GUI Client Speedup Tips: Windows 95/98/ME | Windows NT/2000/XP/2003
Non-GUI (text) Client Speedup Tips: Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003 | Sun Solaris 2.5.1. | Multiple CPUs
Misc: SETI Toys | non-SETI_Toys | News | Links
Speed up info for Windows NT

SETI@home is a scientific experiment that harnesses the power of hundreds of thousands of Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data. There's a small but captivating possibility that your computer will detect the faint murmur of a civilization beyond Earth.

• SETI client version 3.0.8 for Windows and Macintosh is now available and it works through firewalls Macintosh version is 3.08a
• SETI client version 3.0.8 for Sun Solaris 2.5.1 is now available and it works through firewalls too
• in the following examples red characters are the actual text to be entered; blue (non-hypertext) characters represent labels where you should substitute your own data

GUI Client Speedup Tips for Windows 95/98/NT/ME/2000/2003

Overview: The SETI@Home client program will run as fast as possible if it can stay in L2 Cache without any competition from other programs so do the following:

1. from the SETI@Home application
   click "Settings"
   click "Preferences"
   click "Data Analysis"
   check "Data Analysis Always Runs"
   click "OK"
2. from "Windows Task Bar"
   click "Start"
   click "Settings"
   click "Control Panel"
   click "Display"
   click "Screen Saver"
   click on "Screen Saver:" drop down menu and select "Blank Screen"
   click "OK"
   • a screen saver will steal some CPU cycles and will also hammer the L2 Cache every time the OS allows it a time slice to run. (tens to hundreds of times per second)
3. Only run the "SETI@Home Client" in a collapsed window so...
   1. the system won't waste CPU time updating the analysis graph
   2. the L2 Cache won't be constantly hammered by the SETI graphing routines.
4. If a virus shield is enabled to constantly run in the background...
   1. then set "What to scan" to "Program Files only" so the virus detector won't slow down the SETI Client every time the client writes to the results file.
   2. make sure that all incoming data (via floppy, email or download) is fully scanned (select "all files" and also enable "scan compressed files")
   3. but never turn off virus checking
5. Pause the Task Scheduler (or disable all the scheduled tasks associated with it). Failure to do this will cause the following scheduled jobs to interfere with the SETI@Home client:
   1. "Maintenance-Defragment programs" (usually runs once a week)
   2. "Maintenance-Disk cleanup" (usually runs once a month)
   3. "Maintenance-ScanDisk" (usually runs once week)
   4. "Windows Critical Update Notification" (usually runs once every 5 minutes)
6. If you have MS-Office installed then consider finding and deleting the program "Findfast.exe". This program will run occasionally in the background to maintain an index of every file on the disk. It also seems to cause the SETI@Home client to occasionally stop with a "FileOpen" error. BTW, it must be deleted while you system is in DOS mode.

GUI Client Speedup Tips for Windows NT4

General Use

1. do a 3 finger salute (Ctrl-Atl-Del) to bring up the "Windows NT Security" panel
2. click on the "Task Manager" tab
3. locate the "SETI@Home" name in the task name list then "right click" on it
4. click on "change priority"
5. click on one of the following settings in the pop-up:
   1. low - This is the default setting for SETI@Home. Most Windows background tasks run at this level.
   2. normal - This should work with SETI@Home on any Pentium system. Most Windows foreground tasks run at this level.
   3. high - This should work with SETI@Home on any high power Pentium systems (>450 MHz)
   4. real time - don't ever select this or you'll need to reboot your machine to get control of it. SETI@Home is a compute bound process which means that very little I/O will take place once it starts to run in real time mode. You may even have trouble with I/O from SETI@Home to the hard drive.
6. Some people have told me to they have shaved up to 2 hours off their WU times just by installing Service Pack 5. I've tried this with my 2 machines at work and have seen savings anywhere between 15 and 20 minutes. (However, my machines are on a large corporate LAN and may be slowed down by constant network overhead so install SP5 yourself and you be the judge)

Techie Use Only

Danger Will Robinson! This Can Really Mess Up Your Machine! If you don't know what you are doing then don't mess with any of this stuff!

1. run regedit (techies already know how)
2. navigate down the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\DisablePagingExecutive
3. If you have lots on memory, set DisablePagingExecutive, a type REG_DWORD, to 1. This will allow drivers and the kernel code to be kept in memory. The default is 0 which pages drivers and kernel code when needed.
4. More registry tips and tricks
   1. http://www.regedit.com/Performance/

If you're running Windows-NT and your CPU is pre-Pentium2, then the following speed up tip may help you. Please note that this DOES NOT speed up P2 or P3 machines. It only works for a direct mapped cache. Click http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q183/0/63.ASP for more details.

