Here's the deal..
As some one else posted in the 'Panic on server' thread, If everyone or at least most donated $5.00 towards improving Seti@Homes bandwidth issues, maybe it could be solved.
I am asking for just 5 dollars each. A fraction of the cost of the CPU(s) alone you are crunching with.
If you feel the need to donate more, than you are blessed. If you can only do 3 dollars, you too are blessed.
Matt will know where to put this money to best repair the bandwidth issues. If that means buying a much faster server for that purpose, that is Matt's call.
I only ask that it be spent towards repairing the bandwidth bottleneck issues as best Matt sees fit.
There are some screamming fast computers on ebay for cheap. No need in buying new hardware when a KNOWN working and much cheaper server can be had. There is also many other network related hardware listings there as well.
Maybe the overall bandwidth needs to be boosted? I have no idea what really is at the core of the bandwidth bottleneck but together, the community and Matt can solve this!


If you donate, please post in this thread. You need NOT disclose the amount but that is your call.
I am off to start this with a donating of $10.00. 5 for me and 5 for my wife, Terri who also crunches seti.

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Not Ready Reading BRAIN. Abort/Retry/Fail?

Yup - $5 does it for me, they lay out a special donation project ring fencing this to the cable issue they have, they get the dosh. It must be ring fenced tho or no dosh.

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Thanks Zydor! :)
I think Matt will do what is best. This bandwidth issue has been a thorn in his side for some time now.
I made my $10.00 donation but the page didnt show any info at the end and I didnt get an email conformation. If it dont show in my bank account, I will donate again :)

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Not Ready Reading BRAIN. Abort/Retry/Fail?

My 6 monthly donation was due this 15th, so donated $50. Hope Blurf will pick this up, although it's still too early for the donation drive he mentioned, which would be sometime in march.

Not really sure if the bandwidth issue can be addressed in the manner which we envisage, but I have faith in the Berkeley boys...
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Threw a spot in the hat.. every bit helps, and hope we can put a little dent in the issues! :)

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What are "the issues" with bandwidth, specifically? Can they be resolved by throwing $$ at them, or is this something systemic with the way SETI as run? I'm happy to donate if it helps things, but not if it doesn't change anything. What exactly is the plan?

Thanks everyone :)

What are "the issues" with bandwidth, specifically? Can they be resolved by throwing $$ at them, or is this something systemic with the way SETI as run? I'm happy to donate if it helps things, but not if it doesn't change anything. What exactly is the plan?

Im no expert at the real issue but it seems to be something with the way the servers are connected to the net. If its a cabling issue, that would be a some what easy fix. I think over all, the servers need a better way of connecting to the net. It could be a router issue but if im not mistake, SETI has a very fast router.
Like I stated above. I'm no expert on any of this and there are some in the community with much more knowledge about this.

Im sure some one will give more details when they read this.

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Not Ready Reading BRAIN. Abort/Retry/Fail?

The basic botleneck is the 100 meg cable between the campus and the Seti closet. They would need a 1 gig fiber optic connection up the hill. This will cost aprox. $100k+ to set up. They already have a 1 gig account with their ISP. In the long run, I'm sure that this would also require additional upgrades at the server end.

The basic botleneck is the 100 meg cable between the campus and the Seti closet. They would need a 1 gig fiber optic connection up the hill. This will cost aprox. $100k+ to set up. They already have a 1 gig account with their ISP. In the long run, I'm sure that this would also require additional upgrades at the server end.

You need a router at each end that can route at gigabit speed with a gigabit interface.

If I understand this, there are other projects in the lab that would benefit from a faster "wire" -- it isn't an exclusively-SETI facility.

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The basic botleneck is the 100 meg cable between the campus and the Seti closet. They would need a 1 gig fiber optic connection up the hill. This will cost aprox. $100k+ to set up. They already have a 1 gig account with their ISP. In the long run, I'm sure that this would also require additional upgrades at the server end.

You need a router at each end that can route at gigabit speed with a gigabit interface.

