Problems and Technical Issues with Rosetta@home

Author	Message
Sid Celery Send message Joined: 11 Feb 08 Posts: 2117 Credit: 41,161,072 RAC: 15,284	Message 77225 - Posted: 3 Aug 2014, 1:52:34 UTC - in response to Message 77224. Once it had a connection, an upload of 1.5MB took just 10 seconds, another indicator that neither the server itself nor the line speed lag. So I guess we can assume, that the number of connections is was the limiting factor. While I'm typing this, a few more of my uploads went through without retries, so someone must have fixed it :-) I didn't understand a word of the explanation earlier, but I just tried some manual uploads and, after a few false starts, everything on the two machines I'm close to has been sent and a few tasks have come down too. I feel some debt is about to be repaid over the remainder of the weekend. ID: 77225 · Rating: 0 · rate: /

David E K Volunteer moderator Project administrator Project developer Project scientist Send message Joined: 1 Jul 05 Posts: 1018 Credit: 4,334,829 RAC: 0	Message 77226 - Posted: 3 Aug 2014, 1:53:02 UTC Yep, I'm currently optimizing the number of connections on all our servers. Looks like they can keep up without too much load/memory usage so far. These servers are pretty old and I'm sure we'll upgrade soon hopefully. ID: 77226 · Rating: 0 · rate: /

Polian Send message Joined: 21 Sep 05 Posts: 152 Credit: 10,141,266 RAC: 0	Message 77227 - Posted: 3 Aug 2014, 1:53:56 UTC Looks like a DoS attack to me, to be honest: I just picked a random new user ID, 680000 and went up by one from there Example new users: https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_user.php?userid=680000 https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_user.php?userid=680001 https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_user.php?userid=680002 https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_user.php?userid=680003 https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_user.php?userid=680004 https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_user.php?userid=680005 https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_user.php?userid=680006 ID: 77227 · Rating: 0 · rate: /

Miklos M Send message Joined: 8 Dec 13 Posts: 29 Credit: 5,277,251 RAC: 0	Message 77228 - Posted: 3 Aug 2014, 1:54:36 UTC All waiting uploads just went through. ID: 77228 · Rating: 0 · rate: /

David E K Volunteer moderator Project administrator Project developer Project scientist Send message Joined: 1 Jul 05 Posts: 1018 Credit: 4,334,829 RAC: 0	Message 77229 - Posted: 3 Aug 2014, 1:57:45 UTC Hmm, I also suspected this but the IP's from the logs were coming from various places. Maybe I'll have to disable new users for now until we figure things out. ID: 77229 · Rating: 0 · rate: /

Polian Send message Joined: 21 Sep 05 Posts: 152 Credit: 10,141,266 RAC: 0	Message 77230 - Posted: 3 Aug 2014, 2:03:26 UTC - in response to Message 77229. Hmm, I also suspected this but the IP's from the logs were coming from various places. Maybe I'll have to disable new users for now until we figure things out. If it's coming from all over - DDoS then... oh dear. This is conjecture, but it's plausible that someone wrote malicious code to install BOINC as a background service, create a new user and attach it to Rosetta. ID: 77230 · Rating: 0 · rate: /

Sid Celery Send message Joined: 11 Feb 08 Posts: 2117 Credit: 41,161,072 RAC: 15,284	Message 77231 - Posted: 3 Aug 2014, 2:11:56 UTC - in response to Message 77227. Looks like a DoS attack to me, to be honest: I just picked a random new user ID, 680000 and went up by one from there Example new users: https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_user.php?userid=680000 https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_user.php?userid=680001 https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_user.php?userid=680002 https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_user.php?userid=680003 https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_user.php?userid=680004 https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_user.php?userid=680005 https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_user.php?userid=680006 This is kind of why I didn't understand the explanation. Disabling new users sounds like a wise move. If they're real, they'll come back. ID: 77231 · Rating: 0 · rate: /

Sid Celery Send message Joined: 11 Feb 08 Posts: 2117 Credit: 41,161,072 RAC: 15,284	Message 77232 - Posted: 3 Aug 2014, 2:17:45 UTC - in response to Message 77227. Looks like a DoS attack to me, to be honest: I just picked a random new user ID, 680000 and went up by one from there Same for 780000... ID: 77232 · Rating: 0 · rate: /

krypton Volunteer moderator Project developer Project scientist Send message Joined: 16 Nov 11 Posts: 108 Credit: 2,164,309 RAC: 0	Message 77233 - Posted: 3 Aug 2014, 3:22:04 UTC Last modified: 3 Aug 2014, 3:22:59 UTC Yeah, crazy... it's up to https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_user.php?userid=814655 ID: 77233 · Rating: 0 · rate: /

