Hi,

[mode ranting on]
It seems that SETI Classic users have received a email telling them to migrate to SETI/BOINC
So these users go to the SETI/BOINC home page and click on the "transfer" link, enter their email adress and receive an account key.
Then, they download BOINC and when they find how to attach (where is the big red button telling "attach to project") they enter their email adress and account key in the password box.
It doesn't work, of course, because BOINC 5.2.8 doesn't accept account keys.
So they come to the forum and ask how all this stuff is working and we have to tell them again and again that with the account key they have to create a password, and then attach to the SETI project with email and password.
@Dev team: Why things are so complex for newbies: migrate, receive a account key, create a password with the account key, attach when they find the attach function in "project", etc (often they have the following message when they try to attach with email and password:
Fetching config info from http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/get_project_config.php
Missing account key
[mode ranting off]

I respect all the good work done by all the developpers but sometimes I wonder if they think about newbies (remember that the BOINC-Wiki is only in english) and although the translation of BOINC and tutorials in French, a lot of users are coming to our forum and say "I don't understand nothing in BOINC. SETI classic was so simple, SETI/BOINC is so complex...HELP"
Remember that the http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/sah_email_form.php is not translated in other languages. All in english. Newbies that don't speak/read english are completly lost.
And you can read : "To access this account, fill out the following form. You'll receive an email containing an 'account key' (a long random string). When you run BOINC, it will ask you for this account key. Copy and paste it from the email."
What a nice joke.....
Stop sending account keys to newbies if BOINC doesn't accept them
And don't tell me that BOINC accept account keys in the password box, because it's not true.
BOINC refuses systematically the account key, in SETI or in other projects like CPDN or the test site for translator (I've tested yesterday evening for the 3 projects): I have the message: "account not found" for the 3 projects.
A lot of other users have the same problem.

Regards,
Arnaud

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Hi,

[mode ranting on]
It seems that SETI Classic users have received a email telling them to migrate to SETI/BOINC
So these users go to the SETI/BOINC home page and click on the "transfer" link, enter their email adress and receive an account key.
Then, they download BOINC and when they find how to attach (where is the big red button telling "attach to project") they enter their email adress and account key in the password box.
It doesn't work, of course, because BOINC 5.2.8 doesn't accept account keys.
So they come to the forum and ask how all this stuff is working and we have to tell them again and again that with the account key they have to create a password, and then attach to the SETI project with email and password.
@Dev team: Why things are so complex for newbies: migrate, receive a account key, create a password with the account key, attach when they find the attach function in "project", etc (often they have the following message when they try to attach with email and password:
Fetching config info from http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/get_project_config.php
Missing account key
[mode ranting off]

I respect all the good work done by all the developpers but sometimes I wonder if they think about newbies (remember that the BOINC-Wiki is only in english) and although the translation of BOINC and tutorials in French, a lot of users are coming to our forum and say "I don't understand nothing in BOINC. SETI classic was so simple, SETI/BOINC is so complex...HELP"
Remember that the http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/sah_email_form.php is not translated in other languages. All in english. Newbies that don't speak/read english are completly lost.
And you can read : "To access this account, fill out the following form. You'll receive an email containing an 'account key' (a long random string). When you run BOINC, it will ask you for this account key. Copy and paste it from the email."
What a nice joke.....
Stop sending account keys to newbies if BOINC doesn't accept them
And don't tell me that BOINC accept account keys in the password box, because it's not true.
BOINC refuses systematically the account key, in SETI or in other projects like CPDN or the test site for translator (I've tested yesterday evening for the 3 projects): I have the message: "account not found" for the 3 projects.
A lot of other users have the same problem.

Regards,
Arnaud

There were two forms you could go to. one went to old style Boinc attachment and a new one that is supposed to work with passwords.

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I totally agree with Arnaud on this. Usability, and user documentation, have never been a strong point of BOINC, and experiences such as the close of SETI classic have exposed this weakness. The very fact that BOINC-Wiki grew out of a private and unofficial initiative by Paul Buck, to whom we all owe an enormous debt, speaks volumes. Changes in something as basic as the procedure for attaching to projects are non-trivial, and need to be clearly flagged in advance not just to project core teams, but also on project help boards, so that people like Arnaud, who carries an enormous load in supporting the francophone BOINC community, can ensure that ordinary users get the help they need (and indeed, can give feedback before the event on where the BOINC and project sites need tweaking).

There have been too many instances of newbies over the last few days saying 'BOINC is too difficult for me', and remember that most such people won't have posted.

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You may add my frustration to this. I managed to install the client software without any problem, but it insists on asking for a web and/or SOCKS proxy, neither of which I use.

The worst part is that it won't accept blank inputs for these. It just keeps cycling back to the proxy data screen.

This means that, as of 25-Nov-05, I can't do ANYthing with it. No SETI, no climate, nothing. The 5.2.8 client is WORSE than useless in its current condition. I'm going to try the earlier version, but I'm not holding my breath.

Worse still: I could not find ANYthing, among the little documentation I found, which addresses this issue, and gives specific steps (if any exist) for resolving it.

Would someone please post some sort of notice when 5.2.8 is fixed?

Thanks much.

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Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
Blue Feather Technologies.
http://www.bluefeathertech.com
"Frodo failed. Bush has the ring!"

Go to your acct set up a password and use that to sign on.....

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BOINC Wiki

You may add my frustration to this. I managed to install the client software without any problem, but it insists on asking for a web and/or SOCKS proxy, neither of which I use.

Several people are attempting to get a developer to respond on this issue, which is hitting ALL projects, but so far all we've been able to determine is that the proxy box pops up whenever it can't connect to the URL within three seconds. A reboot _sometimes_ helps, and sometimes just trying when the servers are less busy helps. Meanwhile, others get through with no problem. SETI is seeing 5000 new users per day, instead of the normal 700, and is extremely overloaded. Some of those users are going to other projects as well - almost every project's server is being hit twice as hard as normal. That's not an excuse for the proxy box, which SHOULD NOT be showing up, period - but it's all anyone has been able to come up with so far.

And yes, UCB has handled this just about as poorly as can be imagined, with the lack of documentation, the difficulties in attaching, etc. - V5.x is far better than V4.x, but still overly difficult. I expect it to get worse over the next month, too... especially as volunteers start losing their patience with the new users.

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