If I understand this, there are other projects in the lab that would benefit from a faster "wire" -- it isn't an exclusively-SETI facility.

True, but their requirements are miniscule compared to Seti.

Yup - $5 does it for me, they lay out a special donation project ring fencing this to the cable issue they have, they get the dosh. It must be ring fenced tho or no dosh.

Remember that the solution to the bandwidth problem might not be "cable" per se.

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So what is it, then?

It has to be mostly the cable issue.. If they are limmited to 100meg even tho they have a 1GBS connection, it's a waste.

well.. if we can get the 100k raised, then maybe the campus will 'spring' for the last of the cost. 100k sounds astounding but in numbers its nothing really..
100k/5 is only 20k so 20,000 need to donate a lousy 5 bucks and this could could come to life.
Or.. 10,000 donate 10.00
Or.. 5,000 donate 20.00
Or.. 1,000 donate 100.00
Maybe we should call this the 100k donation thread.. lol
Its NOT impossible!! Its just hard to get people to spend with times being tight right now but really... $5.00 is the cost of a pak of smokes and less than a meal at McDonalds :) SHARE YOUR TAX REFUND!
I just baught a new (used)Pentium D 950 to do more work with.. Now I am going to spend the 10 bucks to make sure I have that work to do! Its only logical!

Lets get this CABLE PEOPLE!
DONATE $5.00 NOW and make this project run at mach 10!

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Not Ready Reading BRAIN. Abort/Retry/Fail?

I wonder what the cost would be to bypass the campus and just get a 1GBS connection just for the closet.. hummmm.

All I know us I got a bad case of NWUB (No Work Unit Blues)

Since I've always wished to donate but have previously been unable to, I've sent in $100.00. Hope this will help in some small way. Also my way of saying thank you to all those on the boards who have helped me with one newb type question or another as well thanks to developers, mods and administrators etc, etc. You know who you are.

Cheers

WAY TO GO ROB!!

I wonder what the cost would be to bypass the campus and just get a 1GBS connection just for the closet.. hummmm.

That's an idea, But I don't know if the campus would allow It, If I'm wrong ok.

Yes but would it NOT be part of the plan to have this installed by the provider of the service? I mean like when you sign up for road runner or comcast BB?

I wonder what the cost would be to bypass the campus and just get a 1GBS connection just for the closet.. hummmm.

Campus politics wouldn't allow it.

BTW Before people start thinking that they wasted money on the 1 GB account, they got it for less then the cost of their previous 100 Meg contract.

THIS is the kind of things UCB has to spend millions on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Oak_Grove_Protest .

Sounds like the entire campus could be on fiber for the cost of that lawsuit. How do we know our donations aren't going to get sucked down the same rathole? The only ones who benefit are the lawyers.

Because you donate to a specific thing, therfore it has to be used for that. campus take a cut of whatever is donate (not sure of the % amount) for the labs room space, electricity etc. Also... according to the donate page, 10USD is the minimum donation they can accept

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So what is it, then?

There are a number of possible ways to help with the bandwidth problem.

One way is to make the search algorithm more sensitive -- that makes each work unit take longer, and potentially a whole lot longer.

Double the run-time and you cut the bandwidth requirement in half.

That's one, and it's been done before. "More Astropulse" would do the same thing.

Another way: make the BOINC client less aggressive. Slowing down the client slows the connection rate -- if they could tune for 95% load and not run at 110% the throughput would go up.

It might be good for the BOINC client to be very relaxed when the queue is mostly full, and a little more aggressive if the queue is nearly empty.

It has been pointed out that the servers are not in an optimal configuration right now, and more hardware could reduce overhead and the servers would fill more requests on the first try.

Another need is education: we need to get past the idea that a missed upload or a missed report is a "problem" -- it isn't.

But, most of those who worry about such things look at the cricket graph "pegged" and see more bandwidth as the solution, when it may be entirely possible to lower the requirements.

If you want to earmark "fixing the bandwidth problem" don't go to far in limiting the solutions. A chunk of fiber and some gigabit routers may not be the most cost-effective way of solving the problem.

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