MaxiSeti

Description

MaxiSeti is a collection of small batch files which can be used with the command line version of Seti@Home to reduce idle time for those of us who do not have a full time link to the Internet.

They work by downloading a number of work units in one go from Seti, and then passing them to be processed one at a time to the command line version of Seti@Home. When one finishes, the results are stored and another work unit is started. When all the work units have been processed, all the results can be uploaded at once.

Download

Download MaxiSeti V2.1 now (3,068 Bytes)

Installing

The first thing you will need is to get hold of the command line version of Seti@Home, which is available from the Seti Web site. Once you have this you will need to run it once to setup the user and version information.

Next, create a directory when you want MaxiSeti to work from and copy in the command line Seti and associated files. Download and unzip MaxiSeti into this directory. You will notice a fourth batch file called MaxiSetSetup.bat, this will create all the required directories and copy the required files. Before you run this bacth file, you should edit it. You will see at the start the following line:

set EXE_FILE=setiathome-2_0_i386-winnt-cmdline.exe

Make sure that the file name is correct, as it includes the version number it will change.

When you have done this, run it. You will see the following directory structure created:

/work 
/results
/part_done

You will also notice that the Seti executable has been renamed and copied, as have the MaxiSeti batch files.

There are just two more things that need setting up before you are ready to go. Both setups require all three MaxiSeti batch files to be edited. The first is to set any command line options for Seti@Home (such as proxy port setting). If you need these locate the line that reads set EXE_OPTS= and add in your options.

Finally, you need to decide how many files you want to work with. If you want to work on 10 files, locate the line that reads set MAX_FILES= and put 10 'x's. The batch files are preset for 20 files.

You are now ready to go.

Using MaxiSeti

The first thing to do is to get some work units. To do this run the MaxiSetiGet.bat file, now located in the /work directory. If there is a problem with getting work units, the batch file will terminate. After running, you will see the files work_unit.sahx, work_unit.sahxx ... upto the max you specified. You do not need to wait until all work units have been processed before running it again, MaxiSetiGet will get sufficient files to restore the maximum number available.

Once you have your work units, you can start processing them. To do this, simply run MaxiSet. You can stop processing by pressing CTRL-C. When you restart, MaxiSeti will continue with the current work unit. You will note that as work units are processed, they are copied out of the /work directory. You will have also noticed the /part_done directory. This is provided to allow the insertion of a partially done work unit from another source. Simply copy in all of the .sah files from the other source and MaxiSeti will finish the work unit after finishing the current one.

When a work unit is finished, the result file is copied to the /results directory. You will notice the same naming method is used as for the work units. When the maximim specified number of files is reached, MaxiSeti will stop.

You do not need to wait until all work units have been process before sending back results. Simply run MaxiSetiSend to send the available results files back.

As there are multiple copies of the Seti executable, and all files are in different directories, it is possbile to run all three batch files at the same time. This means that if you spot that you are running low on work units, you can simply run MaxiSetiGet to get some more without stopping processing. The same applies to the result, when you have a few you can send while still processing.