If you use the BOINC Manager 'attach' wizard, it goes through a extra stage: it calls get_project_config.php to fetch the master_url and attaches to that.

If you use boinccmd to attach to the project, you are responsible for verifying that you have the up-to-date address, by following links link the one you've kindly posted.

If you are attached to a project by an Account Manager, you are in the hands of the administrator of that AM, who may or may not be keeping alert to changes and applying them in a timely fashion.

There's an open request to get this mess sorted out (#2642), but no progress.

my client state file from systems that are currently communicating with the Einstein project lists "http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/" as the current, correct, master url.

---

Could you please check a few things for me?

In your BOINC data folder, you should find a file called "all_projects_list.xml"

Could you please make a note of the datestamp for that file, and then look inside it for the url for Einstein? You'll need to use a programmer's editor like Notepad++ to handle the Linux-style line endings.

Mine is dated 3 October 2021, but it should be updated every two weeks - I've surpressed that. And the line I'm interested in says

<url>http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/</url>

(not the web_url on the line below)

The url is not the master url, but it should be what you see in the 'attach' wizard. And it's the place where BOINC will ask to get the real master url. If that lookup mechanism is broken, we're really screwed. I'll be checking that out while you look at what your machine has.

Could you please check a few things for me?

In your BOINC data folder, you should find a file called "all_projects_list.xml"

Could you please make a note of the datestamp for that file, and then look inside it for the url for Einstein? You'll need to use a programmer's editor like Notepad++ to handle the Linux-style line endings.

Mine is dated 3 October 2021, but it should be updated every two weeks - I've surpressed that. And the line I'm interested in says

<url>http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/</url>

(not the web_url on the line below)

The url is not the master url, but it should be what you see in the 'attach' wizard. And it's the place where BOINC will ask to get the real master url. If that lookup mechanism is broken, we're really screwed. I'll be checking that out while you look at what your machine has.

mine, dated March 15th 2022.

<project>
        <name>Einstein@home</name>
        <id>16</id>
        <url>http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/</url>
        <web_url>https://einsteinathome.org/</web_url>
        <general_area>Physical Science</general_area>
        <specific_area>Astrophysics</specific_area>

---

If you paste this address into a web browser

http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/get_project_config.php

you'll be mimicking what BOINC does. On my machine (Windows 7 Chrome) it automatically redirects to the https version of the same address. The response starts

<project_config>
<name>Einstein@Home</name>
<master_url>http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/</master_url>
<web_rpc_url_base>https://einsteinathome.org/</web_rpc_url_base>
<web_stopped>0</web_stopped>
<min_passwd_length>6</min_passwd_length>
<sched_stopped>0</sched_stopped>
<min_client_version>50800</min_client_version>
<platforms>
...

and so on. So maybe the advice on the web page is wrong?

When I use an account manager, it creates a folder in c:\program data\boinc\projects called "https://einsteinathome.org", but when I attach manually, it's "http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/".

That's the mess Christian and I were trying to sort out in 2018 - I think Christian was on the Einstein staff team at that point.

But it looks like the current team have messed it up again...

If you use the BOINC Manager 'attach' wizard, it goes through a extra stage: it calls get_project_config.php to fetch the master_url and attaches to that.

If you use boinccmd to attach to the project, you are responsible for verifying that you have the up-to-date address, by following links link the one you've kindly posted.

If you are attached to a project by an Account Manager, you are in the hands of the administrator of that AM, who may or may not be keeping alert to changes and applying them in a timely fashion.

There's an open request to get this mess sorted out (#2642), but no progress.

I had taken the time about 2 years ago to test all of the new account attach addresses on that version of BOINC and make a list of projects that were going to http instead of https. I did this because I had noted that once the project was loaded the client continued to use an http even though the project had an https. The response that I got was kind of MYOB the cleint will take care of it and implied that I did not have enough experience with BOINC to be helpful. I shrugged my virtual shoulders and deleted everything. In May I will roll into my 23 year of distributive computing.