Folding@Home: About.....How To.....Team Progress

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jancz3rt

jancz3rt

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Folding@Home : Team 44358

Contents:

1. General Information : What Is Folding@Home?
2. Downloading, Setting Up the Software and Joining In
3. Folding on a Dual Core CPU
3. Hall of Fame
4. Current Progress
5. Contact Details

Quick team stats: here

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Folding@Home Discussion Thread:


Folding@Home Project Information


Folding@Home Personal Milestone Announcements

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jancz3rt

jancz3rt

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General Information : What is Folding@Home?

"Our goal: to understand protein folding, misfolding, and related diseases"

Folding@Home is one of the highest profile distributed computing projects around, and is arguably the most rewarding to contribute to. Distributed computing, in its simplest terms, means thousands of individual computers coming together to do the same job as a supercomputer – process really fast. Each computer does a small part, and by adding all those parts together, you are left with a huge net result. The internet has made this all possible, and with distributed computing there is the potential to out-perform even the fastest supercomputers in the world – it’s that powerful a resource.

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Thousands of computers around the world work on
simulations, then send the results back across the internet​


Folding, where the project name came from, is the biological process of proteins changing shape to serve its purpose. Now whilst the theory behind it is complicated, the results of folding going wrong is plain for everyone to see – mis-folding results in serious diseases, including cancer, to develop. By using computers to simulate the proteins doing what they do, scientists can better understand why mis-folding takes place, and potentially develop cures. That’s why this work is so important.

Folding@Home has been the brainchild of Professor Vijay S. Pande from Stanford University’s Chemistry department, and he has received numerous awards for the work he has done in developing this project. At present his work has attracted over 1 million cpu's to donate to the project, mostly through word of mouth and the efforts of people such as the creators of this thread. And this number is rapidly growing day by day. The future for distrubuted computing is looking very bright.


What can I do to help?

Simple. Follow the instructions in the next section to download and install the software, and donate your computer to help in this vital research. Please, most of us know someone who's suffering from a disease related to protein mis-folding. If you can help, please do. :)


How will using my pc be affected?

In terms of performance, the software only works when you are not doing other things on your PC. In other words, performance will not suffer. This is achieved by the program running on a very low-priority. Rest assured that your actions will not be in vain. You will be giving to a cause well worth your time because one day, what you have helped create could help you back.

For more in-depth information, visit:


I would also recommend the following if you wish to know more about individual projects and the amount of points that they carry:


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jancz3rt

jancz3rt

<b>VIP Member</b>
Downloading, Setting Up the Software and Joining In

You will have two versions to choose from: graphical/no-nonsense (background service)



Graphical Client

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  • The graphical client gives a 3D (OpenGL) representation of the folding simulation taking place.
First of all, download the client here: http://folding.stanford.edu/download.html

Once installed and running, the program will show up like this on your taskbar:

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Right-click on the icon and select Configure...

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Now type in your username and crucially the TEAM NUMBER, in our case 44358

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Now you can set the percentage of CPU power you wish to allocate to F@H when idle. For ease, just follow the settings you can see above. This is the setting up done..




Non-graphical Client ("No nonsense")

  • The non-graphical client is a background service which does essentially the same as the graphical client but without the "eyecandy"

Download the latest "No-nonsense" text-only console (with built-in Windows-service-install option) from the download page: http://folding.stanford.edu/download.html

fah4.jpg


Move it into a folder where it’ll be out of the way (e.g. create its own folder in the C: drive), and double click on the icon. A security window may appear, in which case make sure you allow it to run. A new command prompt window will then pop up (see below).


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Type in the following, pressing Enter after each line:

User name [Anonymous]? Create your own username
Team Number [0]? 44358
Launch automatically...[no] yes
Ask before fetching/sending [no] no
Use Internet Explorer Settings [no] yes
Allow receipt……greater that 5MB [no] no
Change advanced Options [no] no


The console will start up, benchmark the computer, then download and start working on the first work unit. If you get a firewall warning asking you whether to allow the program access to the internet, choose to allow it permanent access.

Wait for about 60 seconds, then close the window. When you restart the computer, it will automatically begin working in the background. You won’t have to do anything else, except perhaps check your progress here:

http://fah-web.stanford.edu/teamstats/team44358.html



Monitoring The Results - Non-Graphical "Console" Version

When using the console version of the client, there exists no simple, user friendly way of monitoring your progress. Enter Electron Microscope III.

