is not provided to the user so that they know what to do.

Case in point, when a proxy or firewall is in place and all that happens is the window comes back up to enter your proxy information. There is no additional messaging saying what error happened or what was encountered or what to do differently. Just gives you the same window as before.

Or after you get it installed and it seems to be working, you reboot and then it just won't connect, it doesn't say why it won't connect or give any additional information.

So if you are a fairly competent, (or think you are), user, you start doing the basics, proxy settings, popup blockers, internet security programs, firewall. Hoping on the off chance you can find what is causing the interference.

Unfortunately, we are donating our computer cycles and processing power, the old system didn't need all this troubleshooting and I believe that the new system should keep that same basic functionality.

We didn't need a separate manual to learn how to install the Classic client, we didn't need to go to the forums to realize that the problem was so extensive. We didn't have to wonder if we came home if the program was even going to be runing or not, it just did. BOINC falls short of the shoes it has to fill if you are going to turn off the old client at least make sure the new one lives up to the features of the old client, and not just from the programmers point of view, the people you are asking to run this.......

Sincerely,

Matt Wyckoff

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