I would like to install BOINC with Seti@home on my small LAN.
But where can I find info as to what affect running BOINC has on a small network? (To keep the network administrator happy)

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Very little. At the initial install there will be a bit of usage while each host downloades executables and work. Once this initial download is finished network usage drops dramatically.

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BOINC WIKI

BOINCing since 2002/12/8

Very little. At the initial install there will be a bit of usage while each host downloades executables and work. Once this initial download is finished network usage drops dramatically.

I am amazed that such a huge project does not have an 'administrator' team available or at least some documents to reference that indicate whether or not the software is 'safe' to install and run.
I have even failed to find a contact person for either BOINC or SETI.
So thanks to those knowledgable people who offer their opinions which are valued.
However I do need concrete facts for my network admin so if there's anyone working for BOINC or SETI or someone who has qualifications to comment on the sofwtare I would appreciate hearing from them.

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See here http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/info.php

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BOINC Wiki

I am amazed that such a huge project does not have an 'administrator' team available or at least some documents to reference that indicate whether or not the software is 'safe' to install and run.
I have even failed to find a contact person for either BOINC or SETI.
So thanks to those knowledgable people who offer their opinions which are valued.
However I do need concrete facts for my network admin so if there's anyone working for BOINC or SETI or someone who has qualifications to comment on the sofwtare I would appreciate hearing from them.

The project is "huge" only in our imaginations. BOINC and the SETI@Home team is, I think, a total of 6 paid people. THey have to do all the science, keep the machines running, write the software, and all the other tasks, oh and write proposals to get funding ...

Thus, they rely on volunteers in the spirit of open source. You can find contacts information on the front page of this site and send an e-mail, ask on the mailing lists, or here.

In almost all cases, the answer you are going to get comes from people like you that are participants, but, who *DO* have the knowledge. John Keck is one of the most knowledgeble people on the boards ...

All that said, I run a network of 9 computers, 24/7 most of the computers do nothing other than BOINC, the primary network is a standard 11G wireless to a 100 M link to the cable modem, with my workstations on a small 1G LAN segment (3 computers of the 9). So, the bulk of my machines have at most 100Mb connection or less run BOINC *AND* BOINC View as a monitor, now NetDimes, and I see *ZERO* impact on the network.

As John said, most of the time, the only time there may be a "load" is when downloading the application files, and in some cases the Work Unit Data File. Most of the time (CPDN excepted) the return Result Data File is only a couple kilobites in size. There is information in the Wiki about projects, file sizes and machine configurations.

So, if none of this is concrete enough ...

Oh, and my qualifications, 20 Years in the USN doing Aviionic repair using Automated Test Equipment, AA Equivelent in Electrical Engineering, BS in Computer Science (Summa Cum Laude), MS in Software Engineering, 10 years experience in Systems Engineering for the USAF (civil service), and, lets see, 2 1/2 years studying BOINC, writing/editing the BOINC Wiki (and predicessor sites) and commenting on the BOINC System. If necessary I can e-mail my resume ...

Forgive the sarcasm, but your dismissal of a correct answer was very condescending...

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I am amazed that such a huge project does not have an 'administrator' team available or at least some documents to reference that indicate whether or not the software is 'safe' to install and run.
I have even failed to find a contact person for either BOINC or SETI.
So thanks to those knowledgable people who offer their opinions which are valued.
However I do need concrete facts for my network admin so if there's anyone working for BOINC or SETI or someone who has qualifications to comment on the sofwtare I would appreciate hearing from them.

The project is "huge" only in our imaginations. BOINC and the SETI@Home team is, I think, a total of 6 paid people. THey have to do all the science, keep the machines running, write the software, and all the other tasks, oh and write proposals to get funding ...

Thus, they rely on volunteers in the spirit of open source. You can find contacts information on the front page of this site and send an e-mail, ask on the mailing lists, or here.

In almost all cases, the answer you are going to get comes from people like you that are participants, but, who *DO* have the knowledge. John Keck is one of the most knowledgeble people on the boards ...

All that said, I run a network of 9 computers, 24/7 most of the computers do nothing other than BOINC, the primary network is a standard 11G wireless to a 100 M link to the cable modem, with my workstations on a small 1G LAN segment (3 computers of the 9). So, the bulk of my machines have at most 100Mb connection or less run BOINC *AND* BOINC View as a monitor, now NetDimes, and I see *ZERO* impact on the network.

