# ATTN: SETI@home Straight Dopers **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 20, 2002, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035 "2002-10-20T01:26:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![LolaBaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@LolaBaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaBaby)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/301 "2004-07-21T20:53:53Z")
Is there any reason behind the page showing only these [members?](http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/team_display.php?teamid=30652) Also, it doesn’t seem to be converting any of my work or accepting of the new one. Am I doing something wrong or is it their server? ---
**Author:** ![mkl12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@mkl12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mkl12)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/302 "2004-07-21T21:16:27Z")
> [@LolaBaby](#): > > Is there any reason behind the page showing only these [members?](http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/team_display.php?teamid=30652) > Also, it doesn’t seem to be converting any of my work or accepting of the new one. Am I doing something wrong or is it their server? Those are the only members who have returned any BOINC workunits so far. I’m not sure what you mean by converting, but try right klicking on “Seti@home” on the Projetcts page of your BOINC client and select “update”. That should upload all the workunits you’ve done. It might take some time, at most a few days, before you recieve any credit. That’s because the server waits until everybody whos ha done the same workunit has returned, so the results can be compared. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/303 "2004-07-21T21:48:58Z")
I got my computer at work to sign up ok, but I can’t get my home computer to do anything. It fails to connect and simply removes the project from my list. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![LolaBaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@LolaBaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaBaby)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2004, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/304 "2004-07-25T20:18:21Z")
> [@mkl12](#): > > Those are the only members who have returned any BOINC workunits so far. > > I’m not sure what you mean by converting, but try right klicking on “Seti@home” on the Projetcts page of your BOINC client and select “update”. That should upload all the workunits you’ve done. It might take some time, at most a few days, before you recieve any credit. That’s because the server waits until everybody whos ha done the same workunit has returned, so the results can be compared. Ok, it’s converted what I’ve done since switching over to BOINC, but what about all my old work units? ---
**Author:** ![mkl12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@mkl12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mkl12)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/305 "2004-07-26T19:01:50Z")
> [@LolaBaby](#): > > Ok, it’s converted what I’ve done since switching over to BOINC, but what about all my old work units? In your account it says “SETI@home member since 19 Jul 2004 18:47:28 UTC”. So it seems that you didn’t convert your old account but created a new one. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/306 "2004-07-26T21:06:33Z")
How are some of you getting enough work units to run the thing? I converted my home pc to BOINC and it spends three-quarters of the day trying to connect, getting “no work to process” messages and shutting down for a couple of hours. ---
**Author:** ![LolaBaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@LolaBaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaBaby)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/307 "2004-07-26T22:09:24Z")
> [@mkl12](#): > > In your account it says “SETI@home member since 19 Jul 2004 18:47:28 UTC”. So it seems that you didn’t convert your old account but created a new one. How do I convert it? I thought it was supposed to do it automatically. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2004, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/308 "2004-07-27T01:57:20Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#): > > How are some of you getting enough work units to run the thing? I converted my home pc to BOINC and it spends three-quarters of the day trying to connect, getting “no work to process” messages and shutting down for a couple of hours. They’ve been having on-and-off issues with the scheduler system that doles out the work units. My sneaky suspicion is their systems aren’t scaling up to meet demand quite as anticipated. ie: more users -\> add a server to the farm -\> uh-oh ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2004, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/309 "2004-07-27T02:00:16Z")
Also, [this site](http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/team_display.php?teamid=30652) seems to be the accurate listings - the black-background page doesn’t show BOINC results, and has different user rankings. ---
**Author:** ![mkl12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@mkl12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mkl12)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2004, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/310 "2004-07-27T07:00:03Z")
> [@LolaBaby](#): > > How do I convert it? I thought it was supposed to do it automatically. 😕 On the [sign up page](http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/sah_participate.php) you can choose between activating your old account or creating a new one. The difference is that when you activate the old one it will show the number of seti classic workunits in your BONC account. That number wont be the current one but the one from 14 May. > [@gotpasswords](#): > > ``` > Also, this site seems to be the accurate listings - the black-background page doesn't show BOINC results, and has different user rankings. > > ``` The black background page has the accurate rankings for Seti classic, the white one for Seti Boinc. ---
**Author:** ![LolaBaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@LolaBaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaBaby)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2004, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/311 "2004-07-27T08:00:21Z")
> [@mkl12](#): > > On the [sign up page](http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/sah_participate.php) you can choose between activating your old account or creating a new one. The difference is that when you activate the old one it will show the number of seti classic workunits in your BONC account. That number wont be the current one but the one from 14 May. > > The black background page has the accurate rankings for Seti classic, the white one for Seti Boinc. Hi **mkl12** , thanks for the help and I apologize for being so dense, but my understanding is that they only transferred what was done in my Seti Classic from May 14? Did they transfer anything at all? Have I lost credits? I tried activating the “old account” previously, I’m not sure if it worked. ---