1. run regedit (techies already know how)
2. navigate down the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\SecondLevelDataCache
3. you'll probably find the value 0. Change it to reflect the size of the L2 cache of your machine (watch out for the setting of the Hex/Decimal Radio Buttons)

Non-GUI (text) Client Speedup Tips for Windows 98/NT

General Info

• the so-called Windows NT "text only" version (i386-winnt-cmdline.exe) was designed for use with Windows NT but will also work with Windows 98. Since NT system calls are not supported in Windows 95, it will not work there, unless you install Winsock2.
• it can be run in Windows 98 by double clicking on it (the process will come up in a DOS window)
• no documentation comes with the down loaded client so you must work from a DOS prompt if you want to hack the command line options:
  • create a new folder in the root directory of drive "C" and name it SETI (or anything else that's 6 alphanumeric characters or lower; failure to do this means that the DOS file name and Windows file name won't match and you'll see confusing file and directory names which include tilde '~' characters)
  • drag the downloaded client software into the folder (with your finger on the SHIFT KEY)
  • using Windows, rename the SETI client from setiathome-3.08.i386-winnt-cmdline.exe to setic (means SETI client to me)
  • pull up a new DOS window via Task Bar -> Start -> Programs -> MS-DOS Prompt
  • navigate to the place where you've placed the client software: cd c:\SETI
  • run the SETI client with a bad argument so you get a switch list: setic /? (note: this is illegal because the SETI client expects UNIX style switches rather than Windows style switches)
• run the program anyway you see fit but never stop it by clicking on the "Close" button. Always type a Ctrl-C then click the "Close" button.

Speedup

•  when the SETI client is running under Windows 98 you can speed things up a bit by either:
  • clicking on the "Properties" button (the icon is a hand holding a piece of paper). Now click the "Misc" tab then slide "Idle Sensitivity" to the left of middle. The farther left you go, the busier the client will remain.
  • right clicking on the associated process entry on the task bar then selecting properties. Now click the "Misc" tab then slide "Idle Sensitivity" to the left of middle. The farther left you go, the busier the client will remain.
• Some people report faster results using the non-GUI client.
• Click here for information about running multiple SETI clients on multiple CPUs

SETI@Home Speedup Tips for Solaris 2.5.1 (UNIX)

1. un-TAR the client software as follows:
   tar -xvf setiathome-1.3.sparc-sun-solaris2.5.1.tar
2. navigate into the just created SETI subdirectory
   cd setiathome-1.3.sparc-sun-solaris2.5.1
3. make the SETI client software executable
   chmod +x setiathome
4. run the task interactively to set up your account for the first time as follows (note: info in blue comes from your IS/IT department)
   1. if not behind a security firewall
      ./setathome
   2. if behind a security firewall (DNS support is a must)
      ./setiathome -proxy dns-name.domain:80 (80 means use TCP port reserved for "http:" )
      ~~~ or ~~~
      ./setiathome -proxy dns-name.domain:21 (21 means use TCP port reserved for "ftp:" )
      ~~~ or ~~~
      ./setiathome -proxy dns-name.domain:23 (23 means use TCP port reserved for "telnet:" )
5. once the task appears to be working, you can make it go faster as follows:
   ./setiathome -proxy dns-name.domain:80 -email > /dev/null 2> /dev/null &
6. if you've got super user privs and you're running the client on a hot maintenance spare unit with no other user processes to interfere with, then enter:
   nice --10 ./setiathome -proxy dns-name.domain:80 -email > /dev/null 2> /dev/null &
   Note: it is possible to use nice --19 but I've found that this may cause some communications problems when downloading a new work unit from the SETI@Home server site.
7. you can monitor the process by entering the following:
   ps -lef | grep SETI
   if you don't know what the previous display means, you can see the column titles by typing:
   ps -l
8. Why does running output into /dev/null speed things up?
   1. because it takes lots of system resources to support bit mapped graphics. Each character to be displayed needs to be converted from an 8 bit (or 16 bit extended) ASCII format into a a block of displayable bits. This is one of the reasons that most servers don't have graphics cards installed.
   2. because it takes some system resources to support scrolling windows (including the lines off the top of the screen)
   3. and all this overhead constantly dances through the cache which prevents our CPU from running at full speed at all times

What the above UNIX command above does:

nice --10                 drop the priority number by 10 points (lower means faster in UNIX)
./setiathome              run setiathome in the current directory
-proxy dns-name.domain:80 connect to setiathome site via a firewall using port 80
                          an example of dns-name.domain is proxy.uwaterloo.com
-email                    email user specified during initial startup if client has a problem
> /dev/null               redirect all output text to null device (means no output)
2> /dev/null              redirect all error messages to null device (means no output)
&                         run as a detached (background) process

note: if you leave out the ampersand (&) then you may as well leave out the error redirect

UNIX Scripts:

I you're constantly typing the same commands over and over you might wish to place the commands in one or two scripts.

