I have been running BOINC for well over a year (SETI, ClimatePrediction, Einstein@Home) with no problems. Machine is a homebuilt system - P4 @3.2MHz, 1GB memory, Win XP-SP2)

This morning I decided to upgrade to V5.4.9 (it was 4.19.) I downloaded it, was asked to uninstall the previous version, then installed it.

The new version picked up the three projects apparently successfully, and started to run SETI and Einstein. Climate was listed as 'pre-empted'.

At least two problems appeared right away:

A. 'Messages' rapidly started filling with the following sequence - over and over again:
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01-Jun-06 4:11:17 PM|climateprediction.net|Deferring scheduler requests for 1 minutes and 0 seconds
01-Jun-06 4:12:19 PM|climateprediction.net|Sending scheduler request to http://climateapps2.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cpdnboinc_cgi/cgi
01-Jun-06 4:12:19 PM|climateprediction.net|Reason: To send trickle-up message
01-Jun-06 4:12:19 PM|climateprediction.net|(not requesting new work or reporting completed tasks)
01-Jun-06 4:12:43 PM|climateprediction.net|Scheduler request failed: couldn't connect to server
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B. The BOINC manager could not connect to the net for ANY purpose - Project web sites, Common Questions,Message Boards, etc.

I was connected to the net (ADSL, always on), but the BOINC Manager opened IE, which displayed a message at the bottom of the screen 'Connecting to site (IP address)', then after a while "Page cannot be displayed".

I have verified that the Windows firewall allows both boinc.exe and boincmgr.exe as exceptions.

Now I am lost.

Can any one offer assistance???

TIA

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John Carter

Are you using a proxy?

Boinc needs port 80 to be open to communicate with the project servers (upload, download, report).

Can you exit BOINC, restart it, then let CPDN try to upload its trickle (Select CPDN, press Update in the Projects tab) and then post all of the messages from the Messages tab here?

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Well, I am embarassed to say that as far as I know, I am not using a proxy (networking is not my thing).

I am using Windows XP firewall - I will investigate to see if it knows anything about port 80.

Following are the messages following the procedure that you described:

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01-Jun-06 7:37:48 PM||Starting BOINC client version 5.4.9 for windows_intelx86
01-Jun-06 7:37:48 PM||libcurl/7.15.3 OpenSSL/0.9.8a zlib/1.2.3
01-Jun-06 7:37:48 PM||Data directory: C:\\Program Files\\BOINC
01-Jun-06 7:37:48 PM||Processor: 2 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz
01-Jun-06 7:37:48 PM||Memory: 2.00 GB physical, 4.85 GB virtual
01-Jun-06 7:37:48 PM||Disk: 54.67 GB total, 33.29 GB free
01-Jun-06 7:37:49 PM|SETI@home|URL: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/; Computer ID: 369889; location: ; project prefs: default
01-Jun-06 7:37:49 PM|climateprediction.net|URL: http://climateprediction.net/; Computer ID: 73602; location: ; project prefs: default
01-Jun-06 7:37:49 PM|Einstein@Home|URL: http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/; Computer ID: 28439; location: ; project prefs: default
01-Jun-06 7:37:49 PM||General prefs: from Einstein@Home (last modified 2006-02-15 12:04:08)
01-Jun-06 7:37:49 PM||General prefs: using your defaults
01-Jun-06 7:37:49 PM||Local control only allowed
01-Jun-06 7:37:49 PM||Listening on port 31416
01-Jun-06 7:37:49 PM|climateprediction.net|Deferring task sulphur_ixno_100883428_0
01-Jun-06 7:37:49 PM|climateprediction.net|Deferring task sulphur_huv3_100833151_0
01-Jun-06 7:37:49 PM|SETI@home|Resuming task 14ja99aa.6153.18562.254826.3.176_2 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
01-Jun-06 7:37:49 PM|Einstein@Home|Resuming task z1_1234.0__383_S4R2a_1 using albert version 437
01-Jun-06 7:37:49 PM||Using earliest-deadline-first scheduling because computer is overcommitted.
01-Jun-06 7:37:49 PM||Suspending work fetch because computer is overcommitted.
01-Jun-06 7:38:00 PM|climateprediction.net|Sending scheduler request to http://climateapps2.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cpdnboinc_cgi/cgi
01-Jun-06 7:38:00 PM|climateprediction.net|Reason: Requested by user
01-Jun-06 7:38:00 PM|climateprediction.net|(not requesting new work or reporting completed tasks)
01-Jun-06 7:38:22 PM||Project communication failed: attempting access to reference site
01-Jun-06 7:38:25 PM|climateprediction.net|Scheduler request failed: couldn't connect to server
01-Jun-06 7:38:25 PM|climateprediction.net|Deferring scheduler requests for 1 hours, 23 minutes and 2 seconds
----------------

