arguments for DC in schools

[Bluff]

Hey everyone- my school has around 300 pcs. I casually mentioned to the IT staff that they use some sort of DC program on the computers, but they brushed it off saying that they would need to open ports on the firewall etc. (which i didnt really buy, as the traffic would be solicited from inside the network right?)

but anyway, i was wondering if anyone could suggest a DC project which had a worthwhile and possibly educational purpose, and was bug-free.
Also I need a case study, essay and/or arguments for the school running a project, and also solutions to any problems they might throw back (such as would it take up a lot of bandwidth, overheating etc?)

Thanks a lot everyone.

 

[mrwizer]

I have found Find-a-Drug to work around my network design (proxies and gateways). Yes, on typical networks they would not need to open any ports (such as your home network), although they may have a proxy setup that does not allow direct access to the internet. I have seen quite a few school networks that do not simply allow direct access. So they may be correct about having to open ports, and not just making excuses. Although FaD (others?) travel over typical HTTP and do not need special port access. If the computer can view webpages, then it will most likely work.

My mentioning of Find-a-Drug being easy, is that I have it setup so that only one computer has internet access, and all of the workstations use the internet connected computer as the server. FaD allows for this to be done in a very easy way. Some of the other clients have to use separate programs to do this. Although there may be some other very simple ways to make to other projects work.

About all the DC projects could be claimed educational in my opinion. One problem you may face more than bandwidth (depending on the project) is client maintenance. 300 computers is not a small number. I have never had access to this many computers at one time, but even smaller numbers have required my attention a couple of times. And this is usually not a responsibility that the school IT staff is going to want to take on. Just ask Mondobyte about that many clients.

Although I wish the best to you. It is worth a try, you never know what they will say. And the TeAm could always use firepower like that.

 

[RandomFool]

I was thinking about this the other day in my school's computer lab. Half the computers there are just sitting around idle all day. I'm assuming having that many computers running at 100% cpu load all the time would get a little expensive as far as power goes.
One thought do DC projects run when the computer isn't logged in? I know you can install as service with folding at home at least but that might not help...

 

[mrwizer]

If they are already on, the increase in power consumption is minimal.

 

[ssvegeta1010]

Seventeen Or Bust is fairly educational, and has a minimalist design, and probably would not require to open any ports.
Theres not other way to see, but to try it, so you should at least suggest a trial period on maybe 1 or 2 computers.

 

[GLeeM]

Many teams have schools crunching with them.

Most projects have many schools and universities with their own teams.

Maybe a list of schools and which projects they work on would help.

 

[GeoffS]

Originally posted by: mrwizer
I have found Find-a-Drug to work around my network design (proxies and gateways). Yes, on typical networks they would not need to open any ports (such as your home network), although they may have a proxy setup that does not allow direct access to the internet. I have seen quite a few school networks that do not simply allow direct access. So they may be correct about having to open ports, and not just making excuses. Although FaD (others?) travel over typical HTTP and do not need special port access. If the computer can view webpages, then it will most likely work.

My mentioning of Find-a-Drug being easy, is that I have it setup so that only one computer has internet access, and all of the workstations use the internet connected computer as the server. FaD allows for this to be done in a very easy way. Some of the other clients have to use separate programs to do this. Although there may be some other very simple ways to make to other projects work.

About all the DC projects could be claimed educational in my opinion. One problem you may face more than bandwidth (depending on the project) is client maintenance. 300 computers is not a small number. I have never had access to this many computers at one time, but even smaller numbers have required my attention a couple of times. And this is usually not a responsibility that the school IT staff is going to want to take on. Just ask Mondobyte about that many clients.

Although I wish the best to you. It is worth a try, you never know what they will say. And the TeAm could always use firepower like that.

One of the nice things about FaD (and some other DC clients also) is that you can assign one PC to be the server and all the other PCs will only connect to that one PC. With FaD, you can specify that the server PC only connect once/day to the internet and can time it to do that off-hours, so the impact at peak hours (eg during the day) would not be a factor at all. I've found the FAD client to be very stable... I've got about 20 or so PCs running it dedicated, and I don't think I've had one lock up in a few months. Information about the FaD project can be found on their website, www.find-a-drug.com

Geoff