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---------------------------------------------------------- SETI@home for Windows September 2000 (c) SETI@home, UC Berkeley, 2000 ---------------------------------------------------------- This document provides information on setting up and using SETI@home. For an explanation of what you see on your screen, and other information about SETI@home, visit our web site: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu ------------------------ How to use this document ------------------------ To view this file on-screen, maximize the window. To print this document, open it in Notepad or another word processor, go to the File menu, and click Print. -------- Contents -------- - Introduction - Logging in to SETI@home - Preferences - The blinking icon - Moving SETI@home's Data Files - Removing SETI@home - Frequently asked questions (FAQ) Please see the FAQ "Why are we requiring you to upgrade to SETI@home 3.0?" at the end of this document. ------------ Introduction ------------ Thank you for installing SETI@home. With your help and the help of hundreds of thousands of other computer users like you, we increase the odds of detecting signs of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. This Help File explains how SETI@home works, how to alter its settings, or how to remove it from your computer. SETI@home actually consists of two parts: an "application" and a "screensaver". The application does all the work: it downloads blocks of data through the Internet, performs the number crunching on that data (looking for orderly patterns that might be artificial), returns the results, and gets another block of data. The application is represented by a green radio telescope icon in the System Tray (normally at the lower right of your screen). You can open the applica- tion window by double-clicking on this icon, or right-clicking on the icon and selecting Maximize from the popup menu.. The screensaver program runs when you haven't used your key- board or mouse for a while. It displays color pictures showing the data analysis process. Normally the application processes data only when the screensaver is running. Optionally, you can have the application process data all the time. ----------------------- Logging in to SETI@home ----------------------- To use SETI@home you must create an "account" on the SETI@home server. Your account is identified by your email address. This lets us notify you in case you discover ET. If you run SETI@home on several computers, they can all run under the same account. When you install SETI@home, you are asked whether you want to create a new account or use an existing account. The account is verified or created on our server at UC Berkeley, and SETI@home will run under this account indefinitely. If you want to switch to a different account, bring up the application window, open the Settings menu, and select Change/Create login. You will be shown the name of the current account, and you can elect to switch to another existing account or create a new account. To switch to an existing account, you just type in the email address. If you create a new account, you will be asked for 1. Name or nickname (handle) 2. Email address 3. Country 4. Postal code 5. Whether your computer is at school, work, or home We will not give this information out to anyone. We use it to get statistical information such as how many people in country X are participating in SETI@home, how many users are at school, etc. This information is on display at our Web site, http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu. If you check the option to display your email address, your email address might be shown on our web site if your screen saver finds something interesting, or if you earn some other mention, such as by crunching more data than any other user. The default for this setting is to NOT provide your email address. It's up to you. You can also decide whether to have your name appear on the web site. Windows lets you declare names and passwords for different users on the same machine. However, changing your Windows login doesn't affect SETI@home. If you want to change your SETI@home login, you must use the Settings menu. ----------- Preferences ----------- SETI@home lets you express your preferences for when it does data analysis, and when it makes network connections. You are asked for your choices when you install SETI@home, but you can change them later if you like. To do so, bring up the application window, open the Settings menu, and select Preferences. There are three sets of preferences: Data Analysis: either - Data Analysis happens only when the screen saver is active or application window is open, or - Data Analysis always runs If you select the first option, SETI@home won't use any of your computer's processing power or memory when you're doing your normal work. If you select the second option, SETI@home will analyze data all the time. this uses about 15 MB of RAM and requires processing power, so we recommend this only if your computer is fast and has lots of RAM. If you try this setting and notice sluggish performance of other programs, turn it off. Network Connection: either - Ask me before connecting to the Internet, or - Connect automatically whenever needed You can choose whether SETI@home should ask your permission before setting up an Internet connection to the SETI@home server. A connection to the SETI@home server is only neces- sary when it's time to retrieve a new block of data. On a typical Pentium-class computer, this will happen every one or two days. Therefore, connection is not going to occur very frequently, but still you may want to have the screen saver alert you before doing so. If you connect through a modem and your computer shares the phone line with voice calls or a FAX machine, you'll prob- ably want SETI@home to ask your permission before connecting (otherwise it might try to