Here's another Moon for those of you who don't want to read the lengthy waffle that follows (I don't blame you):

It has been hanging on my kitchen wall since last Christmas,
but I renewed the batteries this week.

Einstein-Rosen Bridges Hurdles

Regular followers will probably be aware that I am a participant of the distributed science project einstein@home. Prior to this, and since 1999, I participated in the more widely known SETI@home (now discontinued). These days I only participate during the winter months since it consumes electricity which costs money, and the heat generated by the computers can contribute to heating my home. Since I have no interest in feeling like I'm living in an old-people's home, with a computer in each room, it's actually all just about adequate for my desired level of comfort.

Over the past few years I've developed this routine where, week-by-week following the end of October, I go around un-mothballing each computer. Since they're generally quite old now and the electrical components of the power supplies, motherboards, and graphics cards don't really appreciate being left for so long without use (particularly if they've gotten a bit damp and dusty), some things object (I had to swap a few things round, including a motherboard and power supply, and then a graphics card decided it wasn't going to play ball.)

In addition to the hardware issues, this time around I wanted to switch more things over to running on Linux instead of Windows 10 which I had mostly been using (my daily driver has been Linux for over a year now).

As many people can attest, making the switch from Windows to Linux can be a challenge for various reasons (there is both a learning curve and compatibility issues with software, for example.) Things have gotten better over the years and there's a lot of help out there from both the traditional forums to more latterly A.I.. Fundamentally, all that is required is the necessary BOINC software and compatible graphics drivers for systems that will be number-crunching on the GPU, all of which are available for Linux.

I settled on Linux Mint xfce and set about getting the install and setup process down to a tee so I could replicate the procedure on each computer. However, just when I thought I'd got my head around things I started getting a "Connection Error" on the next machine:

Invalid client RPC password. Try reinstalling BOINC.

After much too'ing-and-fro'ing with ChatGPT I'd just about got around this, at least in a temporary fashion on the one remaining computer that was presenting it...

But then since the 2nd December I started getting upload failures for all of the competed work on each computer; the uploads would get to 100% and then fail and be stuck in the list, which in turn would prevent any further work being received.

At first I thought this was a temporary issue with the project (SETI@home used to get a lot of technical issues). But after a day of it, and not seeing anything on the project forums, or anything particular on the server status page, I was starting to think the issue was more localised; but my internet connection was working fine otherwise...

Earlier this year I changed my internet service from broadband through a phoneline to connecting over the mobile/cell-phone network (by tethering wirelessly with my phone). I did this mainly for cost-saving purposes, but connection speeds are actually faster, the only issue is the data allowance is limited (that and the service tends to go down for a while during thunderstorms). I had concerns my deal wouldn't have enough data, and indeed last month I ran out for a couple of days when a couple of my computers still on Windows 10 started downloading updates as soon as they were switched on for the first time (one key reason I was keen to switch to Linux).

Regarding the upload issue, ChatGPT suggested aborting the uploads, promising this wouldn't result in a loss of credit, but BOINC itself said otherwise. I went ahead regardless on one machine and then successfully made a request for new work... but then the downloads were failing in a similar manner:

"transient HTTP error"

ChatGPT said this could indeed be due to my ISP "dropping or interfering with BOINC’s HTTP transfers" and suggested I try using a VPN, at least temporarily with a free trial to confirm the suspicions.

(I used to have problems years ago with SETI@home when I used a similar internet service that was compressing all image files, which BOINC was trying to use for data verification).

I looked into my options and then settled on ProtonVPN because it includes a free basic VPN as part of a standard free account, but would a Linux install go smoothly? Of course not. For some reason (although probably because it was too early in the morning and my brain still had the other options floating around in it) I ended up trying to download, install, and connect to NordVPN with my Proton login details; only after a few failed attempts did I realise my stupidity. Moron. Turning then to ProtonVPN's instructions proper for a Linux install and I ran into problems (I'd had a few with NordVPN but at least I'd got it installed!).

Having given up on that for the moment I installed ProtonVPN on to one of my two Windows machine (by simply downloading and installing the .exe, because, you know, Windows) and... hurrah! BOINC worked again, confirming the suspicions my ISP was now blocking the einstein@home transfers (the buggers).

Because ProtonVPN specifically states it's for one machine unless you pay a monthly fee I wondered how I might get around this; could I install it on one machine and bridge connections? (apparently no), could I install it on my phone and then maybe any tethered devices would be using the VPN? (apparently no), could I create multiple accounts with Proton? (possibly) Or, uninstall and reinstall? (maybe) This was beginning to sound like a hassle, but it turned out I needn't have worried about this; I could install the VPN on more than one machine, I would just have to connect to the internet with one at a time... something I was doing anyway since I have only one spare USB Wi-Fi dongle!

So for now I'm back up and crunching with my two Windows machines and I just need to address the two that are on Linux Mint... Ah, it's warm again in my office and bedroom...

Please ignore the slightly untidy cables.

I don't know why my ISP suddenly started blocking my einstein@home transfers; perhaps systems had detected the increasing flow of such spurious data and elected to block it. I'll look into contacting them, but first I want to at least get ProtonVPN installed and running on Mint...