:: Overclockers.com SETI Team :: Useful information, FAQ and Instructions

[Mictlan]

What is SETI@Home?

SETI@home is a distributed computing scientific proyect. SETI stands for Search of Extra Terrestrial Intelligence and is used mainly to refer to the scientific search of Life outside the boundaries of this great blue planet.

In the words of the staff of the SETI Institute
SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, is an exploratory science that seeks evidence of life in the universe by looking for some signature of its technology. Our current understanding of life’s origin on Earth suggests that given a suitable environment and sufficient time, life will develop on other planets. Whether evolution will give rise to intelligent, technological civilizations is open to speculation. However, such a civilization could be detected across interstellar distances, and may actually offer our best opportunity for discovering extraterrestrial life in the near future.

Finding evidence of other technological civilizations however, requires significant effort. Currently the Center for SETI Research develops signal-processing technology and uses it to search for signals from advanced technological civilizations in our galaxy.

One of the main supporters of this search is the SETI Institute.

From the SETI Institute webpage
Statement of Purpose
The mission of the SETI Institute is to explore, understand and explain the origin, nature and prevalence of life in the universe.

The SETI Institute is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to scientific research, education and public outreach.

Founded in 1984, the Institute today employs over 100 scientists, educators and support staff. Research at the Institute is anchored by two centers, each directed by a renowned scientist who holds an endowed chair. Dr. Jill Tarter leads the Center for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Research as Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI, while Dr. Christopher Chyba holds the Carl Sagan Chair, and directs the Center for the Study of Life in the Universe.

The SETI Institute is just an organization which channels individual projects into a cohesive body of scientific endevours. One of them is the SETI@Home project, based in the University of Berkeley.

The SETI@Home project uses computers in homes and offices around the world to analyze radio telescope signals. The premise of doing this is that trying to find a particular signal beam coming to the Earth from any place in the space will be akin to finding a needle in a haystack. So, the basis of the project were laid out and it was decided to use on the largest, single dish telescopes in the world, the Arecibo Radiotelescope, to listen to the space and record all the noise coming to the Earth. Then this noise will be processed to find peculiar sounds that could be candidates for an alien signal.

The processing of this noise will need a lot of computing power, so a further idea was developed. Why not split all this data in small packages and then use the regular PC found all over the world? This approach, though it presents some difficulties, has provided unprecedented computing power and has led to a unique public involvement in science. More than 4,000,000 people all over the world, have downloaded the client to process the data retrieved form the Arecibo telescope.

If you are interested in the exact science beneath SETI@Home please follow this link

 

[Mictlan]

What is needed to join SETI@Home?

Joining is really easy. You only need to go to the SETI@Home page and download the client. There are easy to follow instruction to setup the sceensaver version of the client found in this page. All you'll need is a 386 or newer CPU processor, some Hard Drive space and a connection to the Internet and you are ready to go.

In the subscription process, you'll only need to provide a valid e-mail address, which will remain confidential, and you'll receive your first Work Unit to be processed.

As the client uses the unused cycles of your CPU, you do not require doing anything else. The program will run by itself when you are not using the PC, and, if you have a permanent connection tot he Internet, upload the results and downloading a new WU into your PC. If you need to use a modem to connect, the client will wait until you connect to upload and download.

 

[Mictlan]

Who we are (Overclockers.com SETI Team or OCSETI Team)?

In the words of our SETI team founder:

We are a group of hobbyists who overclock our computers to achieve maximum performance. Daniel Edgar

We all have several interests in common: a carving interest in computers and tweaking, this great site and the interest in knowing if we can find some Intelligence outside the Earth. If you happen to come to this place and find this place a good one, we invite you to see the sense of fellowship here and experiment the joy of joining us in the search of ET.

Search the stars with Overclockers SETI Team! Is ET really out there? How do worm holes and black holes work? We can find out with your help.

 

[Mictlan]

What are the differences of using the screensaver and the Command Line Client (CLC)?

