As the title suggests, i'm interested in controlling the BOINC client of one of my hosts at home from my computer at work during the day. i found a pretty good how-to guide in the BOINC online documentation, most of which i understand. but it doesn't quite spell it out for me,which is what i really need. the guide can be found HERE. as you can see , there are 2 ways to do it. one way is to place a remote_hosts.cfg file in your BOINC data directory containing a list of the DNS host names or IP addresses of the computers you'd like to have remote control over the client. the 2nd method is to "run the client with the --allow_remote_gui_rpc command line option," which will allow it to accept connections from any host, subject to password authentication.

i'd prefer to use the 2nd method, as i never know when i might need access to this particular home client/host while i'm out and about. so having the password memorized and being able to control the client from any remote computer is ideal for me. my problem is this: how exactly do i "run the client with the --allow_remote_gui_rpc command line option?" i understand that i must enter the command using the Windows command prompt, but what exactly to i type at the prompt? that is, what text/syntax precedes the actual command itself? also, what is the chronological order of things? do i do this before or after i have the BOINC manager up and running? any help would be appreciated...i would love to test it out tonight with a remote computer in the other bedroom so that its ready to go before i leave for work tomorrow.

TIA,
Eric


*EDIT* - i just realized that i really don't need to do this via the command prompt...i think it was explained that way for linux/unix CLI users, hence my confusion. i found another page in the BOINC online documentation that contains all the logging flags and options that can be placed into a cc_config.xml file. it appears i just have to add the following section to my cc_config.xml file:

<options>
<allow_remote_gui_rpc>1</allow_remote_gui_rpc>
</options>

...where the "1" will allow a GUI RPC from any remote host. if anyone could confirm that this is the correct method i would appreciate it. in the mean time i'm gonna try to gain control of this host's client from the computer in the other room and see if i can't confirm that its working myself.

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ok, i ended up answering my own question. i added the --allow_remote_gui_rpc command line option to my cc_config.xml file and restarted the BOINC client and it works like a charm.

once in a while my client gets stuck in a state of trying to connect, but never actually connects, and sometimes it spits up an error message after a while saying that it failed to connect due to an incorrect password. i don't think i've actually had to restart the client to fix this...rather i just go to "select computer" in the BOINC advanced menu and reconnect. but if i'm at work, my host may sit for hours before i can get home to address the issue...but now i can keep an eye on it from work, and reconnect the client if it hangs in the "reconnecting" state right from my computer at work.

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ok guys, it looks like i celebrated a bit prematurely. it turns out i cannot connect to my client at home from my computer at work today...so there's a good possibility that, after losing its connection and then reconnecting with the client so many times, my BOINC manager will finally fail to reconnect to the client after one of those lost connections, and i won't be able to reconnect the client until i get home from work b/c i cannot do so remotely. i think it worked without a hitch last night b/c both the host computer and the remote computer from which i connected to the client are one the same local network (i have a single cable modem, who's signal is split to both computers in the condo via a router), and i was using the host's name to connect, not IP address. needless to say, when i try to connect to my home client from work using the host's name and password, the BOINC manager on my work computer says "disconnected" and hangs - i have to ctrl-alt-del and use the task manager to terminate the BOINC manager, then i have to restart it. when i try to connect using the host's IP address and password, things seem to go a little smoother, but i'm still having problems - this time the BOINC manager doesn't hang, but it spends approx. 30 seconds "connecting to 192.168.xxx.xxx," then it says "disconnected" for a split second, and then starts trying to connect to the client again...and it repeats this cycle over and over again.

i'm not sure why it won't just connect for me. firewalls are disabled on both the host computer and the remote computer, so that's not the problem. anyone have any suggestions?

TIA,
Eric

PS - i've also come to realize that having remote access to a client is just a temporary solution to overcoming my "client connection" problem. you see, it happens in the middle of the night too, and unlike being at work where i can catch such a client hang-up as its happening (or shortly thereafter), i won't know about it if it occurs in the middle of the night, and it could be hours before i wake up to "reconnect" the manager to the client. so i'll probably be starting a new thread in the near future to address the issue of my manager randomly losing its connection to the client...

