How does it work?: You download a safe, tested program (see link below) that is certified by Stanford University. It gets work from Stanford, runs calculations using your spare computer power, and sends the results back to the University.
Is it safe? Yes! Folding@Home rarely effects computer performance in any way and won't compromise your privacy in any way. It only uses the computing power you aren't using so it doesn't slow down other programs.
How do I get started folding for Team FreeRepublic?: 1.) Download the folding program from Stanford University's folding download page (Folding@home Client Download). Type in your desired username. 2.) Type in 36120 for the team number. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - if you get the number wrong, you won't be folding for team FreeRepublic! 3.) The third question asks, "Launch automatically at machine startup, installing this as a service?" - We recommend you answer YES. Otherwise you will have to manually start the program after every reboot.
How can my computer help? Even if he were given exclusive access to all of the worlds supercomputers, Standford still wouldnt have as much processing power as they get from the supercluster of peoples desktop systems Folding@home relies on. Modern supercomputers are essentially a cluster of hundreds of processors linked by fast networking. But Stanford needed the power of hundreds of thousands of processors, not just hundreds.
There's no reason to not get involved! It's free, easy, and you can know you're helping every minute without lifting a finger.
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List of Relevant Folding Links
Why Fold - Watch This !!
Another Folding Clip
Folding@home Client Download
FreeRepublic.com Folder Stats
Extreme Overclockers Stats for FreeRepublic
Another Stats Page
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Competition (Not!!) Dummies ..Daily Kos
Dummie Folding Threads #7 #8 #9#10#11
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Other Useful Stuff - Links
How much are those work units worth? And what are they?
All Projects Listed
Point Summary for Workunits
Fahmon Third Party Monitoring Software
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Past FreeRepublic Folding threads
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 Previous
Is it safe? Yes! Folding@Home rarely effects computer performance in any way and won't compromise your privacy in any way. It only uses the computing power you aren't using so it doesn't slow down other programs.
How do I get started folding for Team FreeRepublic?: 1.) Download the folding program from Stanford
Ping
I hope this isn't a silly question but...I just installed the software on both my home machines. If I use the same user name (my FR screen name) and team # on both PCs, will the project aggregate the completed work units from both computers and give a single ranking to that user name? Does the same user name on two computers cause any problems with the software?
bump to remind myself to forward this link
If you're interested in tracking your folding machine(s) over the web, please Freepmail me.
Available features include:
Beware. It's addictive.
Well, I finally went to the site and DL'ed the Linux client for my laptop. I started it up and it immediately took all my CPU. LOL!
My fan kicked in, and the heat went up. Wow.
So I turned on my work laptop (been sitting idle for a couple of weeks now), and DL'ed the windows client for it. It seems to work better.
So I'll let that machine just Fold while I work on my real laptop. :).
It currently says that I have about 208 days until the current Work Unit ends. :)