**Author:** ![mkl12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@mkl12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mkl12)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2004, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/312 "2004-07-27T12:08:11Z")
> [@LolaBaby](#): > > Hi **mkl12** , thanks for the help and I apologize for being so dense, but my understanding is that they only transferred what was done in my Seti Classic from May 14? Did they transfer anything at all? Have I lost credits? > > I tried activating the “old account” previously, I’m not sure if it worked. No need to apologize, all misunderstandings are probably my fault. English is not my first language. They transfered all the workunits that were done before May 14 to Boinc. That means that if you active your classic account, in your account statistics there is a line “SETI@home classic workunits”. Those workunits were not not converted to Boinc credits, so for those everybody started at 0. In your case, it says “SETI@home member since 19 Jul 2004 18:47:28 UTC” and the line for classic workunits is missing. So I think that you must have registered a new account and not activated the classic one. You can try it again at this adress: [http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/sah\_email\_form.php](http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/sah_email_form.php) . If you do that now, you will have two accounts, one with about 500 classic units and 0 boinc units, and one with your boinc units. I wouldn’t bother with that in your case, the transferred units don’t reflect your current statistics anyway. And you will still be able to see the real classic statistics when the classic project is ended. (I think I read that somewhere. And I hope so, because I’ve done more than 2000 workunits since May and gained a few ranks. I’m trying to reach the first rank in the group this week. 🆒 ) ---
**Author:** ![Demo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demo/32/8472_2.png) [@Demo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demo)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/313 "2004-08-03T22:59:18Z")
Man, I haven’t been able to get a workunit to save my life for the last few days. The [news](http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/') is that the servers were down but are now funtcioning normally. :dubious: Well, I’m still not able to get any WUs. I’ve been running SETI classic for a few days now and will continue to until BOINC downloads some WUs. How frustrating. ---
**Author:** ![LolaBaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@LolaBaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaBaby)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/314 "2004-08-13T20:25:03Z")
I have to say, I don’t like this BOINC at all. It doesn’t update fast enough, and it not very user friendly, nor is it reliable. ---
**Author:** ![Demo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demo/32/8472_2.png) [@Demo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demo)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/315 "2004-08-13T20:34:22Z")
> [@LolaBaby](#): > > I have to say, I don’t like this BOINC at all. > > It doesn’t update fast enough, and it not very user friendly, nor is it reliable. I have to agree. I think the concept is great though. You also have to put a certain amount of blame on the infrastructure. If the servers were working more than 1/4 of the time I’d be a lot happier with it. I have to keep watchdogging it to make sure I have WUs. When I don’t I just switch back over to classic SETI until the BOINC client gets more WUs. ---
**Author:** ![Demo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demo/32/8472_2.png) [@Demo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demo)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/316 "2004-08-16T15:50:02Z")
Woo! I’m the [User of the Day](http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/index.html)! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![LolaBaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@LolaBaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaBaby)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/317 "2004-08-16T20:37:21Z")
> [@Demo](#): > > I have to agree. I think the concept is great though. You also have to put a certain amount of blame on the infrastructure. If the servers were working more than 1/4 of the time I’d be a lot happier with it. I have to keep watchdogging it to make sure I have WUs. When I don’t I just switch back over to classic SETI until the BOINC client gets more WUs. See, that’s what I don’t understand. I thought we HAD to switch to BOINC because SETI Classic was going to shut down. 😕 If I knew it was going to be so crappy, I wouldn’t have switched over. I’ve lost tons of credits and time due to this. Congrats on being User of the Day. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Demo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demo/32/8472_2.png) [@Demo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demo)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2004, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/318 "2004-11-23T23:26:21Z")
> [@LolaBaby](#): > > See, that’s what I don’t understand. > > I thought we HAD to switch to BOINC because SETI Classic was going to shut down. 😕 > > If I knew it was going to be so crappy, I wouldn’t have switched over. I’ve lost tons of credits and time due to this. > > Congrats on being User of the Day. 😃 Thanks Lola! 😉 Well, apparently I wasn’t paying attention again, because it looks like a new version of BOINC is out and it’s working fine for me so far. I even have tons of WUs. You can download it [here](http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php). Just install it over your old BOINC installation and it will keep all your account info. By the way, for those of you new to SETI, you can create an account with our team [here](http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/create_account_form.php?teamid=30652). Happy Crunching! Oh by the way, **rackman, mk|12 and gotpasswords** , watch your backs, here I come. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![easy\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@easy\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/easy_e)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/319 "2004-11-24T01:20:25Z")
I just joined. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but seeing this thread as an active post spurred me into action. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/320 "2004-11-24T05:58:32Z")
Does anyone else have trouble with BOINC silently going “obsolete” and not processing any more? Only clue I get out of it is the icon stays red, and there’s a day’s worth of messages about no schedulers responding. Telling it to “retry now” will make it grudgingly reveal that it’s unhappy with the old version I’ve got. So then, it’s off to the BOINC site to get the latest version of the software and install it. It does this about once every other month or so. I thought one of the “selling points” for BOINC was it was self-updating? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035.md?page=17)