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ok guys, it looks like i celebrated a bit prematurely.

Didn't want to burst your bubble, you seemed so happy. This generally doesn't work so well. Many have tried without a lot of success. Thought there was a chance you might have solved it though. You could try BAM, maybe that will do what you want. If you do figure out how to make BOINC Manager do remote connections reliably please post instructions.

PS - i've also come to realize that having remote access to a client is just a temporary solution to overcoming my "client connection" problem. you see, it happens in the middle of the night too, and unlike being at work where i can catch such a client hang-up as its happening (or shortly thereafter), i won't know about it if it occurs in the middle of the night, and it could be hours before i wake up to "reconnect" the manager to the client. so i'll probably be starting a new thread in the near future to address the issue of my manager randomly losing its connection to the client...

Try killing boinctray.exe and comment it out in startup. I've had similar problems on some boxes and this often solves it. Supposedly it's just a keyboard poller but it's caused BM's inability to connect on several of my machines. Note that each BOINC version will reinstall boinctray.exe, so you have to remove it after each upgrade.

I'm not a networking guru, so I don't exactly know the answer to this, but I can tell you a few things.
Where you said you were trying to connect to "192.168.xxx.xxx", that's a private IP address, ie. you need to be on your home network to access that IP range. If you're trying to connect to that IP at your work, you're trying to connect to the IP on the work network, and since your home PC isn't on that network, it won't work. Same thing with using host names, if the host isn't on that network, no go.
I think for this to work from your work location to home, you'd need a static IP for the home machine that you could try to connect to. As per what you've described in your setup, the cable modem probably has a dynamic IP, so you won't always know what the address is. But if you did know the IP, you'd still need to get the router to forward your request to the correct machine on the home network.
You could try using something like Log Me In to connect to your home machine, then manage boinc from there.
Or you could set up a VPN between work and home, if you know how to do something like that.

-Dave

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Didn't want to burst your bubble, you seemed so happy. This generally doesn't work so well. Many have tried without a lot of success. Thought there was a chance you might have solved it though. You could try BAM, maybe that will do what you want. If you do figure out how to make BOINC Manager do remote connections reliably please post instructions.

thanks for the suggestion...i'll have a look at BAM and see if it solves my problems. also, the guide (which i posted a link to in my first post) suggests trying using an add-on program (3rd party software from what i can tell) such as BoincTasks or BOINCView. at any rate, i'll probably give all 3 a try as soon as i can find the time. hopefully i'll be able to report back with good news and instructions on how to connect to a client remotely AND successfully ;-).

Try killing boinctray.exe and comment it out in startup. I've had similar problems on some boxes and this often solves it. Supposedly it's just a keyboard poller but it's caused problems on several of my machines. Note that each BOINC version will reinstall boinctray.exe, so you have to remove it after each upgrade.

i'm assuming that by "comment it out in startup," you mean i need to remove it from the list of processes that start with Windows? if so, good...b/c that's what i did - i went to start -> run -> msconfig, went to the startup tab, and unchecked boinctray.exe. i left boincmgr.exe checked so that it would continue to start with Windows. at first i was concerned that boinctray.exe was necessary to get the BOINC client itself to start with Windows, but i see that boincmgr.exe is enough to do that, so long as it is in the list of startup processes. please let me know if this isn't what you meant for me to do...

as for the actual problem, i know you said you've dealt with similar problems, but i want to be sure we are in fact talking about the same problem. specifically, when my manager looses its connection to the client, all of the manager's tabs go blank - i cannot view the projects i'm attached to, the tasks crunching or to be crunched, etc. if the manager reconnects to the client, there's usually a minute's worth of down time before it does, and CPU & GPU usage drops to zero during the lost connection (i.e. all work stops crunching until the connection to the client is reestablished). if the manager fails to reconnect to the client, an message box pops up in the middle of the screen telling me that it cannot reconnect due to an incorrect password of all things (which i know happens to be correct)...and of course work cannot resume until the manager reconnects to the client, resulting in all sorts of wasted CPU/GPU cycles. when i click the "ok" button on the message box, it goes away like its supposed to, but the manager remains disconnected from the client, and i have to either manually reconnect it, or close and restart the manager to get it to reconnect. i'm hoping that this is the problem you had, and i hope that disabling boinctray.exe will resolve this issue for me...