Not coincidentally (I guess) I am getting pop-ups on my screen saying "BOINC Manager needs a network connection......."

I truly regret having upgraded BOINC. Maybe I can find the old version 4.19 somewhere.....

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John Carter

Go to Boinc advanced, options, look at proxy tab and make sure it is unchecked.
Look at Activity and make sure you have not suspended network connection...

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BOINC Wiki

I truly regret having upgraded BOINC. Maybe I can find the old version 4.19 somewhere.....

No, don't go back to 4.19
At least for Seti you are now using the correct version which will give you the correct credits for your results.

See what Jim's instructions do for you, for both the Socks and HTTP Proxies.

At least this piece of information will tell why you won't get new work, before you are wondering:

01-Jun-06 7:37:49 PM||Using earliest-deadline-first scheduling because computer is overcommitted.
01-Jun-06 7:37:49 PM||Suspending work fetch because computer is overcommitted.

That means you have too much work on your computer, either for Seti or for Einstein, which is neigh on breaking its deadline... so all the work there is crunched first.

I just checked CPDN's server status, it looks to be up and running.

So for now continue with 5.4.9 and see what Einstein and Seti results do. If they also cannot upload, then please tell us.

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You'll also need a 5.* version of BOINC for the new climateprediction models when you get to them.

Thanks, Ageless and Jim.

The proxy box is NOT checked, and the Activity settings are Run Always and Network Activity Always Available.

Moreover, SETI and Einstein have now each completed a work unit (verified under the 'Transfer' tab), but cannot seem to make a connection to upload.

CPDN is happily crunching away (probable completion next year !)

It seems to me that the problem must be in my IE/BOINC interface somewhere - BUT, (a)I have not changed a thing in IE in months; (b) The previous version of BOINC ran perfectly for many months; and (c) all my other net apps, IE, OE, Firefox, etc. work as usual.

As mentioned before, when BOINC fires up IE, the bottom of the IE screen shows "Connecting to site (IP address - NOT a URL)" Is this normal? I would have expected a URL...

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John Carter

As mentioned before, when BOINC fires up IE, the bottom of the IE screen shows "Connecting to site (IP address - NOT a URL)" Is this normal? I would have expected a URL...

Try something for me.

Go to Start->Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs and click the "Set Program Access and Defaults" button on the left.

Choose default web browser:
Set it to Firefox.

Click OK on out.

Then see what browser opens if you click buttons in BM and what the message is then.

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OK - interesting....... There's good news and bad news:

Bad News.

I set up Firefox as proposed. Now when I try to connect to a project site, Firefox comes up, and the bottom of the screen now DOES show the expected URL.

BUT, after a short delay, "Connection has timed out. Server at XXXXX is taking too long to respond...." (I guess you know the rest).

Good News.

I switched hard drives, and put in an XP system that has never known BOINC. I downloaded BM, hooked up SETI, CPDN and Einstein - told it I was an existing user, and it took off.

It looked normal to me, though it seemed to download an astonishingly large number of work units CPDN 2 (OK); SETI 5 (?); and Einstein 8 (???).

I can connect to the project sites just fine, get my account details, etc. I haven't finished a work unit yet (of course), so I can't say for sure whether uploads will work. But based on the above, I am fairly sure they will.

Sooooooo - I will go back to my regular system, scrub off all the bits of BOINC, and start again as a returning user. I will probably lose the incomplete WUs (pity about CPDN), but there are worse problems.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions - I learned some things from you (like how to reset the default browser), and I am grateful. A pity that we will never know how big the iceberg was that the Titanic hit....

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John Carter