dial while you are in a phone conversation, which can be annoying). Choose the first option in this case. The flashing SETI@home icon will alert you when SETI@home wants to set up a connection. The second option (connect automatically) makes sense if you have a full-time Internet connection such as a Local Area network (LAN), ASDL or Cable Modem service, or if you have a dedicated dial-up phone line used only by the computer. This allows SETI@home to be more productive. If you choose this, don't be shocked when the modem suddenly begins to dial the phone, seemingly out of nowhere. SETI@home probably just needs more data to analyze. If you choose "connect automatically" in SETI@home, and you have a dial-up Internet connection (modem or ISDN), you must also set your computer's Internet options to dial automatically. If you have trouble with your Windows auto-dialing setup, select "Ask me before connecting" in the SETI@home preferences. When SETI@home needs to connect, first establish the Internet connection manually before selecting "Connect Now" in SETI@home. (To dial manually, select Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Dial-Up Networking, and double-click the desired connection.) Please see the FAQ "How do I set up my computer to connect automatically?" later in this document for more details. Proxy Server: For increased security, some organizations use an "HTTP proxy server" and / or a "SOCKS proxy server" when connecting to the Internet. If you are not sure whether you need to use a proxy server from your computer, ask your network or system administrator. If your system does require an HTTP proxy for Internet access, check the box labeled "Connect Via HTTP Proxy Server", and enter its name and port number in the fields provided. When you enter the proxy server's name, do not type the characters "http://" in the edit text field. The port number is usually 80. If your proxy server has a different port number, enter it in the port number field. This field accepts only numeric digits 0 - 9. If your system requires a SOCKS proxy for Internet access, check the box labeled "Connect Via SOCKS Proxy Server", and enter the appropriate information, as specified by your system administator. Please note: we spent a vast amount of time working on support for people behind firewalls and various proxies (including both socks and http). Despite this effort, many users may still be unable to connect to SETI@home. In this case, please contact your systems adminstrator or ISP and ask what kind of security mechanisms may be blocking traffic to/from SETI@home and what changes can be made in your system to solve the problem. We have been able to program for most proxies that meet the worldwide standards set by the Internet Engineering Task Force. Some software companies sell proxy servers that use proprietary protocols. Web browsers often have special proprietary code for these proxies, which we were unable to implement. ----------------------- ScreenSaver Preferences ----------------------- In addition to the client preferences, you may want to change the screensaver preferences. Select Start -> Settings -> Control Panel. Open the Display control panel, then select the Screen Saver tab. If Setihome is not the current Screen Saver, select it from the popup list. Set the amount of computer idle time before the screensaver activates in the "Wait xx minutes" field. Finally, press the Settings button to specify when and if the screensaver will blank the display (SETI@home runs much faster when the display is blanked). Blanking the screen can also save energy on many systems, as most monitors take quite a bit more power than their computers and many newer monitors will go to standby mode when you blank the screen. ----------------- The Blinking Icon ----------------- Sometimes you will notice that the SETI@home icon is blink- ing. This means that your attention is needed. Double click on the icon for instructions. There are several possibili- ties: - SETI@home needs to connect to the Internet, and is waiting for your permission to do so. If you do not have your com- puter set to dial automatically, you will have to dial manu- ally (by running your Internet Dial-up connection for your ISP) before telling SETI@home to go ahead. - There is a new version of SETI@home that you can download from our web site (http://setiathome.berkeley.edu). - SETI@home has encountered an error that you can fix. For example, you might be out of disk space. Delete some files, then click on OK to have SETI@home continue. - SETI@home has encountered an internal error. In some cases you may be able to fix things by quitting the SETI@home application (click the button in the upper right corner of the application window) and starting it again. If the same error occurs repeatedly, please report it to use via our web site (http://setiathome.berkeley.edu; go to "Software Download and Help"). ----------------------------- Moving SETI@home's Data Files ----------------------------- Due to our new security measures to prevent falsified results, it is best to treat all the data files as a unit. If for any reason you must move or copy the data files, be sure to move them all together. The files affected include key.sah, state.sah, outfile.sah, result_header.sah, work_unit.sah and result.sah (not all of these will exist at any one time). You need not move user_info.sah, version.sah or "SETI@home ReadMe" together with the others. Some users download work units and return results from one computer, but process different work units on different machines, or save them for later processing on the same computer. If the computers are all of the same type and are all running the same version of SETI@home, then the procedure above will work. As an alternative, you may move only work_unit.sah or result.sah between different computers running SETI@home. If you move only work_unit.sah, SETI@home will delete and reinitialize