Murasaki Send message Joined: 20 Apr 06 Posts: 303 Credit: 511,418 RAC: 0	Message 77234 - Posted: 3 Aug 2014, 4:08:40 UTC The BOINC stats user graphs make interesting reading. Less than 100 new users a day in June and then thousands a day in early and late July. I think the BOINC stats "new users" is pulled from the stats on the main page. Does "new users" mean new accounts or people claiming their first credit? If it is the latter then it is not just simply a case of someone trying to shut Rosetta down with a DDoS. Perhaps a "benevolent" hacker signing up their bot net to help the Rosetta science? On the other hand, the Epstein-Barr news story was picked up by a lot of media outlets in late June/early July. Is this a genuine reaction from a public eager to help speed along a cure? ID: 77234 · Rating: 0 · rate: /

Polian Send message Joined: 21 Sep 05 Posts: 152 Credit: 10,141,266 RAC: 0	Message 77235 - Posted: 3 Aug 2014, 4:26:22 UTC - in response to Message 77234. Is this a genuine reaction from a public eager to help speed along a cure? Don't think so; if you look at those User IDs, they all seem to be randomly generated - ce followed by a series of numbers. ID: 77235 · Rating: 0 · rate: /

Murasaki Send message Joined: 20 Apr 06 Posts: 303 Credit: 511,418 RAC: 0	Message 77236 - Posted: 3 Aug 2014, 4:28:03 UTC Last modified: 3 Aug 2014, 4:31:49 UTC Looking at the third graph shows Rosetta jumped from under 27,000 active users in June to over 37,000 active users at the start of August. Edit: Don't think so; if you look at those User IDs, they all seem to be randomly generated - ce followed by a series of numbers. Perhaps two separate issues happening at the same time? A sudden surge in active users and a DDoS attack both brought on by recent media attention? I'm not an expert on IT though, so these are just random speculations. ID: 77236 · Rating: 0 · rate: /

David E K Volunteer moderator Project administrator Project developer Project scientist Send message Joined: 1 Jul 05 Posts: 1018 Credit: 4,334,829 RAC: 0	Message 77237 - Posted: 3 Aug 2014, 5:07:30 UTC I was told by Matthew Blumberg at Gridrepublic that the new users are real crunchers and that they "started a new marketing campaign via charityengine.com." So I re-enabled the account creation for these users. Our servers may get sluggish again but hopefully things will settle down as the new user rates decrease. And hopefully optimizing the connections on our servers will help. In the future, we hope to get more servers. This issue coincided with the annual RosettaCon meeting (so most of the Baker lab members were out of town), a final ramp up in CASP targets, and me going on a family camping vacation where I had no phone reception. Normally, I would have been able to react faster to debug and help diffuse the situation. I am sorry for any inconvenience and the fact that it took a few days to finally make some progress. ID: 77237 · Rating: 0 · rate: /

Polian Send message Joined: 21 Sep 05 Posts: 152 Credit: 10,141,266 RAC: 0	Message 77238 - Posted: 3 Aug 2014, 5:39:06 UTC Wow, real people! Neat... and Charity Engine would explain the "ce" ID: 77238 · Rating: 0 · rate: /

Sid Celery Send message Joined: 11 Feb 08 Posts: 2117 Credit: 41,161,072 RAC: 15,284	Message 77239 - Posted: 3 Aug 2014, 6:05:05 UTC - in response to Message 77237. I was told by Matthew Blumberg at Gridrepublic that the new users are real crunchers and that they "started a new marketing campaign via charityengine.com." So I re-enabled the account creation for these users. Our servers may get sluggish again but hopefully things will settle down as the new user rates decrease. And hopefully optimizing the connections on our servers will help. In the future, we hope to get more servers. Charity Engine - About Us Charities - Research Oh! I'd never heard of it before, but Matt Blumberg is part of their Tech Team, so I guess he would know. ID: 77239 · Rating: 0 · rate: /