1. Create the script by typing "vi name" (you need to know how to use the "vi" editor)
2. Make the scripts executable by typing "chmod +x name"
3. Execute the The scripts are then executed by typing "./name"

UNIX Operating System Implementation Notes:

• if you don't know what you are doing then don't mess with any of this stuff; talk to your local UNIX guru
• Your system must have DNS support enabled for the SETI@Home client to work properly (don't waste your time trying to do it with host names and IP addresses in "/etc/hosts").
• Be sure to set up the following files:

  • /etc/resolv.conf
    • line #1: nameserver ip-address-of-server
    • line #2: domain sub-domain-name.domain
    • no leading white space characters are allowed in this file
    • at a shell prompt type "man resolv.conf" for more info
  • /etc/nsswitch.conf
    • the line containing "hosts" should be followed by "dns files" rather than just "files"
  • /etc/hosts
    • line #1: hostname-of-the-current-node ip-address
      • at a shell prompt type "hostname" to find out what the hostname of the node you are currently on)
    • line #2: hostname-of-the-default-gateway ip-address
      • a default route is a method for your node to talk to other nodes on other sub-nets
      • if the address of the current host is 140.180.140.180 then the default gate way is usually (but not always) 140.180.140.1
      • you can make up a default gate name for the hosts file because it is only used in the "route" shell command
  • if your system is not running either routed (the route daemon) or gated (the gate daemon), then use the "route" command to manually define a default route (if one hasn't been defined already)
  • after all this you should be able to:
    • ping other nodes by DNS name
    • ping the firewall if you are using one

Multiple CPUs & Multiple Processes

• OpenVMS, Windows-NT, and all flavors of UNIX, will allow you to run more than one copy of the SETI client software provided each process is run from its own directory. Because you will always loose some time task switching, it is better to have only one copy of the client running for every CPU you have installed. (in this type of architecture I am referring to Symmetric Multi Processing also known as SMP). This means that each CPU will always have something to do when the system is idle.
  Note: this info is slightly different than the official FAQ found at U/C Berkeley which states: "It isn't currently (99.07.28) possible to have one SETI client use multiple CPUs". They should add the following phrase: ", but it is possible to have multiple SETI clients run with more than one CPU"
  
• It should be possible to run multiple SETI@Home clients (text based only, not GUI) on Windows NT and Windows 98, but I haven't done any experiments with this yet.
  • you need to run the SETI clients in their own directories so that each task has its own data files
  • I think it would be better if each instance ran the same binary executable. This is generally true of any computer built around a virtual memory architecture.
  • running multiple SETI@Home clients on a laptop or home machine might not buy you anything since task switching efficiency decreases with system size
  • If you try to install two Graphical (GUI) SETI Clients onto one machine only one will work at a time even though you might have set up up the second client in a different directory and then renamed the second executable to something unique. It seems that the two tasks are cross linked through the Windows Registry.
  • I have had both a Text Only (non-GUI) SETI Client running at the same time as a Graphical (GUI) SETI Client but the results weren't anything earth shattering.
    

SETI Toys

Click http://zap.to/jsetitracker to check out a neat JAVA front end for your SETI Client called SETI Tracker. This probably won't speed up your work unit returns but it will do neat things like plot your work unit locations on a celestial map of the sky. Many OSs are supported including Windows 95 and higher, MacOS, and Sun Solaris. This is a must for astronomy buffs etc.

Click http://www.cuug.ab.ca/~macdonal/tkseti/ to check out a neat Tcl/Tk based front end for your SETI Client called Tk-SETI@Home.

Click http://www.snafu.de/~tobias.w/seti/starmap.html to check out a SETI freeware program called Star Map.

SETI News

alt.sci.seti

SETI Links

Join our SPOT_E.T. SETI@home team

SETI @ Beyond IRC

The SETI Institute scientific and educational projects relevant to the nature, distribution, and prevalence of life in the universe.

The SERENDIP Project - ongoing scientific research effort aimed at detecting radio signals from extraterrestrial civilizations using the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico.

SETI and Distributed Computing - An essay on how the spare CPU cycles of idle machines belonging to Internet pioneers might play a role in the search for extraterrestrial life.

Planetary Society - co-founded by Carl Sagan to encourage the exploration of our solar system and the search for extraterrestrial life.

SETI@home is a scientific experiment that harnesses the power of hundreds of thousands of Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data. There's a small but captivating possibility that your computer will detect the faint murmur of a civilization beyond Earth.

Web site designed by