I'm not a networking guru, so I don't exactly know the answer to this, but I can tell you a few things.
Where you said you were trying to connect to "192.168.xxx.xxx", that's a private IP address, ie. you need to be on your home network to access that IP range. If you're trying to connect to that IP at your work, you're trying to connect to the IP on the work network, and since your home PC isn't on that network, it won't work. Same thing with using host names, if the host isn't on that network, no go.
I think for this to work from your work location to home, you'd need a static IP for the home machine that you could try to connect to. As per what you've described in your setup, the cable modem probably has a dynamic IP, so you won't always know what the address is. But if you did know the IP, you'd still need to get the router to forward your request to the correct machine on the home network.
You could try using something like Log Me In to connect to your home machine, then manage boinc from there.
Or you could set up a VPN between work and home, if you know how to do something like that.

yeah, i'm definitely not a networking guru, so i'm sure my knowledge on the subject is even more limited that yours. while i can't confirm whether my cable modem at home has a static or a dynamic IP right now, i know that dynamics are much more common than statics, and that static IP's are expensive to have. so assuming my home IP is dynamic, going to a static IP is probably not an option. i've thought about using 3rd party software that would allow me to control my entire home computer from work (and not just the BOINC client itself) like Log Me In or TightVNC, but i was hoping to make use of BOINC's own remote connection feature...if that proves impossible, then i may just have to resort to such software.


thanks for the responses :-)

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There are a number of issues spinning around in the above, and as been noted, external IP addressing is the biggest, that seemingly is a showstopper, although as its "only" correct IP addressing, I suspect someone has solved it with a bit of messing around somewhere.

One common factor you can eliminate, if you have not already, is that of password. You mentioned above a few times problems both external and internal networking attempts butting up against password problems, but I havent seen any mention of the file concerned, so apologies if you've already done this, but if you havent ...

The password file for BOINC Client is: /.../Program Data/BOINC/gui_rpc_auth.cfg

If a BOINC Client password has never been set, it will show a string of random gobbledegook eg: 1vab5dg%tre4$njh87T6*&yhgfd in each Machines file. To start with just delete the contents on all machines saving a completely blank file with Notepad, and get it working on internal network. Then if all ok, and a password is preferred, go back and insert the same password of choice in each machine's cfg file. You will not then get connect retries due to password problems muddying the waters when focusing on network issues.

Regards
Zy

well, it happened again - it appears the BOINC manager has lost its connection with the client, and is failing to reconnect due to passwords issues...or so it seems (i'm not actually home right now to see if in fact that's what's going on - i suppose my computer might have hung, BSOD, etc. but i'm pretty confident that its just the manager-client connection issue again). the last MW@H task sent to that host was ~45 minutes ago, and as you all know, our MW@H crunchers ask for new work every few minutes depending on how fast your GPU is. there are no obvious issues on the server status page, and everything is up to date time-wise (so its not a server-side issue either). so now i'[m going to lose hours of MW@H production until i can get home and reconnect to the client...great. if i could connect to that damn client from my work computer, i could be up and running again in a matter of seconds...or, if i could to the core of this connection issue, i wouldn't have to toil with connecting remotely in the first place.

There are a number of issues spinning around in the above, and as been noted, external IP addressing is the biggest, that seemingly is a showstopper, although as its "only" correct IP addressing, I suspect someone has solved it with a bit of messing around somewhere.

