Q: The client GUI starts up but nothing happens. The GUI displays a message saying "Initializing". What’s wrong?

A: First congratulations, you have successfully installed the CommunityTSC software to your computer. It appears that the client cannot talk to the outside world and the TSC 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 CommunityTSC has permission to access the Internet and port 80 is open.

Q: I see port ### always open. Why? What ports does it really need?

A: The only port CommunityTSC uses to communicate with our 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 CommunityTSC client.

Q: My proxy server requires me to enter a user name and password, how and where do I do this?

A: Unfortunately, the Java package that CommunityTSC uses does not allow the passing of a username and password for proxies.

Q: CommunityTSC has access to the Internet and it still will not connect, any more ideas?

A: Not to worry, the problem may not be with you. Every once and a while the CommunityTSC 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 CommunityTSC icon in the System Tray (Windows) or Dock (Mac) and select 'Status'. Communication with the CommunityTSC 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 CommunityTSC 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, check the *****TFY News Section***** or visit the *****TSC forum*****. 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).

Q: Can the client run offline or 'sneakernetted'?

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*****.

Q: Do I need a broadband or an always-on connection to the Internet?

A: No you do not need a broadband or always on connection. With a maximum queue size of 2,000 you can let CommunityTSC 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 1.6GHzr — 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.