If there is a question that you think should be answered here, please submit it. SETI@Home has its own FAQs page that you can look at as well.

• What is SETI?
• What is SETI@Home?
• What is UBForce all about?
• What is distributed or collective computing?
• What if I have a real slow computer? Is it really worth it to join UBForce?
• Will participating interfere with the real work I want to do with my computer?
• Is there any danger in allowing this screensaver to upload and download data on the Internet? What about viruses?
• Can I run it on multiple computers using the same account?
• Do I have to be connected to the Internet all the time?
• Do I have to let my computer run all the time?
• Why do you have SubTeams?

What is SETI?

SETI is the acronym for the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence. The SETI program is based on the idea that an advanced alien civilization, if one exists, might be signalling the universe that it is out there. Such a signal would be extraterrestrial in origin and be recognizable as an artificial radio source because it would be ordered unlike much of the background radio signals of the universe. It would likely contain information in the universal language of mathematics and/or physics. Basically saying: We are here. SETI is meant to answer that fundamental question: Are we alone in the universe? To find the answer to that question is no would be awe-inspiring.

What is SETIHome?

SETI@Home is the most comprehensive effort ever attempted to analyze radio telescope data to search for a SETI signal. The project is so computationally intensive that it would be impracticable to run such a search using standard supercomputer technology, which is why SETI@Home was born. Using the CPU cycles spent running screensavers around the world and the power of the Internet to reach them, SETI@Home hopes to build the biggest virtual supercomputer on earth. Already there is over 700,000 people around the world donating spare cycles to this project and more people, just like you, join everyday. Thus, SETI@Home is already the biggest distributed computing project in history.

What is UBForce all about?

The SETI@Home folks want to make the project enjoyable for its participants and so has put together a friendly way to compete in the SETI@Home project. Participants can join Groups and compete together against other groups to complete the most data units. Groups can compete in different categories, such as 'Large Companies', 'Universities and Departments', 'Clubs', etc. SETI@Home keeps the stats of each group, as well as each individual, and ranks the Top 100 in each category.

UBForce is a group competing in the University category and consists of volunteers from the UB community such as students, faculty, staff, and, hopefully soon, alumni. Our goal is to make the Top 100 Universities list. It should be noted that UBForce is a grassroots group and not a University project. UBForce has not been officially sanctioned or endorsed by UB.

What is distributed or collective computing?

Distributed computing, sometimes also termed collective computing, is tackling a computing problem by spreading the work over a large number of physically dispersed computers, each solving a little part of the problem. Non-distributed computing is where a single machjine does all the work. Supercomputers work on the non-distributed model. There is a large computer located in one place which works through the problem at high speed. The idea here would be to make your computer faster and faster so that it could solve bigger and bigger problems. With distributed computing, the idea is not to get faster and faster computers, but more and more computers working on the problem all at once. This would be effectively the same as having one really large and really fast supercomputer.

This could be thought of as the 'snowflake effect'. Each snowflake weighs hardly anything at all, but, combined with lots of other snowflakes, it can become part of a mighty avalanche. The same is true of personal computers. Individually, they are as insignificant as a snowflake compared to Janus, currently the fastest single supercomputer on earth, but combined together they can become the mightiest supercomputer on earth. Already SETI@Home has the equivalent processing power of several Janus-type supercomputers, and it is still growing!

What if I have a real slow computer? Is it really worth it to join UBForce?

As mentioned above, this is all part of the 'snowflake effect'. It doesn't matter how slow your machine is. Combined with the computers of other UBForce members, we can become a mighty avalanche of computing power. Suppose it took your computer a whole week to complete just one data unit. That wouldn't look like much, but combined with 6 other computers just like yours, the collective computer would be churning out a data unit a day on average. Double that to 14, and we have 2 units a day. Double that to 28, and we have 4 a day and so on. In an avalanche, every single snowflake counts in the collective!

Additionally, if you are running Windows 95/98/NT, there is a non-graphical client which processes the data units in about 1/3 to 1/2 the time (because a lot of the processing power of the computer is used to generate the screensaver graphics). It does not, however, run as a screensaver but all the time and it will not work under Windows 95.

Will participating interfere with the real work I want to do with my computer?

No. The data processing client runs as a screensaver (and is quite nice to look at too) and so only runs when you are not working on your computer. Thus, it is specifically designed not to interfere with your computer work even on the slowest of machines. Of course, if you have a fast computer with at least 64 MB of RAM, you can run it all the time if you choose.

Is there any danger in allowing this screensaver to upload and download data on the Internet? What about viruses?

You are right to be wary, and this is a judgement that ultimately only you can make. But here are some facts to consider: The SETI@Home screensaver client was designed by scientists at Berkeley. You should only get the client from Berkeley (all the download links on this site go to the Berkeley servers). The client only downloads and uploads data units from the Berkeley server, not any executable code. The SETI@Home folks have not released the source code for the client. Over 700,000 participants have joined SETI@Home since May and there has been no reports of any security problems.

From the SETIHome FAQ page:

"This software will upload and download data only from our data server here at Berkeley. The data server doesn't download any executable code to your computer. All in all, the screensaver will be much safer than the browser you're running right now!"

Can I run it on multiple computers using the same account?

Yes. Just download the client to the new computer and during setup, use 'Login to Existing Account' and put your account email address as the account to login to. All results from that computer will now accrue to your account. This is also how you create a SubTeam on UBForce: one person on the team uses their account as the SubTeam account (since this is only for identification purposes, there is no security problem in doing this) changing their nickname to the SubTeam's chosen name. All SubTeam members login to that account identifier and all results are combined on our stats page. See the Join UBForce page for more details.

Do I have to be connected to the Internet all the time?

No. The client only needs to connect to the SETI@Home servers when it uploads its results and downloads a new data unit. This usually takes less than five minutes. The client will tell you when it has to connect (unless you have it set to connect on its own through a LAN or such) and so you could even run the client on your laptop, only connecting every few days to send results and get a new unit.

Do I have to let my computer run all the time?

No. The client runs like any other program, and will, like any screensaver program, restart the next time your computer is on and left idle.

Why do you have SubTeams?

To make particpating even more fun. Working separately, it takes a while to complete a unit, but as a group you can see results occur much faster and it is more fun to compete as a SubTeam. SubTeams can be based on any number of things: a department, a favorite computer/OS (like Macs or Linux), or just a group of friends. For instance, we already have one SubTeam, Philosophy@UB, formed by students, faculty and staff of the Philosophy Department.

Additionally, soon (we hope!) there will be more than 100 members of UBForce and our stats page will only list the Top 100 members. SubTeams will allow those with slower computers to compete together in the Top 100 of UBForce.