One common factor you can eliminate, if you have not already, is that of password. You mentioned above a few times problems both external and internal networking attempts butting up against password problems, but I havent seen any mention of the file concerned, so apologies if you've already done this, but if you havent ...

The password file for BOINC Client is: /.../Program Data/BOINC/gui_rpc_auth.cfg

If a BOINC Client password has never been set, it will show a string of random gobbledegook eg: 1vab5dg%tre4$njh87T6*&yhgfd in each Machines file. To start with just delete the contents on all machines saving a completely blank file with Notepad, and get it working on internal network. Then if all ok, and a password is preferred, go back and insert the same password of choice in each machine's cfg file. You will not then get connect retries due to password problems muddying the waters when focusing on network issues.

Regards
Zy

no i haven't tried the above procedure, but first there are a few things that make me wonder if all that is even necessary yet.

first of all, regarding the lost connections, when my BOINC manager loses its connection with the client, it usually has no problem reconnecting with the client the first few times it happens. in other words, the failure to reconnect doesn't typically happen every time the connection is lost...which means the client must be recognizing the password stored in my gui_rpc_auth.cfg file.

secondly, regarding my ability to connect to the client from a remote computer, i already have it working on the internal network. if you'll recall in my 2nd post, not only was i successful in connecting to the host/client from a remote computer in another room (but on the same network), but i did it with a password too. so according to your suggestion, the next step would be to put the same gui_rpc_auth.cfg file in the BOINC data directory of every BOINC host i have, thus giving them all the same password. i'm not exactly sure how this will help, but i'll give it a shot.

also, to be sure i understand you correctly, in order to go password-less, do i delete the contents of the gui_rpc_auth.cfg file so it is blank? or do i delete the file entirely from the BOINC data directory? and can i test over external networks without a password? or should i begin my testing over external networks with a common password among all my hosts?

TIA,
Eric

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The password is only required when connecting to the Boinc client from another machine, if you're at the machine in question, you just enter:
localhost
into the host name field and skip the password.
One thing that could be happening: do you have other projects running on that machine? If so, do you have a lot of tasks queued up? One problem, similar to what you're describing, that has happened is that the manager has to use too much time displaying and updating all the info for all the tasks, so has trouble maintaining a connection to the local host. If this is what your problem is, the solution is to go to the tasks tab and click "show active tasks" to hide all the ones waiting to run.

-Dave

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The password is only required when connecting to the Boinc client from another machine, if you're at the machine in question, you just enter:
localhost
into the host name field and skip the password.

got it...thanks

One thing that could be happening: do you have other projects running on that machine? If so, do you have a lot of tasks queued up? One problem, similar to what you're describing, that has happened is that the manager has to use too much time displaying and updating all the info for all the tasks, so has trouble maintaining a connection to the local host. If this is what your problem is, the solution is to go to the tasks tab and click "show active tasks" to hide all the ones waiting to run.

this was actually suggested to me about 6 months ago when i first got into GPU crunching. when i first started GPU crunching i would experience client-manager connection issues...though they were of a slightly different nature than the connection problems i'm having now in that i never had a problem reconnecting to the client (no password issues). i set the manager to show only active tasks, but it didn't seem to do much for my problem at the time...so i went back to displaying all tasks. eventually, the client-manger connection problems disappeared for a few months. now they're back again. i'll go ahead and try showing only active tasks again, and monitor things over a 24 hour period to see if my connection problems lessen...but i'm skeptical.

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The problem may not be related to the number of tasks being shown, but it's at least something you can try. You can also run Boinc, when you're not home, without the manager. If the manager is what's causing the problem, just do File-> Exit and make sure the option to stop the science apps is not checked. The manager won't be running, so won't need to connect, but the apps should keep processing just fine. I run this way sometimes since I use BoincTasks and don't need the Boinc manager, too.

