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Computer Security for Protein Foldeing Program
Thu, 28 Sep 2006 15:33:36 GMT soc.retirement
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Rita...
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Spent some time browsing the user forum for the
Folding program and found answers to my questions, which relieved any concern about computer security. * Yes FAH is safe, the client only connects to servers at stanford, you can see the list at the client is connecting to prove this. * As fenix25 says, folding@work is probably the best tool for scheduling when FAH runs. * The FAH clients connect using the HTTP protocol (same as your web browser) to connect to remote ports 80 and/or 8080 on the stanford side. The local ports used will be random, if your web browser can connect, FAH will be able to do so. * WUs are processed whether you are online or not, all required is downloaded at the start of the WU, and uploaded at the end. * FAH runs on idle CPU time, pushing your CPU to 100% all the time (all though this can be changed). It might have an effect on your hardware isf you have inadequate cooling etc. It might also have an impact on some software programs, but this can be alleviated by altering the max CPU usage to slightly less than 100%. For most computers, there's nothing wrong with running continuously at 100% CPU. All distributed computing projects are designed to use all of the resources that are not used by other applications. Since FAH runs as an extremely low priority task, your other applications should get immediate attention, just as if the computer was spending 100% of its time waiting for work. There are exceptions, such a laptop computers, where the cooling system in the computer is not designed for continuous operation, or such as a few situations with games, where portions of the game are designed to use the idle priority setting, but in most cases, you'll find that there's nothing wrong with running at 100%. Nevertheless, you can set the value to whatever fits your situation. So -- I learned it connects to Stanford's computers only when downloading new work or uploading finished work -- that would be every few days it seems depending on your computer capabilities. And it connects in the protocol used by other programs where something is downloaded and/or uploaded. It does NOT open up your computer to intruders. Also learned that it should not interfere with other work on the computer as Folding@Home is assigned low priority in relation to other programs. I still think this info could have been explained clearly and prominently without having to dig into a user forum to get access to it. El Castor...
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