As John said, most of the time, the only time there may be a "load" is when downloading the application files, and in some cases the Work Unit Data File. Most of the time (CPDN excepted) the return Result Data File is only a couple kilobites in size. There is information in the Wiki about projects, file sizes and machine configurations.

So, if none of this is concrete enough ...

Oh, and my qualifications, 20 Years in the USN doing Aviionic repair using Automated Test Equipment, AA Equivelent in Electrical Engineering, BS in Computer Science (Summa Cum Laude), MS in Software Engineering, 10 years experience in Systems Engineering for the USAF (civil service), and, lets see, 2 1/2 years studying BOINC, writing/editing the BOINC Wiki (and predicessor sites) and commenting on the BOINC System. If necessary I can e-mail my resume ...

Forgive the sarcasm, but your dismissal of a correct answer was very condescending...

I am surprised by your sarcasm as I did not dismiss the answer nor was I condescending. I am very surprised that you have picked it up that way and fail to see from what I wrote how you could have misinterpreted.

I asked again because I am surprised that I cannot find an email contact from an official on the BOINC team. I need an official answer for a network admin and a knowledgable person on the board (whilst helpful as I stated and offered my gratitude) won't be enough for them.

The answer (again I am grateful for it) was lacking in detail and formal detail was what I needed.

I thank you for your answer as although it is not a formal declaration by the software makers it may be enough for my admin to keep him happy.

I must ask you though to read my message again. There was no 'dismissal' and I was not condescending in any way.

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I need an official answer for a network admin and a knowledgable person on the board (whilst helpful as I stated and offered my gratitude) won't be enough for them.

You'll need to post on the SETI boards then, or use email; and if the boards you'll have to decide what "official" is, if a "volunteer developer" or "volunteer tester" or "forum moderator" is good enough, or if it has to be a "project scientist" or something... Be clear up front in your posting, who you require an answer from, and why; Paul's problem with your response _is_ understandable, because you didn't explain _why_ you couldn't just take John's answer. Once we know some "suit" is involved, well, we've all been there. But "need concrete facts" is pretty dismissive of what John gave you, and "or someone who has qualifications" is pretty dismissive of him personally; they _were_ the facts, as concrete as you're going to get, and he probably actually KNOWS more about the issue than someone "on staff" - you just have a particular, bureaucratic-not-technical, requirement.

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I need an official answer for a network admin and a knowledgable person on the board (whilst helpful as I stated and offered my gratitude) won't be enough for them.

You'll need to post on the SETI boards then, or use email; and if the boards you'll have to decide what "official" is, if a "volunteer developer" or "volunteer tester" or "forum moderator" is good enough, or if it has to be a "project scientist" or something... Be clear up front in your posting, who you require an answer from, and why; Paul's problem with your response _is_ understandable, because you didn't explain _why_ you couldn't just take John's answer. Once we know some "suit" is involved, well, we've all been there. But "need concrete facts" is pretty dismissive of what John gave you, and "or someone who has qualifications" is pretty dismissive of him personally; they _were_ the facts, as concrete as you're going to get, and he probably actually KNOWS more about the issue than someone "on staff" - you just have a particular, bureaucratic-not-technical, requirement.

OK Low tolerance I think here, but my humble apologies to anyone who feels that I have been condescending to them or dismissed their answer. Maybe my brevity of post was partly at fault as well as lack of detail.

Now I understand how the administration works (thanks for pointing that out as I was unaware) what I need is some figures for a network admin who is worried that the software may compromise network security, and that it's operation may drain resources from the network. Some figures would be really helpful especially as I have some from SETI itself so the two together should create a clear picture.

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Henry,

I also pointed you to the front page of this site where there is a link to contact information.

I will also say that you are PROBABLY not going to get an answer that has much more information than we have given you. Quite simply the effect is negligable and no one has measured it, or is likely to.

This is not streaming video, this is not internet radio, it is an exchange of data files which in most cases are small. Exceptions are Einstein@Home where the file is 10M in size down, but used for multiple work units and CPDN which is up to 600M something at model completion.