-Dave

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Try killing boinctray.exe and comment it out in startup. I've had similar problems on some boxes and this often solves it. Supposedly it's just a keyboard poller but it's caused problems on several of my machines. Note that each BOINC version will reinstall boinctray.exe, so you have to remove it after each upgrade.

i'm assuming that by "comment it out in startup," you mean i need to remove it from the list of processes that start with Windows? if so, good...b/c that's what i did - i went to start -> run -> msconfig, went to the startup tab, and unchecked boinctray.exe. i left boincmgr.exe checked so that it would continue to start with Windows. at first i was concerned that boinctray.exe was necessary to get the BOINC client itself to start with Windows, but i see that boincmgr.exe is enough to do that, so long as it is in the list of startup processes. please let me know if this isn't what you meant for me to do...

as for the actual problem, i know you said you've dealt with similar problems, but i want to be sure we are in fact talking about the same problem. specifically, when my manager looses its connection to the client, all of the manager's tabs go blank - i cannot view the projects i'm attached to, the tasks crunching or to be crunched, etc. if the manager reconnects to the client, there's usually a minute's worth of down time before it does, and CPU & GPU usage drops to zero during the lost connection (i.e. all work stops crunching until the connection to the client is reestablished). if the manager fails to reconnect to the client, an message box pops up in the middle of the screen telling me that it cannot reconnect due to an incorrect password of all things (which i know happens to be correct)...and of course work cannot resume until the manager reconnects to the client, resulting in all sorts of wasted CPU/GPU cycles. when i click the "ok" button on the message box, it goes away like its supposed to, but the manager remains disconnected from the client, and i have to either manually reconnect it, or close and restart the manager to get it to reconnect. i'm hoping that this is the problem you had, and i hope that disabling boinctray.exe will resolve this issue for me...

Yes, BOINC Manager refuses to connect to BOINC until boinctray is killed. The difference is that in my case boinc.exe and the project apps keep running. They can also be accessed via BoincTasks and BoincView from another machine on the local network. BTW, BoincTasks is excellent, BoincView is now badly outdated. If boinc.exe is failing and the client apps aren't running you may have a more serious problem. Make sure BOINC and the client apps aren't getting restricted by any security programs.

...... also, to be sure i understand you correctly, in order to go password-less, do i delete the contents of the gui_rpc_auth.cfg file so it is blank? or do i delete the file entirely from the BOINC data directory? and can i test over external networks without a password? .....

The point about the Password side of life is they will not talk to each other unless that cfg file is either blank, or contains the same password.

The main issue is the Network connecting, clearly. The password is, at the end of the day a non issue, as its easily resolved. However it will get in the way of Network tests because unless the file is Blank, or has the same Password, they will never connect whether or not the IP is resolved. There is a password issue, as you have said its complaining it cant connect due to password

Easiest thing for now, so you can go ahead IP testing without being messed around by password et al, is just set the cfg file as blank (dont delete it), just delete the contents and save under the same name in the same place as an empty file. Later when it all settles just go back and put in the same password for each machine, if you want to use a password, its not mandatory.

As regards external threat with no Password, for sure its easy enough to paint an Armagedeon scenario of open access etc, but its really unlikely to say the least, we dont have that level of information on our PCs to warrent individual manual attention of that nature. At the end of the day, when you have resolved the main IP issue, if you want a password, stick it in only takes seconds, just make sure each cfg file has the same password.

Regards
Zy

A few things I've noticed:

The usual Microsoft-provided way of logging into another computer interferes with GPU crunching at both ends of the connection. Look for ways provided by someone other than Microsoft.

For me, losing access between the BOINC client and the BOINC manager is easily handled by killing the boincmgr.exe process, then starting another copy, whenever I see the problem. I suspect that this problem is due to some interference from my antivirus program.

