When checking progress of my WU 6615772 on my Host 498972, I came across this :-
Host 517516 which has downloaded WU 6615773 and multiple others per day.
Host registered on 30/12/06 has 4,924.80 credits 0.01 RAC, it is only a P4 1.70 GHz single cpu
With 4,576 results to it\'s name.

Also when checking my WU 6751962 on my host 498972 (I am doing 4 at the same time on this host), I found this :-
Of a minimum quorum of 1, the full replication of 8 have been sent out with 5 Hosts having problems

Host 607819, WU 6751957 has 94.52 credits 0.19 RAC, joined 7/4/07, it is an AMD Turion 64 MK-36,
With 56 results mostly Client Errors.

Host 117744, WU 6751961 has 62,428.81 credits 0.00 RAC,
joined 25/2/05, AMD Athlon MP 2800+ 2 cpus,
Has 1,153 results,
Downloading 2 WU\'s nearly every day.

Host 43150, WU 6751960 has 133,912.40 credits 0.00 RAC, joined 20/9/04, AMD Opteron 240 2 cpus,
Has 927 results,
Downloading 2 WU\'s most days.

Host 83212, WU 6751958 has 102,664.91 credits 0.00 RAC, joined 4/1/05, P4 3.00 GHz 2 cpus,
Has 904 results,
Also downloading 2 WU\'s most days.

Host 587615, WU 6751955 has 42,239.87 credits 0.00 RAC, joined 33/3/07, P4 1.60 GHz 1 cpu,
Has 1,090 results,
Downloading more than 2 a day.

It appears that a lot of extra stress is placed on the projects servers with hosts like this contantly contacting and downloading but not then stopping to process the work downloaded and then contacts the server for more.
It also wastes time when trying to get results as the WU will have to be sent again to hosts that will actually process them rather than just download them.

Perhaps the owners can be contacted to see they are having problems and offer to help them resolve the issues?

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You\'ll notice that host 517516 stopped uploading results in mid-July, I gather that was when it was added to a blacklist.

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I'm a volunteer and my views are my own.
News and Announcements and FAQ

You\'ll notice that host 517516 stopped uploading results in mid-July, I gather that was when it was added to a blacklist.

Thanks Mike,
Not sure what you mean by a blacklist. Did CPDN create a database of problem computers and could then block further access?
How would the Project team then know if it was a computer problem, it is now fixed and the user would like to rejoin the project?

Do the other ones I mentioned also fall into this category (except the one with Client Errors, as they surely have a problem)?

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This has been going on since at least last year.
Attempts have been made to contact the users, to no avail, so, yes, there is a list to which the computers can be added that prevents them from getting more.
If the person concerned ever becomes aware that their computer has lots of models, fixs the problem, and then wants to continue, they can post and ask for help.
And also explain what has been going on.

This has been going on since at least last year.
Attempts have been made to contact the users, to no avail, so, yes, there is a list to which the computers can be added that prevents them from getting more.
If the person concerned ever becomes aware that their computer has lots of models, fixs the problem, and then wants to continue, they can post and ask for help.
And also explain what has been going on.

Thanks for that Les,
Just wanted to bring it to the projects attention, but as they have it in hand I will let them handle it. Must have old Boinc versions as Boinc is supposed to stop downloading if the computer is over committed, assuming the WU\'s are not just dumped that is.

No problem, have a good day and keep smiling as it makes others wonder what you have been up to.

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Hi Conan

At the end of June while looking at someone else\'s models we came across the first super-maxi-downloader you mention called A**. I sent him two private messages when I found he was registered on the independent forum. They\'re still sitting in my outbox which means he hasn\'t picked them up. We reported him to the programmers who were about to cut off his supply, but then Ash\'s hard drive must have filled up with initial model data (!!!) and the downloads stopped.

The programmers now have a script to automatically cut off the supply to particularly bad offenders. The script also works on members we report to them. We recently reported another megadownloader who did not reply to an email we sent. The script cut off his supply.

Unfortunately the (only) two programmers are working under pressure and don\'t want lots of these reports, only the worst cases.

When I have a moment I\'ll look at your leads to the other megamodellers to see if there\'s some way these people can be contacted. The mods have no access to members\' email addresses, but sometimes there are other legit methods. Realistically, I can only get a message to a person who

* has a website that includes an email address

* or is registered on the independent forum under a name I can recognise

* or has posted on this forum, which enables us to send an email by deleting a post and completing the form

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Cpdn news

Hi Conan

At the end of June while looking at someone else\'s models we came across the first super-maxi-downloader you mention called A**. I sent him two private messages when I found he was registered on the independent forum. They\'re still sitting in my outbox which means he hasn\'t picked them up. We reported him to the programmers who were about to cut off his supply, but then Ash\'s hard drive must have filled up with initial model data (!!!) and the downloads stopped.

The programmers now have a script to automatically cut off the supply to particularly bad offenders. The script also works on members we report to them. We recently reported another megadownloader who did not reply to an email we sent. The script cut off his supply.

Unfortunately the (only) two programmers are working under pressure and don\'t want lots of these reports, only the worst cases.

When I have a moment I\'ll look at your leads to the other megamodellers to see if there\'s some way these people can be contacted. The mods have no access to members\' email addresses, but sometimes there are other legit methods. Realistically, I can only get a message to a person who

* has a website that includes an email address

* or is registered on the independent forum under a name I can recognise

* or has posted on this forum, which enables us to send an email by deleting a post and completing the form

Thanks mo.v, I understand. When trying to help some people they just don\'t want to know.

