Does Rosetta for some reason not honor the speed limits set in boinc?

My internet connection is by cellular wireless service, which has a max speed capability of about 130 kilobits sustained and bursts of about 200 kilobits. However, a problem arises on prolonged file transfers at near-maximum sustained throughput - that problem being that the provider breaks the connection because it's overtaxing their system.

I always have to fight with my connection (suspend network during transfers and reconnect my internet several times) during rosetta downloads, as it doesn't seem to want to honor my speed settings. I have scaled this speed all the way down to 5 kilobytes (which should be ~40 kilobits, and well under what my provider will allow me to sustain - the provider says it will drop if I sustain more than ~120 kilobits).

My settings in global_prefs.xml read:

<max_bytes_sec_down>5000</max_bytes_sec_down>
<max_bytes_sec_up>5000</max_bytes_sec_up>

However, my averages from client_state.xml show:

<net_stats>
    <bwup>4863.07</bwup>
    <bwdown>18008.8</bwdown>

And from my most recent download today, I have log entries like:

2006-04-03 14:38:36 [rosetta@home] Started download of cc1a68_03_05.200_v1_3.gz
2006-04-03 14:39:24 [rosetta@home] Finished download of cc256bA09_05.200_v1_3.gz
2006-04-03 14:39:24 [rosetta@home] Throughput 9644 bytes/sec

and

2006-04-03 14:46:51 [rosetta@home] Started download of cc1a68_09_05.200_v1_3.gz
2006-04-03 14:48:48 [rosetta@home] Finished download of cc1a68_09_05.200_v1_3.gz
2006-04-03 14:48:48 [rosetta@home] Throughput 15357 bytes/sec


Obviously, these are being sent faster than my setting should allow, and are causing my provider to drop my connection (repeatedly). The small files are never a problem as they don't sustain long enough to cause a drop, but every time I get to one of the 1MB+ files, they usually sustain long enough to get me dropped a few times on each one. Occasionally, one like above will be just under the point of getting me dropped, but that's very rare.

On the contrary, Einstein's 8MB files don't get me kicked off my connection, as they transfer very slowly. Is it that no projects honor the speed limit and it just happens that Einstein's servers are just that much slower with the data anyway, or is it that for some reason only Rosetta isn't honoring the speed limit?

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I've noticed the same thing. I was trying to scale my throughputs back to resemble what a dial-up user would see... but it didn't seem to slow the connections at all.

Keep in mind that the rate per second shown on the messages display may be skewed a bit. I mean if your file was only 1K and was sent in a fraction of a second, then the rate/sec is distorted somewhat... but I agree. Even when reviewing the 1MB downloads of new WUs, it doesn't seem to honor the general preferences I've specified (and done project update to activate).

I'm running WIN/XP, and BOINC 5.2.13, my Rosetta WUs are apparently v 4.82 now. Haven't noticed if other projects have slowed or not.

Saw another thread where a dial-up user (56kb) was sighting similar. He was trying to throttle is back so be could surf the web while doing his BOINC updates, and indicated it still took so much of his bandwidth, he was essentially unable to surf.

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Add this signature to your EMail:
Running Microsoft's "System Idle Process" will never help cure cancer, AIDS nor Alzheimer's. But running Rosetta@home just might!
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/

WCG seems to use full bandwidth too, so I'm thinking this is a BOINC problem, not specific to Rosetta.

I attempted to search BOINC boards and find no mention of the problem, so I tacked on to this one.

I believe the BOINC boards are the correct place to pursue the issue of the upload and download settings apparently not being honored.

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Add this signature to your EMail:
Running Microsoft's "System Idle Process" will never help cure cancer, AIDS nor Alzheimer's. But running Rosetta@home just might!
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/

I believe the BOINC boards are the correct place to pursue the issue of the upload and download settings apparently not being honored.

Indeed it is the right place, you might also add it to the "official Boinc Bugbase" to be looked at, it's called Boinczilla.

tony
If you're reporting a bug to the boinc message boards, you might wanna know they are manned by volunteers (like myself). We have no special phone numbers with which to pass info on. We'd have to add it to the bugbase like you can. It's not fast, but you will get a response when your bug is addressed, giving you it's disposition.

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