AtHomer Send message Joined: 26 Jan 10 Posts: 13 Credit: 7,145,229 RAC: 0	Message 77242 - Posted: 3 Aug 2014, 7:03:54 UTC - in response to Message 77239. I was told by Matthew Blumberg at Gridrepublic that the new users are real crunchers and that they "started a new marketing campaign via charityengine.com." So I re-enabled the account creation for these users. Our servers may get sluggish again but hopefully things will settle down as the new user rates decrease. And hopefully optimizing the connections on our servers will help. In the future, we hope to get more servers. Charity Engine - About Us Charities - Research Oh! I'd never heard of it before, but Matt Blumberg is part of their Tech Team, so I guess he would know. FYI: A few weeks ago I found a pc here in The Netherlands that had the charityengine client installed without the user's knowledge. It is not impossible that some malware is responsible for this, the author of that malware would have more chance of winning prize money from charityengine. It was using a weird account name which I can't remember unfortunately. The charityengine software is a clone of Boinc, but with their own icons. By the way, this thread is getting really long and takes quite a bit of time to load. Maybe it's time for a new one? ID: 77242 · Rating: 0 · rate: /

Mod.Sense Volunteer moderator Send message Joined: 22 Aug 06 Posts: 4018 Credit: 0 RAC: 0	Message 77243 - Posted: 3 Aug 2014, 8:34:03 UTC - in response to Message 77242. By the way, this thread is getting really long and takes quite a bit of time to load. Maybe it's time for a new one? You can define the number of posts per thread you wish to load in the configuration of preferences on the R@h website. If a thread has more posts than you configure, there is a link you may use to see the remaining posts. Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense ID: 77243 · Rating: 0 · rate: /

AtHomer Send message Joined: 26 Jan 10 Posts: 13 Credit: 7,145,229 RAC: 0	Message 77244 - Posted: 3 Aug 2014, 9:30:05 UTC - in response to Message 77243. By the way, this thread is getting really long and takes quite a bit of time to load. Maybe it's time for a new one? You can define the number of posts per thread you wish to load in the configuration of preferences on the R@h website. If a thread has more posts than you configure, there is a link you may use to see the remaining posts. I mostly read the message boards whilst nog being logged in. And then it always loads the entire thread in one page. When I'm in a hurry, next time I'll log in first :-) ID: 77244 · Rating: 0 · rate: /

[TA]Assimilator1 Send message Joined: 9 May 07 Posts: 7 Credit: 5,399,250 RAC: 0	Message 77246 - Posted: 3 Aug 2014, 10:42:02 UTC Last modified: 3 Aug 2014, 10:51:30 UTC Yea it doesn't make much sense to have 1 never ending thread for all different tech problems, the longer the thread gets the longer it takes to find out about new problems in it, especially if it's your 1st visit to it! Yea you can look at posting dates but that's assuming the problem your looking at started at the same for you as others. Oh btw all my uploads have gone so it seems to be sorted now :). So are you project guys sure that all those new accounts are legit?? They look mighty dubious....... Gallstone Saying 'Damned' by itself makes no sense, you should of either said 'be damned' or 'damn you' ;) Joking aside, yea the initial lack of feedback or homepage news about this problem was a poor show, but other than that I think you & some others throwing a hissy fit about this is pretty childish! Computers go wrong, internet problems happen, hardware can fail & hackers can screw things up, basically shit happens so deal with it! I just switch to another project when these sort of outages happen. Although I will say it would be fair enough to get annoyed if you lost credit, did you? I'm guessing that Rosetta extended deadlines & so you didn't?........ Team AnandTech - SETI@H, Muon1 DPAD, F@H, MW@H, A@H, LHC@H, POGS, R@H, DHEP, CPDN Main - Ryzen 5 3600, TR Ultima90, MSI B450, 32GB DDR4 3200, RX580 8GB, Seasonic Prime PX-550 2nd - i7 4930k @4.1GHz, TR Ultra120 E, 16GB DDR3 1866, HD7870 XT 3GB(DS ID: 77246 · Rating: 0 · rate: /

Sascha Becker Send message Joined: 1 Oct 05 Posts: 2 Credit: 4,318,835 RAC: 0	Message 77249 - Posted: 3 Aug 2014, 11:36:32 UTC - in response to Message 77248. Have a problem with the down / upload of Wu's for about 2 days. Currently, I have 13 Wu's done, but which are not uploaded either by my internet connection or the internet my parents. I have already tried two different routers. Times have issued terminates the killer virus or firewalls. But no up or download from Wu's. Can someone help me? The problem I have only with Rosetta @ home otherwise everything works. Sincerely oetker201 / Sascha Becker. 03.08.2014 13:33 The work units I could now upload. Because of the problems with Rosetta @ home SETI @ home I had reactivated. ID: 77249 · Rating: 0 · rate: /