Stuck at "Attempting to Get Work Packet"

[DaLincerGuy]

I have run F@H in the past, and am running right now on my wife's Win7 system across the room.

On my desktop, F@H gets stuck at attempting to get work packet.

here is a representative log segment:

[17:41:23] - Ask before connecting: No
[17:41:23] - User name: Rollin_Home (Team 83451)
[17:41:23] - User ID: 573F01E5ECBA334
[17:41:23] - Machine ID: 2
[17:41:23]
[17:41:23] Loaded queue successfully.
[17:41:23] Initialization complete
[17:41:23] - Preparing to get new work unit...
[17:41:23] + Attempting to get work packet
[17:41:23] - Connecting to assignment server
[17:41:23] - Couldn't send HTTP request to server
[17:41:23] + Could not connect to Assignment Server
[17:41:23] - Couldn't send HTTP request to server
[17:41:23] + Could not connect to Assignment Server 2
[17:41:23] + Couldn't get work instructions.
[17:41:23] - Attempt #1 to get work failed, and no other work to do.
Waiting before retry.

----

My System:

* Win XP SP3
* 2GB memory, 10GB disk available, AMD Athlon 64 at 1.8G [fast enough for my use!]
* Running Version 6.23 of F@H
* Zone Alarm Pro firewall knows about F@H and has been told to let it through (getting no popup warnings)
* ESET NOD32 running for antivirus
* No realtime malware scanner running
* Comcast Cable connection, both machines running off the same router.

Questions:
1. How can I diagnose the failure?
2. How can I get to folding again?

These machines spend most of their day waiting for light browsing and remote access. I want to put their power to good use.

[7im]

Hello DaLincerGuy, welcome to the forum.

1. No need, we've seen the problem before. That system has some software (antivirus or firewall) that is preventing the fah client from communicating with the servers at Stanford.
2. NOD32 is known to cause issues, and will need to be set to specifically exclude FAH. ZA can be pesky as well, but it looks like you already have that one set correctly.

Anyway, that's a good start. Let us know if that helps or not.

[DaLincerGuy]

I have read elsewhere on the forum that I should open a window in my browser and go to 4 different sites to check that I have access to the assignment servers. I get the OK screen for all four.

Finally found where to enter -verbosity 9, and have a new log portion based on that setting:

7im says, "NOD32 is known to cause issues..." What do I need to change?

I run NOD32 on all my systems, and under win7 seems OK.




++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Code: Select all

# Windows CPU Systray Edition #################################################
###############################################################################

                       Folding@Home Client Version 6.23

                          http://folding.stanford.edu

###############################################################################
###############################################################################

Launch directory: C:\Documents and Settings\Master David
Arguments: -verbosity 9 

[19:10:48] - Ask before connecting: No
[19:10:48] - User name: Rollin_Home (Team 83451)
[19:10:48] - User ID: 573F01E5ECBA334
[19:10:48] - Machine ID: 2
[19:10:48] 
[19:10:48] Loaded queue successfully.
[19:10:48] Initialization complete
[19:10:51] - Preparing to get new work unit...
[19:10:51] + Attempting to get work packet
[19:10:51] - Will indicate memory of 2046 MB
[19:10:51] - Detect CPU. Vendor: AuthenticAMD, Family: 15, Model: 15, Stepping: 2
[19:10:51] - Connecting to assignment server
[19:10:51] Connecting to http://assign.stanford.edu:8080/
[19:10:51] - Autosending finished units... [February 21 19:10:51 UTC]
[19:10:51] Trying to send all finished work units
[19:10:51] + No unsent completed units remaining.
[19:10:51] - Autosend completed
[19:10:51] - Couldn't send HTTP request to server
[19:10:51] + Could not connect to Assignment Server
[19:10:51] Connecting to http://assign2.stanford.edu:80/
[19:10:51] - Couldn't send HTTP request to server
[19:10:51] + Could not connect to Assignment Server 2
[19:10:51] + Couldn't get work instructions.
[19:10:51] - Attempt #1  to get work failed, and no other work to do.
Waiting before retry.

No change in status just more detail. Checked my firewall for settings and all looks clear, no logged blocked outbound connections.

[7im]

As a quick test, temporarily disable NOD32 and see if the fahlog details change.

Needed to add exception for both start in path and data path of FAH in NOD32. (launch directory and program directory)

These are typical defaults in Win 7...

C:\Program Files\Folding@home\Folding@home-x86\Folding@home.exe

C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Folding@Home-x86

[DaLincerGuy]

Turned off NOD32 and no change to log behavior.

On my Win7 machine [running just fine] I have NOD32 and ZoneAlarm Pro running there as well.

I checked the log files on both ZAPro and NOD32 and see no entries relevant to F@H.

How do I add an "exception" for WinXP?

David

[bruce]

ZoneAlarm is very likely blocking an unknown program called FAHClient.exe. Have you added an exception for it?

As a test, disable it, too.