Request for a new feature for those behind a strict firewall

[alclass]

Dear FAH-members, developers and everyone in the community,

I've been running the Folding software Linux version at home.

In my workplace, the company has Windows desktops. These are under a very strict firewall context that only allows connections via IE browser. To make a long story short, the FAH client can not download its work units, much less upload them back up.

The feature to implement I would like to ask is a mechanism for manual downloads of the work units and, after being processed, another one to upload the results.

Thank you all,
Al

[v00d00]

If it has to connect via IE it uses a proxy most likely. Go to the connection tab in IE>options and find out what the settings are and what ports it connects to. Im pretty sure you can add those settings to the client.

But it would be easier to ask an admin to open things up for FAH, that is assuming you have permission to run it at work.

[alclass]

Dear v00d00,

Thank you for the answer.

Allow me to give some further information.

I can download files with IE (and IE is the only way to the web) for non-excluded sites (folding.stanford.edu, of course, can be accessed ). I can't reconfigure IE or designate a proxy gateway.

I don't think it would be a breach in the security context of my workplace to use the idle CPU cycles, but somehow the firewall looks for the HTTP header fields to check up that the HTTP request originates from IE.

One other solution would be, I think, to start processing at home, put the FAH directory into a pen-drive, and then copy it to my desktop computer at work. Of course, I would have to check whether or not it works, because my home computer has Linux. If it does not work, I might try running FAH behind Wine and see what happens. At the end of processing, I would copy it back up and upload the results at home.

What I would like to ask, though, is the following: could a web facility for downloading Work Units and uploading Results be constructed?

Regards,
Al

[bruce]

What I would like to ask, though, is the following: could a web facility for downloading Work Units and uploading Results be constructed?

It's a reasonable request, but it will be up to the Pande Group to decide if it makes sense. I don't expect them to give it a very high priority for a number of reasons but you probably don't want to hear them (and my opinion doesn't count anyway).

Do check the EULA, however. You need official permission from your company if you run FAH on hardware owned by the company. (People have been fired for violation of company policy, even if it's not a security problem.)

[alclass]

Thanks, Bruce,

You clarified a lot the subject. This new perspective, I'm afraid, is that I think I will not be able one way or another to "donate" the idle compute cycles from my desktop computer at work. As the French like to say, c'est la vie , isn't it?!

Regards,
Al

[bruce]

That's true, much as I hate to admit it . . . c'est la vie.