what other programs can run on my computer like folding home

[Kyle_Brandtjen]

I have the client version but want to have more. can i have 2 folding homes running at once? and is there other programs offsite that have similar programs.

[bollix47]

Please copy and paste the System Info and Config sections of your log as described here and we may be able to offer some suggestions.

[bruce]

FAH is a member of a class of software called Distributed Computing which uses the unused resources of your computer to solve huge projects, so yes, there are other such programs.

No, you really can't have two of them running at once. FAH is specifically designed to use ALL of the free resources on your computer, so if you were to set up two copies of FAH or one copy of FAH and one copy of another DC project, they would compete for those resources and each one would run more-or-less half as fast. Since FAH is time-critical, that doesn't make sense.

In some cases, FAH defaults to using slightly less that all of your resources, but that's intentional so that it doesn't create a noticeable lag when you're using your computer for something else. If you can tolerate some lag, you might be able to get a little more FAH performance than the default -- but you need to make that choice.

If you happen to find another project that you'd rather donate your resources to, we recommend you make a clear choice and only run one at a time. Naturally, we hope it will be FAH. As you might expect, here at this site we're convinced that FAH is the best DC project of all.

[Jesse_V]

There are many other projects out there. As Bruce pointed out, many of them are distributed computing projects, which use the idle processing power of your CPU (and/or GPU) to tackle large problems of interest. I would not recommend running two of these at the same time, although I will note that it is possible.

However, there are projects which use other resources of your computer that Folding@home does not use. There are a couple of bandwidth-intensive programs out there, which use your Internet connection to solve larger problems. Examples of this include hosting a Minecraft server or running a Tor relay. These can be run without interfering with Folding@home too much. However, as you might imagine, that there's more time and effort involved with setting up these additional programs, managing them, and ensuring that they do not conflict for resources with Folding@home. It is entirely your choice. By far the simplest and easiest route is to run only one.

Here is a list of distributed computing projects, though the article is a bit dated: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_di ... g_projects

[Stonecold]

There are many other projects out there. As Bruce pointed out, many of them are distributed computing projects, which use the idle processing power of your CPU (and/or GPU) to tackle large problems of interest. I would not recommend running two of these at the same time, although I will note that it is possible.

However, there are projects which use other resources of your computer that Folding@home does not use. There are a couple of bandwidth-intensive programs out there, which use your Internet connection to solve larger problems. Examples of this include hosting a Minecraft server or running a Tor relay. These can be run without interfering with Folding@home too much. However, as you might imagine, that there's more time and effort involved with setting up these additional programs, managing them, and ensuring that they do not conflict for resources with Folding@home. It is entirely your choice. By far the simplest and easiest route is to run only one.

Here is a list of distributed computing projects, though the article is a bit dated: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_di ... g_projects

A Tor relay uses an entirely different set of resources than Folding@home. I doubt they would conflict at all. I run a Tor node and it uses an extremely low amount of CPU time, so it doesn't interfere with anything at all. Really the only thing it needs CPU for is encryption/decryption, and when it's only doing that in the kilobytes per second range, it's not using much CPU. And I don't think hosting a Minecraft server "solves larger problems"! It's just a kid's game, it doesn't stop censorship like Tor and related (I2P, Freenet, etc), and it doesn't help medical science like FAH or some other BOINC projects after all.

Personally, I would suggest you run something like this to take advantage of every resource with minimal or no competition:
-Folding@home, for biochemistry/molecular bio to help find cures (uses lots of CPU, very little disk space or network)
-Tor/I2P, to resist censorship through what's basically a super-proxy (uses very little CPU or disk space, and uses as much network as you tell it to)
-Freenet/tahoe-lafs/GNUnet, to resist censorship through distributed content storage (uses a small bit of CPU, uses as much networking as you tell it to, and as much disk space as you tell it to, usually in the gigabyte range)

[Napoleon]

I have the client version but want to have more. can i have 2 folding homes running at once?

• If you mean multiple FAHClients (v7) running on a single machine: it can be done with some trickery, but normally there isn't any good reason to do so
• If you mean installing FAHClient on multiple machines (one FAHClient per machine) with the same same username/team/passkey combo: that's perfectly fine

[PantherX]

Please note that you will need to get (written) permission to fold on systems that you personally don't own, as per the EULA.

[bruce]

The original question may indicate a misunderstanding. Napoleon asked if you mean on the same computer.

A typical computer application uses a small fraction of your computer's resources so you can run multiple programs up to the point that they total 100% of the resources and then everything starts to slow down as they compete with each other for the resources. FAH is not a "typical" application. It is designed to use 100% of whatever resources are not used by other applications. If your browser+movie viewer+word processor+... each use maye 1%, FAH will use the other 97%.

Running two copies of FAH would force them to compete with each other and they'll both run half as fast. That's not good. The same would be true if you run another Distributed Computing application. Only with great care can a system be configured to run other similar programs concurrently.

[Jesse_V]

Bitmessage is another one. Sometimes current events can significantly increase the popularity of certain types of volunteer-driven projects.