Most of us found that running the screensaver was not using all of the resources we have into processing a WU, and found that the screensaver wasted to many cycles showing the pretty graph most often displayed in the screen while S@H runs. Even after manually disabling this graph and shutting the monitor so that the cycles we used mainly in the processing of the WU(an activity most often referred as "crunching"), that the screensaver client was not so efficient. What we found was that using the command line client we could crunch a WU faster and optimize the usage of the CPU so that we could take some advantage of all the tweaks and hardware that we could get our hands on. The command line is also the only way for non standard OS to participate in the project as the screensaver only was developed for Windows and Mac OS. The only problem with the CLC is that it lacks a way to clearly show the user how it's faring, but fortunately the is a large community in the S@H that have freely developed some good utilities that can add some good option to CLC, like SETISpy and SETIDriver. The first one will display the status of the CLC, along with several other information (like how many WU have you crunched, how efficient are you processing information compared with a typical CPU). SETIDriver will allow to stored several WU in your hard drive, permitting those without a permanent connection to the Internet to crunch continuously without wasting time if can't connect to upload your results and download a new unit.

 

[Mictlan]

How do you setup Command Line Client (CLC), SETIDriver and SETISpy?

The really easy way to install SETI@Home CLC by Burning Phoenix

1. Download the following file and unzip it to the default folder.
2. Locate the C:\seti folder and double click SETI_Driver.exe.
3. The program may minimize to the system tray next to the clock in the lower right corner double click if it does to bring it up.
4. Type a number greater than 1 in the Desired Cache Size and then click Transmit
5. Answer the next questions accordingly in the next popup dialog box.
6. If you are a new user and the country code question arises then press ENTER to see the list of countries.
7. After you answer the questions a Work Unit will be downloaded and started processing.
8. At this time you may right click the SETI Driver tray icon and exit.
9. You can later go back into the C:\seti folder and right click SetiSpy or SetiDriver and create shortcuts.
10. Drag and drop either one of these shortcuts to you Quicklaunch bar for later starting or to the Startup folder under Start/Programs/Startup to allow it start with windows.

 

[Mictlan]

How do you setup Command Line Client (CLC), SETIDriver and SETISpy?

Complete instructions to manually setup SETI@Home CLC by Kris Kurrus a.k.a. Morpheus

Here is my quick list (with hyperlinks) to making the SETI@home CLC (NOT THE SCREENSAVER), SETI spy & SETI Driver work together... Please note the versions below... the list was written for those versions and may need to be updated when changes occur...

SETI&Home (v3.08)
SETI Spy (v3.3.3)
SETI Driver (v1.6.4.3)

Note: the following assumes you have the latest download of SETI@home, SETISpy & SETI Driver ready at hand...