the other files, so the work unit will be processed starting at the beginning. If you move only result.sah to a different computer, that SETI@home client will send the result to the serverr and then continue processing of its work unit (if it has one). IMPORTANT: Be sure to completely exit from SETI@home (by right-clicking on its icon in the System Tray and selecting Exit from the pop-up menu) before moving files. Selecting Exit from the maximized application's File Menu or Close Box does _not_ completely exit. The SETI@home screensaver will automatically restart the application when it kicks in, or you may restart it in the usual way by double-clicking SETI@home.exe. ------------------ Removing SETI@home ------------------ Tired of looking for ET? Want to go back to flying toasters? Is SETI@home causing problems, and want to turn it off? Here are the three options you have: - If you want to temporarily disable SETI@home until the next time you start up, right click on the SETI@home icon and select Exit. It will run again the next time you boot up or the SETI@home screensaver runs. To run it manually, click on Start / Programs / SETI@home. - To select another screen saver. Click Start / Settings / Control Panel / Display / Screen Saver. Choose a different screen saver. If you have selected "Data analysis always runs" in your Preferences, SETI@home will continue to work in the background; otherwise it will run only when you bring up the application window. - To remove SETI@home from your computer and hard disk, click Start / Settings / Control Panel. Then run Add/Remove Programs, select SETI@home, and click the Add/Remove... but- ton. -------------------------------- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) -------------------------------- Q: How do I bring up the SETI@home application window? A: Find the SETI@home icon in the Windows "system tray" and double-click on it. The system tray is normally in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. The SETI@home icon looks like a green radio telescope dish. You can also right-click on the icon and select "Maximize". Q: Where is the SETI@home icon? I don't see it in the sys- tem tray. A: You may have exited from the SETI@home application by accident. You can run it again by selecting Programs / SETI@home from the Start menu. Q: I don't see SETI@home in the Programs menu. A: Install SETI@home again; download first if needed (from http://setiathome.berkeley.edu). Q: How do I set my default screen saver? A: In the Control Panel, double click Display to bring up the Display Properties dialog. Select the Screen Saver tab. There you will see a list of available screen savers from which to select. Note: SETI@home makes itself the default screen saver when it runs for the first time after installa- tion. Q: Can I use Windows screen saver password protection with SETI@home? A: Yes. Q: SETI@home was part way through processing a work unit, but then progress reset to zero and it started again from the beginning. What happened? A: There are several possibilities. If you have SETI@home set to connect automatically to the Internet, it may have returned the result and gotten a new work unit. (If a work unit has too much radio interference or RFI, then SETI@home may request a new work unit much sooner than usual.) If SETI@home's processing was interrupted abnormally by a system error or power interruption, its output files may have been corrupted. In this case, SETI@home will restart the work unit from zero automatically. Q: How do I completely get rid of SETI@home? A: In the Control Panel, go to the Add/Remove Programs dia- log, and select SETI@home. Or you can select "Remove SETI@home" in the Start/Programs/SETI@home menu. Q: My PC has lots of RAM and a fast processor. Can I have SETI@home run all of the time? A: Yes. Bring up the SETI@home application window, and in the Preferences dialog, select the checkbox "Data analysis always runs." Q: I'm running on a laptop and the installer hangs after I choose the directory into which SETI@home is to be installed. How do I fix this? A: On a few laptops, the InstallShield setup program causes a search for the floppy drive (drive A:), which takes a minute or two if the drive is not connected. Wait a bit, and the installer should recover. Q: I've just downloaded a new work unit and the connection to my Internet service provider has not been terminated. Does SETI@home hang up the phone? A: No. Windows automatically terminates your connection after a period of inactivity. You can set the length of this period in your Internet settings in the Control Panel. Your ISP may also close the connection after a number of minutes. Q: I'm running the screen saver: the left and right parts of the display appear to be cut off. Why? A: You are probably running your system with a display reso- lution of 640x480. We now allow SETI@home to run in that resolution; however, you will not be able to view the entire display. We recommend display settings of at least 800x600. You can change the settings for your computer in the Con- trolPanel / Display dialog. Q: I'm running on a dual processor Windows NT system, and the graphics look "weird". How do I fix this? A: You can fix the SETI@home behaviour by setting your sys- tem to force SETI@home use 1 processor. Q: I'm running on Windows 2000 Beta 3, and the screen saver does not launch the client. Why? A: We believe there is a bug in this beta version of the OS. You can manually launch the client from the start menu. If you "preview" the screen saver from the Display properties dialog, it will also launch the client. Q: Clicking on the SETI@home window's close box does not close the application; this only minimizes it. A: The green SETI@home radio telescope icon appears in the System Tray only when SETI@home is running. So instead of exiting SETI@home when it is not in use, we minimize it to keep the icon available. Since it is easy to forget this