Ok so I've been using BOINC for quite a while and didn't have this problem with remote controlling untill recently, since I just moved to my own lot and therefore I can't connect via LAN to all my PC's.

Now, this is the problem:

I have 2 machines running at my old place (and will be running there). There is a NAT, so to make remote control possible, I have to forward ports at the other end.

Now, the BOINC Manager will connect to the default port (31416) without any problems and I get to one of the BOINC clients, no prob.

The other PC is running BOINC client on port 31415 (checked with netstat -a to see it works on that port as well), but even after PROPER portforwarding, I cannot connect to it. Firewalls have been disabled as well, to eliminate that problem.

Now, the curious thing:

I can use the command-line tool (boinccmd.exe) and I can connect to *BOTH* PC's on the other end, so it must be the Manager GUI that doesn't work properly.

Oh, to those that are interested:
This PC I try to connect from, is XP SP3 and the other pc:s are Linux (Debian) and Windows XP SP2.

Anyway, the issue is that I cannot use any port other than the default, if I want to connect with the graphical gui (it wont even allow me to use host:port format! Tried to connect to my BOINC-client with IP:PORT-format, but it didn't work even if I did use the default port of 31416, meaning IP:31416... but without the :PORT, it works just fine).

Sorry for long post, but this would seem to be issue on the manager, or the manager GUI. I wouldn't want to test alpha's for the obvious reasons, just to see if this is fixed.

Hopefully someone has any insight to this issue.

First things first, you did setup your own password in the gui_rpc_auth.cfg on the remote machine? You did add the remote_hosts.cfg file with the correct IP address of the machine you're working from on the remote machine?

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First things first, you did setup your own password in the gui_rpc_auth.cfg on the remote machine? You did add the remote_hosts.cfg file with the correct IP address of the machine you're working from on the remote machine?

I used the exact same setup in LAN, where I could run BOINC on all three PC's with same port (as each PC had their own IP, ofcourse)... But now, there are 2 machines behind a NAT (self-sustained one, not ISP piece of...) so they cannot run on same port, as they have the same public IP address, I have to use port forwarding.

And to clarify a bit:

If I use the format: my.boxes.public.ip:31416 - BOINC Manager does NOT connect. However, if I use: my.boxes.public.ip ALONE, it works 100% (so I can connect. Also, I did try to forward the default port to the other PC and ran BOINC as a test, with default port, it worked just perfectly). So the issue has to be in the way the GUI handles the host where to connect. I have tried to separate the hostname (both the IP address and domain) and the port by ":" ";" "::" and using a space, that didn't work so I tried even "'" as separator. I know, that the separator should be ":".

So, the gui_rpc_auth.cfg is not the problem. Neither is anything else, tho I'd like to know the use for remote_hosts.cfg? It cannot be necessary as it has worked fine before, only issue is that the port number I enter with the address for the remote machine, does not work.

I will check the logs if there is anything sensible, it might have been a Winsock error 10006 or something as well, and doesn't that mean it would be a problem in discovering the address?

tho I'd like to know the use for remote_hosts.cfg? It cannot be necessary as it has worked fine before, only issue is that the port number I enter with the address for the remote machine, does not work.

As far as I know it has always been necessary to tell the remote client which other PC or PCs could connect to it through the remote_hosts.cfg file. Do know that it can take either IP addresses or (NetBIOS) Network names.

Now the trouble is, 5.10 is no longer being developed. The developers are almost ready to release BOINC 6.2 .. In other words, if I were to forward this to them as a possible bug, they would ask me to ask you to test it with 6.2.14 (the latest release client) and see if you can get that to do it as well.

But it needs to be set up correctly before that. I wrote the comprehensive how to in this post. If you start at the top of the thread cos your browser doesn't know about it yet, just scroll down to the last post.

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tho I'd like to know the use for remote_hosts.cfg? It cannot be necessary as it has worked fine before, only issue is that the port number I enter with the address for the remote machine, does not work.

As far as I know it has always been necessary to tell the remote client which other PC or PCs could connect to it through the remote_hosts.cfg file. Do know that it can take either IP addresses or (NetBIOS) Network names.

Now the trouble is, 5.10 is no longer being developed. The developers are almost ready to release BOINC 6.2 .. In other words, if I were to forward this to them as a possible bug, they would ask me to ask you to test it with 6.2.14 (the latest release client) and see if you can get that to do it as well.

But it needs to be set up correctly before that. I wrote the comprehensive how to in this post. If you start at the top of the thread cos your browser doesn't know about it yet, just scroll down to the last post.

Hmm, very well. I'll try the newest version to see, if it works. If not, then we'll see.

Anyway, I've never needed that host-file, and never had it either. Only thing I have needed to make sure has been the port being forwarded, or making sure it isn't blocked by a firewall or anything else.

Will be reporting back when I've completed the setup of the newer version.

Ok, I upgraded to 6.2.14 and the remote connection actually works.

The port thing you described Sekerob, wasn't a problem as curious as it is. No random ports were engaged in use. Anyway, the newer version works, so it might be a problem just in the 5.10x perhaps? I'll continue to play around with the new version in hopes it actually works... we'll see.

Thanks for the help :)