1. If you have previous SETI versions, uninstall ALL SETI programs
2. Create a "SETI" folder
3. In the SETI folder, copy "setiathome-3_08_i386-winnt-cmdline.exe" & "SETI Driver.exe" & "SetiSpy.exe"
4. Click on "SETI Driver.exe"
5. Set "maximum processes" to "1"
6. Set "desired cache size" to "1"
7. Make sure the "hide processing box" is checked (default value).
8. Set "SETI client priority" to "low"
9. "Process monitoring" is at the bottom of the window, make sure the "use SETI Driver" is checked.
10. Click on the "save config" button
11. Click on the "transmit" button (if you get an error window at this point, choose "ignore")
12. A DOS window (the CLC or command line client) will open entitled "SETI 1 - Transmit"
13. In the DOS window, enter "1" or "2" (depending on your status)
* Type 1 to indicate new user.
* You'll be prompted for a valid e-mail address.
* You'll be prompted for a nickname, You can choose anyone of your liking, as SETI users are identified by e-mail not nickname.
14. Enter the email address you registered for SETI with (If you are not a new user that is - Otherwise skip to the next step)
15. The CLC will download data, display information on the WU downloaded, then stop when it reaches "beginning analysis"
16. Then CLC should disappear as SETI Driver "hides" the processing
NOTE: You should have a blue radio telescope icon running in the system tray (next to time & volume in the lower right portion of your screen). If this is the case, SETI Driver & the CLC are working together... CONGRATS!!!
17. Right click on the blue radio telescope icon, and select "exit"
18. In your SETI folder, click on "SetiSpy.exe"
19. Select "I agree" (if you do, of course)
20. Click "ignore" (if you get the "error window")
NOTE: You should now be looking at the SETI Spy interface (GUI window). In the white-ish area on the left are what I will call "tabs" (named, "progress," performance," results," etc.). To select a tab, click on it.
21. Select the "client" tab
22. Click on the "configure" button, this will open the "client configuration" window
23. Click on "browse", this will open the "select SETI@home Client" window
24. Click on the "SETI Driver.exe"
25. At the bottom of the window it should read [file name: SETI Driver.exe] [file type: executables]
26. Click on "open"
27. The "select SETI@home Client" will close, and the "Client Configuration" should be displayed
NOTE: Assuming I have set this up on a "C:" drive, using the "SETI" folder name as I mentioned above, the client configuration window will read "C:\SETI\SETI Driver.exe" in the "client path" area.
In the "client parameter(s)" area type "-SETISpy" (don't miss the hyphen)
28. Under "client control" at the bottom of the window, check all 4 boxes
29. Click "OK" and you will be back at the SETI Spy GUI
30. Select the "Setup" tab (should default to the "display" button setting, if not select "display")
31. Check the 3 left boxes in this order: "minimize to tray," "run in tray," "close to tray"
32. Click on the "client" button
33. Check the "Ignore presence of state file on startup" box
34. In the system tray, right click on the SETI Spy icon (radio telescope with magnifying glass) and select "exit".
NOTE: At this point, there should be no SETI icons in the system tray, or other SETI windows open. If anything is open, close it.
35. Click on "SetiSpy.exe" in the SETI folder, if you get an error message (which you probably will) select "ignore".
36. You should have both the SETISpy AND SETI Driver icons now running in your system tray.
37. Left click on the SETI Driver icon, make sure the "use SETI Spy" box is checked in the "process monitoring" section at the bottom of the window.
38. Click on the "save config" button, then minimize the SETI Driver window.
39. Right Click on the SETI Spy icon in your system tray.
40. Select "exit".
41. Next, click on the "SETI Spy.exe" icon in your SETI folder... No errors? GREAT.... CONGRATULATIONS!!!! You are now configured to run the CLC, Spy & Driver off the SETI Spy icon...
42. To get the full functionality of SetiSpy you must do this workaround, it will enable you to update your user info and give you a direct link to our SETI@home team page.
43. Finally double click the SETI driver icon in your tray, set the desired cache size to 3-5 days worth of work units. If you are not sure how many to set it to set it to 10 and see about how many units you complete in a day and then multiply that by 3 or 5. And also if you have a 24/7 internet connection you can click auto transmit otherwise when you cache gets low you will need to connect to the internet manually and then click the transmit button on SETI driver. You may also wish to connect to one of the teams public queues. Save the configuration and you are now ready to crunch.

 

[Mictlan]

How do you join Overclockers.com SETI Team?

To join any team, you'll only need two things: sign for participation of this project and have a valid e-mail address.

The procedure is as follows:

1. After successful account creation, go to the password retrieval page.
2. Introduce the e-mail address you provided during account creation in the blank field.
3. An automatic generated password will be sent to your mailbox.
4. In your mailbox locate the SETI@Home password e-mail. Be warned some e-mail providers will sort this as a bulk mail letter.
5. Write down the alphanumerical chain sent to you.
6. To join Overclockers.com SETI Team go to this page.
7. Type in your e-mail address used during account creation and the password sent by Berkeley.
8. Congratulations. You are now part of this great team.

 

[Mictlan]

What to do after joining the team?

Well, there are several activities to watch out:

Push your system and compete to have the top time in the Overclockers.com SETI Team Benchmark.

Here are the details on how to use the Benchmark Work Unit:

1. Firstly make a copy of your SETI folder and keep it somewhere safe. I know most of us use SETI Driver to cache WU's, so the following applies.
2. For those of you who don't have SETI installed, you can go to here for the instruction of installing SETI@Home client. Trust me, it's much easier than it looks!
3. Open the copy of the SETI Folder and delete all the cached WU's except for the folder named 1.
4. Open folder 1 and delete the result header and the state file, download my WU file here and replace the WU file in folder 1.
5. You can now crunch the WU, it might be a good idea if you use the machine crunching for nothing else, to crunch the WU while sleeping or not surfing, playing games, writing paper, etc. Also make sure that you turn off automatic connection, we don't want to flood Berkley with a previously completed WU.
6. As a double check this is the identification of the WU that need to be completed:

