Team GTPlanet.net was formed as a way for members of GTPlanet to contribute collectively to the search for extraterrestrials in outer space. Have you ever wondered if the human race is really alone in the universe? I have thought about the answer to this question many times. The answer is a resounding no.

Project Overview

But first, I will provide some information about the project and the team. SETI@Home was offically started several years ago as a way to search for signals from alien civilizations via radio signals from a radio dish in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Have you ever watched the James Bond movie Goldeneye? In the final sequence, the dish that is destroyed is really the Arecibo Dish. The way the project works is through distributed computing. First, a workunit is created on Berkley University's SETI@Home servers from a data tape that was recorded at Arecibo which is then split into the workunits that users analyze. Next, a workunit is sent out to a client computer which then crunches the workunit looking for the best possible signal canidates in that workunit. The way the client computer crunches the workunit is through several algorithms.

Team Overview

The team itself was formed back in 2003 because a member at GTPlanet named LoudMusic threw out the idea of starting a distributed computing team or a SETI@Home team. I chose to start a SETI@Home team since I was already contributing to that project. The Team grew from its' initial few members to its current total of around fifteen members.

Team Statistics are available below, but I have elected to include a data table with some information locally on the site.

BOINC SETI@Home Team

A New Version

In recent months, the SETI@Home team has released a new version(SETI@Home 2) of the project, dubbed BIONC SETI@Home, which works a little differently then SETI@Home I. The way that the BIONC version of SETI@Home works is that it varies the credit granted to a user because workunits are now checked by at least three different computers. If all three computers report the same results to the scheduler then credit is granted. Also, the credit granted now varies upon your CPU's speed and the time it took to process the workunit.

After using the new version of SETI@Home, I feel that it is a worthwhile program to continue the project. No longer do you have to crunch a high number of workunits(I.E. one workunit for one credit) to get a large amount of credit. Since I started using the BIONC version of SETI, I have doubled the amount of credit that I had earned for the original project over two years.

As of right now, I am the only member of the team contributing under the BOINC version of the project. I hope that in the future other members of the team will also begin to use the new version of BOINC. Right now though, I am mainly testing the program for stability and features. The project is slowly migrating to this new version of the program and the original project will be shut down.

Everything that applies to the original team still applies for the new version of BIONC. The only difference is how the program works.

BOINC Project Information

As of October 18, 2004, newer members of the team will be able to create an account on BOINC and automatically join the team through the above link that is second to last in the list(For members who joined the project and team after May 14, 2004). By doing so, you will have all preferences of the project founder (I.E. Matrixhasu77). However, if you would like to keep your statistics from the original project then I suggest you port your account over. This is for members who have been apart of the project since before May 14, 2004 though.

The Original SETI@Home Team

The team statistics(workunits completed) for the original SETI@Home project may be found at the following page: Team GTPlanet.net.

Requirements for joining:
  1. There are no requirements.
  2. Anyone who wishes to join the team may do so.
  3. Even the slowest computer can still contribute.

More Information about SETI@home:

Where to Download SETI@Home: Download SETI@Home.

Once you have downloaded and installed the program, it will ask you to create a SETI@home account. After you have created your account, please visit the team's page on SETI@home and join the team.

The program has two options for analyzing workunits:
  • The first option "Data analysis runs only when the screensaver is active or program window is maximized" means that SETI will run as a screensaver. However, in order for SETI to run as a screensaver, make sure that you have it set as your default screensaver and that under Settings "Go to blank screen" is checked and that the minutes til blank field is at 1 minute.
  • The second option being "Data Analysis runs all the time" means that SETI runs in the background and only uses IDLE CPU cycles in order to analyze a workunit. You can also have SETI run as your screensaver when you are not at your computer(see first option for help on setting this up).
Other Useful Information:
  • The program may be exited in the middle of a workunit. It writes to your harddrive every few minutes to protect against data loss.
  • If you decide to run SETI on a work computer, please ask your employer permission to do so.
  • Users with 128MB or less should set it to run only when the screensaver is running, or there are no active windows.
  • Cable/DSL users should set the application to connect whenever needed while modem users should set the application to request a connection when needed.
  • SETI@Home only needs to be connected when transferring data back to the Berkeley servers. Each work unit is only approximately 340K, therefore bandwidth consumption is less than a single view of a large GTPlanet thread.
  • Because the app writes to the disk all the time, make sure Hard Disk Power Down is set to "Never" in any Power Management software you have. Otherwise, the application has to wait for the disks to spin up before it can write. This adds delay and stresses your drives.
  • Multiple computers may connect to the same SETI account. This is the easiest way to complete many workunits in a short amount of time.
  • NT/2000/XP users: go to the Task Manager, click Processes, then click the CPU column header. You will see how the SETI process replaces System Idle Process in taking up unused CPU cycles.