The FAQ is mostly just a rehash of the one that is found in the (D2OL)™ Support Forum, but since I wrote that one, there is no reason why I cannot use it here. If you have any questions not answered here or wish to have something added to the FAQ; please e-mail me and I will be happy to get back to you with an answer.
Q: I see port ### always open. Why? What ports does it really need?
Q: My Proxy requires me to enter a user name and password, how and where do I do this?
Q: (D2OL)™ has access to the Internet and it still will not connect, any more ideas?
Q: Can the client run offline or 'sneakernetted'?
Q: Do I need a broadband or an always-on connection to the Internet?
A: First congratulations, you have successfully installed the (D2OL)™ software to your computer. It appears that the client cannot talk to the outside world and the D2OL servers at The Rothberg Institute. Are you behind a proxy server or firewall? You can set your proxy connection settings via the 'Properties' option. Just click on the picture of the checkmark in the GUI and select 'Network'. From this screen you can input your proxy information. If you are behind a firewall please make sure (D2OL)™ has permission to access the Internet and port 80 is open.
A: The only port (D2OL)™ uses to communicate with The Rothberg Institute's servers is port 80. However, there are two common ports that work as loopbacks: one random port that will open in order to connect the engine with the GUI and another that exists to communicate with screensaver mode. These ports never access the internet and only exist locally. While they may report false hits on a software firewall, a hardware firewall on the LAN will not see this activity, as the software firewall is on the same computer as the (D2OL)™ client.
A: Unfortunately, the Java package that (D2OL)™ uses does not allow the passing of a username and password for proxies.
A: Not to worry, the problem may not be with you. Every once and a while the (D2OL)™ servers may be down or experiencing high network traffic. To see if this is the case please click on the bar graph icon in the GUI (for 'Status'), or right-click the (D2OL)™ icon in the System Tray (Windows) or Dock (Mac) and select 'Status'. Communication with the (D2OL)™ servers is a six step process. From here you can see each step take place. If you wish to try to force a connection with the (D2OL)™ servers just click on the 'Manual Update' button and watch each service connect to its appropriate server. If there is a problem an error message will be displayed for each service step. If you suspect that the servers are not responding, visit the official forums at www.d2ol.com, or check in the #distributed or #tfy channels on irc.arstechnica.com to see if any TFY members are online. There may be a scheduled outage or someone may be able to confirm that an outage has been reported.
Alternatively, make sure your company's LAN isn't requiring access to the web via a proxy server (see previous question).
A. Yes it can. This is not hard to do at all but it takes a bit to explain it properly. Instructions for running the client offline can be found here.
A: No you do not need a broadband or always on connection. With a maximum queue size of 2,000 you can let (D2OL)™ crunch for several weeks before needing to connect to the Internet for new candidates and to upload its completed results (this is of course dependent on your CPU speed). The default queue size is 50 which is an average day of work (if the machine is left on 24/7) for a machine running at about 1.6GHz — however, this presumes an always-on connection wherein the client will fetch new tasks and upload completed results every six hours. If you are running offline, or have a dial-up connection, a queue of at least 500 candidates is suggested. This will provide enough work if there is a server outage, connection outage or a forgotten manual upload/download cycle. Tests have shown that 2,000 completed results will give a user close to a 10MB file to upload; plan accordingly.