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People should feel free to report other instances of computers that are downloading hundreds of models without starting any of them.
It all helps to save wastage.

There are no contact details for member called \'Anonymous\' with 1093 models. Or for another member with 56 models who is by amazing coincidence also called \'Anonymous\'.

Paul Kennedy with 906 models gives a company website link in New Zealand. I composed an email to the company, but on trying to send it was told I needed to use my secure company login first and there was no way to register. Or I can phone the company in NZ. I won\'t be doing this. He has credit on Einstein or Seti which I don\'t crunch. But if any member can get a PM to him on one of those projects asking him on my behalf to please post on a cpdn forum, we can help him get his models going.

http://climateapps2.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cpdnboinc/show_user.php?userid=2286

CRUNCH-A-BUNCH (where have I seen this name before?) from the USA has 1153 models, has never posted here and gives no website. He has credit on half-a-dozen other projects, so maybe a multi-project cruncher could send him a PM through one of those?

http://climateapps2.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cpdnboinc/show_user.php?userid=57064
His model downloads stopped on 20 Aug so maybe he\'s realised there\'s a problem.

Eric Youngdale from the USA with 929 models has never posted here and gives no website. He has credit on Seti, so again, if any Seti cruncher can get a PM to him through the Seti forum, that would be useful. On the BBC forum his username is ericy.

http://climateapps2.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cpdnboinc/show_user.php?userid=15496

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Cpdn news

You might check pmurphy\'s computer. Until the beginning of February 2007, all its models crashed immediately, and since then it just downloads new ones.

And also jimipiere\'s computer, that worked successfully until November 2006. Since then it has a problem.

And also clarksn\'s computer with 524 WUs.

...

Thanks mo.v, I understand. When trying to help some people they just don\'t want to know.

Generally I think these people either don\'t have access to the machines, or subscribe to so many projects that they don\'t notice when one is having problems.


Also note that some computers with huge numbers of models were the innocent victims of the \'phantom downloads\' bug (but these should be easy to tell apart because the download dates would have been a while ago).

How would the Project team then know if it was a computer problem, it is now fixed and the user would like to rejoin the project?

I don\'t know whether the list is based on IP address or on Host IDs. If it\'s host IDs then all they need to do is detach and reattach.

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I'm a volunteer and my views are my own.
News and Announcements and FAQ

Phantom models were dozens or hundreds of almost simultaneous downloads on particular dates last October when Carl was working on the server. AFAIK there have been no reports of phantom downloads since then.

Robert, thanks for providing links straight to these members\' account pages.

Pmurphy gives a website in his Seti profile so I\'ve sent him an email. What a lot of these people belong to Seti. I may run a single Seti WU to be able to send them private messages there. Unless Milo thinks that enabling messaging on this forum would now be a good idea.

I see no means of contacting Jimipiere in Canada or Clarksn in the UK.

I\'ll now check the independent forum memberlist for all these people. So far out of 8 people whose details I\'ve looked at today, I\'ve managed to send a message to one!

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Cpdn news

Slightly higher success rate than I thought. I\'ve received an email from a guy in New Zealand giving me a contact email address for Paul Kennedy, so my own email to the company in NZ mustn\'t have been blocked after all.

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Cpdn news

Pmurphy gives a website in his Seti profile so I\'ve sent him an email. What a lot of these people belong to Seti. I may run a single Seti WU to be able to send them private messages there. Unless Milo thinks that enabling messaging on this forum would now be a good idea.

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Cpdn news

Paul Kennedy in NZ has emailed to say he\'s detaching from cpdn until he has time to sort the computer out.



Paul Murphy posted here to sort out all the downloads so I\'ve moved his post to a thread of his own here:

http://climateapps2.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cpdnboinc/forum_thread.php?id=5727

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Cpdn news

Paul Kennedy is another one still using BOINC version 4.19 :(
And jimipiere.
And clarksn.
And CRUNCH-A-BUNCH.

Eric Youngdale is worse - he\'s still using the horribly faulty 4.13

It\'s a shame that Carl\'s attempts to prevent downloads by versions less than 4.4* didn\'t work; it could be now set for 5.0 and stop the lot of them. :(

Paul Kennedy had no model downloads on 29 Aug so he appears to have detached as he told me he would:

http://climateapps2.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cpdnboinc/results.php?hostid=83212

I\'m not sure that my attempts to contact the megadownloaders are universally popular........

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Cpdn news

If the \"bad\" computers just continues to download, but doesn\'t report any errors, one likely reason is they\'re generating \"ghost-wu\". The method to stop this, as long as users runs v4.45 or later, is for CPDN to enable re-issue of \"lost\" wu\'s, and my guess is this would largely fix the problem.

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Any model that fails to send a trickle to the server for 6 weeks is considered abandoned by its owner and may be reissued to another member.

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Cpdn news

Host 423932 is closing in on 1,200 tasks downloaded with 0.00 points accumulated. It appears to be running cc ver. 4.19 and is still grabbing 2 per day as of this writing.

Host 125556 has only 124 tasks. It last received credit on 22 Jan 2007, then errored out all tasks through 02 Feb 2007. Starting on 03 Feb 2007 it has just been downloading tasks with no results coming back. It also appears to be running cc ver. 4.19