Folding Forum

When attempting to download the next WU, the client sticks, displaying the following messages in the log:
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14:58:35:WU00:FS00:Connecting to assign2.foldingathome.org:80
14:58:36:WU00:FS00:Assigned to work server 129.32.209.201
14:58:36:WU00:FS00:Requesting new work unit for slot 00: READY cpu:3 from 129.32.209.201
14:58:36:WU00:FS00:Connecting to 129.32.209.201:8080
14:58:57:WARNING:WU00:FS00:WorkServer connection failed on port 8080 trying 80
14:58:57:WU00:FS00:Connecting to 129.32.209.201:80
14:59:38:WU00:FS00:Downloading 6.65MiB

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no sight of life after that, and it stays in this position for many hours. The "advanced control" shows work queue status as "downnload, 0%". After restarting the client the situation repeats.
What can be the matter and how can I fix it or workaround the issue?
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System info:

FAHClient Version: 7.6.13
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4460 CPU @ 3.20GHz
CPU ID: GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 60 Stepping 3
CPUs: 4
Memory: 15.87GiB
Free Memory: 9.05GiB
Win32 Service: false
OS: Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard
OS Arch: AMD64
GPUs: 0

First thing I would check is start a browser and verify that you can actually reach the 129.32.209.201 server and there's not a network issue. If you put that address in a browser (both port 80 and 8080), it should pull up the work server banner page. I'm able to pull up the banner page on both port 80 and 8080. I'm not sure why you couldn't on 8080. If you do close the client process from advanced control, start the task manager and make sure there is not a fahclient process stuck trying to download. If so, kill it and when you restart the fah process, the assignment servers may switch you to a different project server (or if it won't interfere with your work, just restart the pc). I've had that happen when there are server outages.

Hi m_vokhm! The same thing happened to me earlier today. My log file shows essentially the same behavior as yours; both trying to download from 129.32.209.201 --

09:53:40:WU01:FS00:Connecting to assign1.foldingathome.org:80
09:53:40:WU01:FS00:Assigned to work server 129.32.209.201
09:53:40:WU01:FS00:Requesting new work unit for slot 00: RUNNING cpu:4 from 129.32.209.201
09:53:40:WU01:FS00:Connecting to 129.32.209.201:8080
09:54:01:WU01:FS00:Downloading 6.65MiB
14:11:40:FS00:Paused

The "download" hadn't moved in six hours. I also tried to "pause" and then "unpause" with no changes. I ended up pausing F@h, then restarting my computer. That finally did it and a new work unit downloaded successfully from a different server (128.252.203.9).

I, too, can pull down the banner page in my browser. The server is (at least) online.

If this is a new installation, the second thing to check is your security software which may be 'protecting' you from Foldingathome.

FAHClient is not a "recognized" browser so you probably need to grant an exception to allow FAHClient to download WUs. The simplest way to test that is to temporarily disable your firewall or other security software and see if FAH proceeds. If it does, go back and enable that exception.

gs60 wrote:First thing I would check is start a browser and verify that you can actually reach the 129.32.209.201 server

Yes, I can. It's not a network Issue.

gs60 wrote:If you do close the client process from advanced control

I couldn't find a way to do so, I've killed it from the task manager, than restarted it, but it did not help.

gs60 wrote:if it won't interfere with your work, just restart the pc.

Yes, I tried to avoid doing that, but finally I've restarted it.
After that, the client has successfully connected to a server and downloaded another WU, and now it's working fine.
Yet I don't know what was the matter and don't feel quite comfortable about it.
However, it works.

Thank you everybody!

Is your internet connection reliable or does it have troubles from time to time?

There's a long-standing bug whereby error recovery for certain internet interruptions are not properly processed and FAHClient can't communicate without being restarted.

You didn't answer about your firewall exception.

The issue that bruce mentioned has been reported here: https://github.com/FoldingAtHome/fah-issues/issues/983

My internet connection is quite reliable by itself, nevertheless it might be just the bug you mentioned. My OS has a feature (an annoyance I could not get rid of) -- it can't connect to the internet for a couple of minutes after being restarted, and all the applications being started think there's no connection. Usually everything gets OK in a couple of minutes, and it's not a big problem for me since I restart the PC not so often (once a month or so). Half a day before I noticed FAHclient not working I restarted the PC and perhaps things gone wrong when FAHClient had not seen the connection after it.
The firewall does not interfere with the client's work, I set it up about a year ago and everything has worked fine since then.

To me this reads a lot like the stuck Upload / stuck download issues of old. well, stuck upload is somewhat new to me, but i experienced it. Anyway, Neil-B's solution on Windows machines is TCPView (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysint ... ds/tcpview)

If it's ever stuck again, terminate that connection in TCPView and things should return to normal operation. I've been eagerly waiting my chance to use this, but darn my luck things have been going too smoothly, haha.

I've been too lazy to find the equivalent linux commands, but since my windows now outnumber my linux, i don't see myself getting off the couch justyet

Knish wrote:To me this reads a lot like the stuck Upload / stuck download issues of old. well, stuck upload is somewhat new to me, but i experienced it. Anyway, Neil-B's solution on Windows machines is TCPView (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysint ... ds/tcpview)

You're probably right.

Knish wrote:I've been too lazy to find the equivalent linux commands, but since my windows now outnumber my linux, i don't see myself getting off the couch justyet

Are we sure there are equivalent Linux commands?