09fe01aa.28488.19888.634652.144. / AR = 0.416

7. When the WU is completed please E-mail me the following details:

~ CPU Type (model name, e.g. P4 1.6a/XP1800+)
~ CPU clock speed (actual clock speed the benchie ran, in MHz or GHz)
~ FSB and actual memory speed (FSB x multiplier/memory speed, e.g. 16x133/166MHz)
~ RAM including total, brand, type and setting
~ OS
~ Client (CLI or Screensaver)
~ Name you wish to be known by (email address kept confidential)
~ Comments (other info that you would like people to know, e.g. mobo, stability, etc.)

8. Please attach the 'result.sah' file and send it to Gary

After several WU's have been crunched Berkeley offers a Certificate to be printed

These Certificates have several undocumented options that will allow you to get it in color or in a bigger size than the default. Thanks to Kaliban for this information.

Take the following address and modify to produce your custom certificate:

_http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/...email&cmd=print_cert&certnum=x&size=y&color=z

Replace your @ sent.email with your email address used to create the account

The options are:

Certnum - replace x with:
100
250
750
500
1000
2500
5000
7500
10000
25000
50000
75000
100000
0 - Current WU Total

Size - replace y with:
0 - Small
1 - Medium
2 - Large


Color - replace z with:
0 - Black and White
1 - Color with black background
2 - Color with white background

Adding a Burning Phoenix's Custom Counter to your webpage.

You can add a custom counter to your site or your post in the forum, go to the wonderful guide provided by one of our members, Burning Phoenix.

 

[Mictlan]

Is there any way to run a minimal OS install in a dedicated cruncher?

A fine member of this community, Arkaine23, made some custum Linux scripts that will enable you to crunch on a hard-diskless computer.

The OS used is Knoppix, a Linux distro (distro is complete set of Linux drivers, interface an utilities) that boot from a CD. This little piece of software has lot of utilities and allows you to crunch via a RAM disk.

All necesary info is in this thread. If you have some questions about how to set this up. Plaes drop us a line and surely someone can help you.

 

[lclark2074]

How do you join Overclockers.com SETI Team?

To join any team, you'll only need two things: sign for participation of this project and have a valid e-mail address.

The procedure is as follows:

1. After successful account creation, go to the password retrieval page.
2. Introduce the e-mail address you provided during account creation in the blank field.
3. An automatic generated password will be sent to your mailbox.
4. In your mailbox locate the SETI@Home password e-mail. Be warned some e-mail providers will sort this as a bulk mail letter.
5. Write down the alphanumerical chain sent to you.
6. To join Overclockers.com SETI Team go to this page.
7. Type in your e-mail address used during account creation and the password sent by Berkeley.
8. Congratulations. You are now part of this great team.

is this still good the link dose not mach thanks

 

[Cy]

They changed it:

http://setiathome2.ssl.berkeley.edu/fcgi-bin/fcgi?cmd=team_join_form&id=94265

That should work.

Cy

 

[thor17usa]

I tried joing the group several times today, but I kept getting a "500 Internal" error message once I submit my e-mail address and password.

I the page broken?

 

[Cy]

It appears to be down right now at about 9:00AM Eastern time US. Hopefully they will have it up again soon.

http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/fcgi-bin/fcgi?cmd=team_join_form&id=94265

Cy

 

[Daewood]

i just joined so try it now and it is working

 

[JeepSiteGuy]

...from the SETI Join page:

You have been added to the team Overclockers.com Seti Team

 

[JacK9579]

ive completes like 1250 so far, anything for seti

 

[Dreamstalker]

I just tried to put Burning Phoenix's stat counter on my webpage, and it's not showing up. Am I out of luck for that since my site is hosted on Tripod (I have a feeling that Tripod won't allow linking to scripts)?

 

[AQUAJOE]

Yea most likely not.

 

[Careface]

None of you probably care, but

You have joined Overclockers.com.

>_>
my stats if anyone is interested
http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/show_user.php?userid=652064

 

[Tyrinon]

Looks like a good setup. BTW, Welcome to the team!