When you average THAT out over the time spent, 60-90 days RUN TIME for CPDN it is not all that large averaged over time.

If he needs more accurate measurements, why not do the only test that is valid. Set it up, run it and measure it on YOUR system. Networks vary considerably, so do loads, the only valid test is going to be on YOUR network.

Note that the connect times can be limited to off-work hours if desired. As can the running of the application itself.

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As far as sensitivity, well, perhaps I was oversensitive. But, you request for someone " if there's anyone working for BOINC or SETI or someone who has qualifications to comment on the sofwtare" is, in my opinion, pretty condescending. Especially when the first guy to answer your question is pretty qualified.

BOINC, like many open source project is heavily supported by volunteer effort. In some cases the volunteers actually know more than the "official" people. There really is not decent "official" documentation. What there is of it is on this site. And I can tell you that your question is not covered there. *MY* Unofficial documentation also does not cover it.

Anyway, look for Dr. Anderson's e-mail address on the contact link.

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Oh, and any software that contacts the Internet can compromise security. The threat form BOINC is, however, again quite negligable as compared to IE or Outlook ... I have not heard of a single exploit to date using BOINC or the infrastructure.

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I appologise for not giving more detail in the initial post.

The actual network load varies from project to project and host to host.

In general there is a fairly large download at initial attachment to a project when the applications and supporting files are downloaded. This is generally less than 10mb per project. It will rarely be repeated since most of these files are reused for each workunit.

In normal operation the network usage is lower, since usually the workunit data files are smaller than the executables. For most projects these files will be less than 1mb each. They will be downloaded as needed and a faster host will need work more often.

The projects that do not fit into these normal modes generally do something to mitigate the bandwith required. Einstien@home gets several results per data file. CPDN has very long workunits that do partial uploads as they pogress.

To get the exact numbers to satisfiy your needs you will have to generate them yourself.

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BOINC WIKI

BOINCing since 2002/12/8

Henry, John, Paul, Bill,

Please, excuse the jump-in of someone completely unqualified to address networking, but one of my neurons mis-fired and I had a thought - perhaps the best person to convince a network admin would be another network admin? Henry, you might try contacting the administrator of one of the large computer farms contributing to one of the projects. For instance, at Einstein, some of these might include University of Toronto at Mississauga University of Toronto at Scarborough, University of North British Columbia, or Ohio State University School of Engineering. I don't have contact info for any of these network admins, but I'd bet that you're resourceful enough to dig into it and track it down, and I think it would be very likely that they'd be helpful.

If my idea is entirely off-the-wall, I'll just blame it on inadequate coffee intake, as I'm only halfway into my first cup. :-)

Michael
edit for spelling

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"The arc of history is long, but it bends toward Justice"

Henry, John, Paul, Bill,

Please, excuse the jump-in of someone completely unqualified to address networking, but one of my neurons mis-fired and I had a thought - perhaps the best person to convince a network admin would be another network admin? Henry, you might try contacting the administrator of one of the large computer farms contributing to one of the projects. For instance, at Einstein, some of these might include University of Toronto at Mississauga University of Toronto at Scarborough, University of North British Columbia, or Ohio State University School of Engineering. I don't have contact info for any of these network admins, but I'd bet that you're resourceful enough to dig into it and track it down, and I think it would be very likely that they'd be helpful.

If my idea is entirely off-the-wall, I'll just blame it on inadequate coffee intake, as I'm only halfway into my first cup. :-)

Michael
edit for spelling

Very good idea actually and I would like to add someone for you to attempt to contact. The "user" 'housing and food services' at rossetta@home. This is actually the network administrator for all the dormotories at the university behind rosetta. Rosetta as a project is at the higher end of the ranges I gave you so this should be an excellent source for mid to high end averages.

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BOINC WIKI

BOINCing since 2002/12/8

Actually, Rosetta now has a preference where you designate how long you'd like to crunch on a given WU. So you can download one WU, and crunch for 24hrs if you like to minimize bandwidth. The prior post here (note the ~4 month time difference) relates to R@H prior to implementation of this setting, and they were all running 2hrs I believe.

It appears part of the question was about network security "affect". I believe the initial posters were focused on network bandwidth. But I wanted to point out there is some BOINC security information here:
Security issues in volunteer computing

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