Didou
Posts: 4,190 +11
What is Seti@Home ?
SETI stands for Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence. In short, it is a small program that runs in the background using your idle cpu cycles ( those cycles that you do not use & that are lost forever... ). It has been concieved as an answer to the mountains of data that the computers at Berkeley recieve in real-time & that they do not have enough CPU power to thoroughly analyse all the information it provides.
Seti@home was invented as a way to create the most powerfull supercomputer. An alliance of home-computers working together as a worlwide cluster.
For more info, read this -> How SETI@home works
Where to get Seti@Home ?
GUI + screensaver version ( slow but "pretty" )
Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2K/XP ( Ver. 3.08
Macintosh
Mac OS X
CLI ( Command Line Interface ) *recommended*
Win32 Windows ( 95/98/2K/NT )*
i686 Linux
i586 BeOS
More CLI clients can be found HERE.
* Win95 requires the Winsock 2 upgrade.
How do I use the CLI version ?
In windows, you can use the CLI version with some 3rd party tools such as SETI Driver, SETI Spy, etc.
I'll describe how to use SETI Driver to get the best performance ( guides for other programs to follow ).
SETI stands for Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence. In short, it is a small program that runs in the background using your idle cpu cycles ( those cycles that you do not use & that are lost forever... ). It has been concieved as an answer to the mountains of data that the computers at Berkeley recieve in real-time & that they do not have enough CPU power to thoroughly analyse all the information it provides.
Seti@home was invented as a way to create the most powerfull supercomputer. An alliance of home-computers working together as a worlwide cluster.
For more info, read this -> How SETI@home works
Where to get Seti@Home ?
GUI + screensaver version ( slow but "pretty" )
Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2K/XP ( Ver. 3.08
Macintosh
Mac OS X
CLI ( Command Line Interface ) *recommended*
Win32 Windows ( 95/98/2K/NT )*
i686 Linux
i586 BeOS
More CLI clients can be found HERE.
* Win95 requires the Winsock 2 upgrade.
How do I use the CLI version ?
In windows, you can use the CLI version with some 3rd party tools such as SETI Driver, SETI Spy, etc.
I'll describe how to use SETI Driver to get the best performance ( guides for other programs to follow ).
- Create a folder in which you download the SETI CLI .exe file & extract the contents of the seti-driver in the same folder.
- Run setidriver.exe & direct it to the seti-cli .exe file ( you'll notice a new icon in the system tray which should be red & upside down for now ).
- Set "Maximum Processes" to 1, "Desired Cache Size" to 1, "Hide Processing" to No, "Auto Transmit" to No & "Display Transmit" to Yes.
- Click on Save Config then hit Transmit.
- A dos window will open & give 2 choices. Create a new account ( if you're a newcomer ) or Enter account info ( if you allready have one ). Enter your Email & SETI will download one Work Unit ( WU ).
- Go back to seti-driver & change the settings to :
"Maximum Processes" to 1 ( seti isn't multi-threaded so it can't take advantage of a Dual CPU system unless you run two separate processes ).
"Desired Cache Size" = 1 to 500 ( uh... ). This is the amount of Units you want to seti-driver to download in one time. It's always good to have a small amount of units ready to be worked on in case the seti servers go down & you do not wwish for your CPU to get cold.
"Hide Processing" to Yes. That way you do not have to see the DOS window while seti works on the current unit.
"Auto Transmit" to Yes, unless you wish for seti to upload units only when you click on transmit.
"Display Transmit" to No, unless you wish to have that cute DOS window whenever seti upload a result & downloads a new unit.
"Use SETI Driver" to Yes, of course we want to use SETI driver !!!
"Use 24Hr Clock" to Yes / No, your move.
"Create SETILog.csv" to Yes, if you want seti driver to create a .csv file to help you keep track of your progress.
[/list=1]
SETIDriver has three state icons. Blue means it's working on a unit, there are no results to transfer & no units to download in order to fill the cache. Yellow means it is working on a unit, has a result waiting to upload & a unit to download in order to fill the cache. Red means the cache is empty & there are no units to process.
I've got SETI running now what should I do ?
The TechSpot SETI@Home Team
We're always looking for more CPU cycles to join us in our quest to find ET.
-=( Interesting Link )=-
Anandtech S@H FAQ
SETI@Home Website
SETI Driver Homepage
PS. More info to come...