The point about the Password side of life is they will not talk to each other unless that cfg file is either blank, or contains the same password.

i think the bold part is confusing me. why would both computers need the same password in order to communicate? from everything i've read about connecting to a client remotely in the online BOINC documentation so far, i never saw mention of the idea that both the client and the remote computer must have an identical gui_rpc_auth.cfg file (and hence identical passwords). from what i've gathered so far, i just need to know the password of the client i'm trying to connect to, and the password of of the client on the remote computer shouldn't matter b/c its not the client i'm trying to connect to. after all, when you go "select computer" in BOINC's advanced menu, you must enter the name (or IP address) of the host/client you want to connect to, and that client's password. the password of the client on the remote computer should have nothing to do with it.

don't get me wrong, i'm going to try it anyways. its just that, if this is necessary, nowhere in the documentation does it say so.

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Sunny, you are correct, you don't need them to match, you only need the password of the machine you're trying to connect to. I think maybe what Zydor may mean is that if you are trying to log into more than one machine, make all the passwords the same so you don't have to remember which is which? Also, I think he's really saying that you should remove them completely just to eliminate that as a variable until you get things working, then worry about adding them back.

-Dave

[Edit] If you do decide to use something like BoincTasks, they should all be the same, though - I think BT can only remember a single password for all macines, maybe, possibly?

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Yes, BOINC Manager refuses to connect to BOINC until boinctray is killed. The difference is that in my case boinc.exe and the project apps keep running. They can also be accessed via BoincTasks and BoincView from another machine on the local network. BTW, BoincTasks is excellent, BoincView is now badly outdated. If boinc.exe is failing and the client apps aren't running you may have a more serious problem. Make sure BOINC and the client apps aren't getting restricted by any security programs.

A few things I've noticed:

The usual Microsoft-provided way of logging into another computer interferes with GPU crunching at both ends of the connection. Look for ways provided by someone other than Microsoft.

For me, losing access between the BOINC client and the BOINC manager is easily handled by killing the boincmgr.exe process, then starting another copy, whenever I see the problem. I suspect that this problem is due to some interference from my antivirus program.

i run ClamWin Antivirus b/c its free and interferes less than most other antivirus software. as far as i know none of its settings should allow it to interfere w/ BOINC, but i'm not 100% sure of that. what kind of things should i be looking for that might indicate that ClamWin may be causing problems with BOINC? i suppose the easiest way is to just close ClamWin, let BOINC run for a while, and see if the client-manager connection problems persist.

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Sunny, you are correct, you don't need them to match, you only need the password of the machine you're trying to connect to. I think maybe what Zydor may mean is that if you are trying to log into more than one machine, make all the passwords the same so you don't have to remember which is which? Also, I think he's really saying that you should remove them completely just to eliminate that as a variable until you get things working, then worry about adding them back.

-Dave

ok , i think you're right Dave...sorry for the misunderstanding Zy ;-)

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i suppose the easiest way is to just close ClamWin, let BOINC run for a while, and see if the client-manager connection problems persist.

Yep. Also check firewall and anti-spy if installed. You're pretty safe if you're just running BOINC at the time. I'd avoid browsing or e-mail while the security programs are disabled. FWIW I'm using Comodo or Avira and exclude the BOINC directories. Both are free.

.... Also, I think he's really saying that you should remove them completely just to eliminate that as a variable until you get things working, then worry about adding them back....

Give that man a Cigar :)

ok , i think you're right Dave...sorry for the misunderstanding Zy ;-)

No worries, passwords are a minor thing in the great scheme of hassles you have, but does need eliminating, else you will be driven daft not knowing what is causing what.

Alsao bare in mind that similar effects can be found with the Client if you have password issues at local Homegroup/Workgroup level, and Windows itself gets a hissy fit because those Windows level Passwords and User Access Permissions used by the Homegroup/Workgroup are messed up. Highly unlikely with you as it sounds as if the local network is fine, but kept it there in the back of your mind, if having sorted the Client passwords, you are still getting some password error complaints.

Once the password saga disappears, and you no longer get moaning error messages about it, and can communicate on the Local Network through the BOINC Client to another machine, then you can concentrate on the main issue(s) knowing you will not get messed around ...... else it will end up rather like trying to knit Fog rofl :)

Regards
Zy