Download EMIII from http://forum.folding-community.org/ftopic165-1050.html and unzip it. Double click on EMIII.exe and you will be presented with a configuration screen as follows. If you don't see the options page, click on the image of a microscope in the top left hand corner (green circle):

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Click on the Browse button next to 'Box Path' (red circle). Navigate to the folding directory you created, and select the 'FAH502-Console.exe' file. Click the 'Add a Box' Button. Then choose 'Save and Exit'.

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This small application will show you your progress as follows:

electron3.jpg



Happy Folding!



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jancz3rt

jancz3rt

<b>VIP Member</b>
Folding on a Dual Core CPU

Create two seperate folders somewhere out of the way. For example, in the C: drive, create the folders Folding1 and Folding2.

Download the latest "No-nonsense" text-only console (with built-in Windows-service-install option) from the download page: http://folding.stanford.edu/download.html

Now copy the file you downloaded to both the folders you just created. Load up the Command Prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd). Type the following commands:

chdir \Folding1 (substitute Folding1 for the name of the first directory you created)
FAH502-Console -local -configonly (if you used a different version, substitute FAH502-Console for the name of the file you downloaded)

Here is what you should see, with what you should answer in bold:

--- Opening Log file [January 16 04:59:18]

# Windows Console Edition ##################################################

Folding@Home Client Version 5.02
http://folding.stanford.edu

###############################################################################

Launch directory: C:\Folding1
Executable: FAH502-Console
Arguments: -local -configonly

[08:31:31] Configuring Folding@Home...

User name [Anonymous]? Your ComputerForum Username
Team Number [0]? 44358
Launch automatically at machine startup, installing this as a service (yes/no) [no]?yes
Use Internet Explorer Settings (no/yes) [no]? yes
Use proxy (yes/no) [no]? no
Allow receipt of work assignments and return of work results greater than
5MB in size (such work units may have large memory demands) (no/yes) [no]? no
Change advanced options (yes/no) [no]? yes
Click to expand...

... Leave all advanced options as default UNTIL ...

Machine ID (1-8) [1]? 1
Click to expand...

Now you can repeat for the other core:

Load up the Command Prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd). Type the following commands:

chdir \Folding2 (substitute Folding2 for the name of the second directory you created)
FAH502-Console -local -configonly (if you used a different version, substitute FAH502-Console for the name of the file you downloaded)

Choose the same options as above, EXCEPT
Machine ID (1-8) [1]? 2
Click to expand...

Whew! Your system will now fold on both cores. As an alternative to using the command prompt to load up the FAH502-Console files, you can create a shortcut to each of these files and set the 'Target' field to:

"C:\Folding1\FAH502-Console.exe" -local -configonly and
"C:\Folding2\FAH502-Console.exe" -local -configonly:

dualfolding.jpg




For those of you with Hyperthreading

Hyperthreading adds a 'virtual core' to your system. You can use the above instructions to run a second instance of Folding@Home on your Hyperthreading enabled system. This will not, however, provide the same benefits as running two instances on a Dual Core system, and it is recommended that you do not run a second instance of Folding@Home on your P4 with Hyperthreading



Monitoring the results

Running multiple instances of Folding@Home requires you to use the console version, which doesn't provide a simple, user friendly way of monitoring your progress. Enter Electron Microscope III.

Follow the instructions above for folding with one core, and simply add an extra 'box' for your second folding directory. This small application will show you your progress as follows:

em3.jpg





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Many thanks to ceewi1 for this dual-core folding guide.

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jancz3rt

jancz3rt

<b>VIP Member</b>
Hall of Fame

The Hall of Fame features the most active members along with
those who have contributed the most to our team and the
general effort. Thanks guys.


Top 3 Members:

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1. mep916
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2. superpetrik
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3. Praetor​

Note: please see our stats page for most up-to-date lists.

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jancz3rt

jancz3rt

<b>VIP Member</b>
Current Progress of the Team

Our team was set up by apj101 (our founding father - likened only to Jebediah Springfield in vision and gallantry :p) on 05-10-2005 and the team has since grown considerably. You can see for yourself:

Folding@Home Progress in detail - graphs, statistics and more



A capture of the official Stanford team certificate for the latest major milestone. Click on the graph to view the latest certificate.

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jancz3rt

jancz3rt

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