So much bandwith, so little traffic

[Korlon]

I've been crawling along on dial-up from home for about a year now, and I'm finally going back to cable internet. The issue for me was always cost. It's just plain expensive and I'm not home most of the day to enjoy it. This got me thinking...

Anyone have creative ways to take advantage of the extra bandwidth you have from cable, DSL, or other always-on connections? I've heard of various programs that use spare PC time from around the globe to crunch data for things like finding large prime numbers, a cure for cancer, and even ET 0X . Have you folks used these programs? Had any problems? Know of any others like them, or any other programs to use spare bandwidth?

[Kati Compton]

Anyone have creative ways to take advantage of the extra bandwidth you have from cable, DSL, or other always-on connections? I've heard of various programs that use spare PC time from around the globe to crunch data for things like finding large prime numbers, a cure for cancer, and even ET 0X . Have you folks used these programs? Had any problems? Know of any others like them, or any other programs to use spare bandwidth?
Most of these types of programs don't actually use a lot of bandwidth. Chunks of data are sent to your computer, which then sits and processes them when you're not hitting too hard on the processor. Then when it's done processing your "chunk", the results are sent back.

I personally run Seti@Home. I tried running the cancer one that Steve uses, but it was freezing my computer.

[Korlon]

Most of these types of programs don't actually use a lot of bandwidth. Chunks of data are sent to your computer, which then sits and processes them when you're not hitting too hard on the processor. Then when it's done processing your "chunk", the results are sent back.

Quite correct. My original post was a bit misleading on that point.

Seti@Home and the like would be more likely to take advantage of the "always-on" nature of the connection than the bandwidth. If you're not connected when the program has finished, it will wait for you to dial in. However, I often wouldn't bother to dial in, in part because of the time it takes to do anything over dial-up. I might only send data back a couple of times a week. And I understand that the data packets are rather small (250K or so), so sitting all day on a 2ghz machine that isn't doing anything else, I wouldn't expect it to take very long to process.

[Kati Compton]

And I understand that the data packets are rather small (250K or so), so sitting all day on a 2ghz machine that isn't doing anything else, I wouldn't expect it to take very long to process.
Depends on what you consider long. ;) 4-8 hour range usually.

[Korlon]

Depends on what you consider long. ;) 4-8 hour range usually.

4-8 hours would be shorter than my usual periods of disconnection, so my pending connectivity upgrade would make a difference in how "productive" I would be running these programs. :)

[JackTheTripper]

Have neighbors close by? Set up a wireless connection and split the cost with them. I think this is against the rules according to your ISP but it's only illegal if you get caught, right?

[Korlon]

Have neighbors close by? Set up a wireless connection and split the cost with them. I think this is against the rules according to your ISP but it's only illegal if you get caught, right?

Wrong, actually. And just to be clear, I'm not looking for suggestions on how I can have my computer steal the latest works of Britney Spears or Tom Hanks while I'm otherwise occupied.

[JackTheTripper]

Wrong, actually.
Hehehe.... was just kidding. ;) Sheesh! :dilemma:

Actually I don't know of any way to use the pipe other than maybe hosting something from home like a web site or something, but then you have the issues of upload speed not being as fast and down and that your IP addy is probably dynamic rather than static, but there are scripts to help with that.

[Janak Parekh]

Anyone have creative ways to take advantage of the extra bandwidth you have from cable, DSL, or other always-on connections?
Be careful if you do find one. Most residential Internet access is not designed to be used at peak at all times. Read the fine print; you may end up upsetting your ISP if you do. ;)

BTW, I don't find cable that much more expensive than dial-up. Given the cost of the calls, and the cost of my time in waiting, I think it pays for itself. :) But each to their own.

--janak

[Vulcan]

I don't think that there is anything wrong with hooking more than one computer to your high speed line....That's what everybody with a router is doing....You are paying your ISP for bandwidth not time. I think you would get into trouble if you were reselling the bandwidth....just my thoughts.

[pewter_tankard]

Probably best to check with your ISP. In the UK, we have some rural areas where you can't get broadband access. Some enterprising person who was in one of these areas made a deal with somebody in a direct line-of-sight who did have broadband access. He set up a long range wireless antenna (apparently, he claims that dog food tins make the best "dish" to boost the antenna's reception) at both locations and shared the internet connection that way.

He looked into any problems this might cause with his ISP and he couldn't find any. Perhaps you'll have an understanding ISP.

Phil

[Korlon]

Hehehe.... was just kidding. ;) Sheesh! :dilemma:

Sorry if I responded a bit harshly. :oops: I'm afraid that's a bit of a pet peeve of mine. :wink:

[JackTheTripper]

It's all right. I should have put a winking smilie in there but I thought the sarcasm was evident.