rule and click the close button on SETI@home's window, SETI@home treats its close button as a Minimize button. SETI@home idles at low priority while minimized, so it should not affect running other programs. If for any reason you wish to completely close SETI@home, right-click on the green icon in the System Tray and select Exit. The next time the screensaver activates, it will relaunch SETI@home (if you have selected SETI@home as the current screensaver). Q: Sometimes I see a graph in the upper left portion of the window, and other times it is not there. How come? A: This feature was added in version 2.0. When SETI@home completes each Fast Fourier Transform pass, it determines whether to do further processing (Gaussian curve fitting). The new graph shows the results of this curve fitting, but remains blank until data is found which requires this additional calculation. During curve fitting, the graph shows the current data being analyzed. At other times, it shows the best Gaussian found so far for this work unit. For some work units, the data will not merit any Gaussian curve fitting at all. Q: I would like to save energy by allowing my hard disk to power down. How can I get SETI@home to run without starting up the hard drive? A: You can use a RAM disk. For further information, please see our web site's links page at http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/links.html. You can also let your monitor go into low-energy mode, or even turn your monitor off. Q: I am having trouble connecting over the Internet. What do these error numbers mean? A: If you set "Ask me before connecting" in the Preferences dialog, SETI@home will display more detailed information for many errors. Q: Whenever SETI@home tries to connect to the server, it immediately gets an error. A: First, select "Proxy Settings" from the menu and check that they are correct. If that is not the problem, then try this: Set "Ask me before connecting" in the SETI@home Preferences. Manually tell your computer to dial the Internet. Then select "Connect Now" from the SETI@home menu while your computer is connected to the Internet. (To dial manually, select Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Dial-Up Networking, and double-click the desired connection.) If this solves your problem, your computer's "Internet Options" control panel may be incorrectly configured. Instructions for setting this up are given under "How do I set up my computer to connect automatically?". If your PC does not have a relatively recent version of Internet Explorer, you may not have the software needed for SETI@home to be able to retry dialing your modem after a failure to connect. IE versions 4 and later install the needed software; we have not tested with older versions of IE. The needed file is c:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\wininet.dll. Q: How do I set up my computer to connect automatically? A: For Windows 95 and 98, do the following steps: 1) From the Start button, select "Settings" and then "Control Panels". Open the "Internet Options" Control Panel. 2) Select the "Connections" tab. Make sure the desired "Dial-up networking" selection is set as the default. (The set default button will be grayed out if you select the current default in the list.) 3) Set "Always dial my default connection". 4) Select the correct "Dial-up networking" from the list, and click on the "Settings..." button. 5) Another dialog box "xxxx Settings" appears. Press the "Advanced" button. 6) The "Advanced Dial-Up" dialog will appear. Set "Disconnect if idle for xx minutes" Set the disconnect delay to whatever number you wish. If you wish, you may also set "Disconnect when conection may be no longer needed." 7) Close the "Internet Options" Control Panel. 8) Double-click on "My Computer", and then on "Dial-Up Networking". Double-click on the default "Dial-up networking" icon. Make sure the "Save password" box is checked. even if you are not using a password! If not already checked, check it and click on "Connect", then "Cancel". Close the dialog. For Windows NT do this: 1) Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Dial-Up Networking. 2) Click More, and then click User preferences. 3) In the Enable Auto-Dial By Location dialog box, select each location for which you want the automatic dialing feature to operate. 4) Click OK and then restart the computer. Q: I see references to versions 1.07 and 1.7. What is the difference? A: The SETI@home version numbering system consists of two whole numbers (integers) separated by a period. The part after the period is not a fraction. The first number is the major version number, the second is the minor version number. Originally, we planned to call the versions 1.0, 1.1, ..., 1.9, 1.10, etc. But this caused confusion; for example, which version is newer, 1.2 or 1.11? We felt it would help to include a leading zero for minor versions less than 10, to emphasize that version 1.02 is older than version 1.11. Q: Why are we requiring you to upgrade to SETI@home 3.0? A: Before answering this question, we want to say thank you to our users (over a million of you!). You have made history with this, the largest distributed computing project ever, with more processing power than any supercomputer ever built. Because the response to this project has been so much greater than we had anticipated, we have decided to put this extra computing power to better use and perform more extensive analysis on the radio telescope data. We have now added pulse and triplet detection to the analysis in our earlier versions. Because we have been able to implement faster methods, the new clients will do far more scientific analysis with only a modest increase in time per work unit. We understand that during the transition, there will be a heavy load on our servers for downloading the new software. Please be patient and keep trying; the quality of the science will greatly benefit from the upgrade.