From: "Edmund Horner" <ejrh AT paradise DOT net DOT nz>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
References: <8m2af6$1t0$1 AT news7 DOT svr DOT pol DOT co DOT uk>
Subject: Re: Question (To be or not to be)
Lines: 54
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2919.6600
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600
Organization: Paradise Net
Message-ID: <965019426.54631@shelley.paradise.net.nz>
Cache-Post-Path: shelley.paradise.net.nz!unknown AT 203-96-148-188 DOT tnt0 DOT paradise DOT net DOT nz
X-Cache: nntpcache 2.4.0b5 (see http://www.nntpcache.org/)
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 16:57:20 +1200
NNTP-Posting-Host: 203.96.152.26
X-Complaints-To: newsadmin AT xtra DOT co DOT nz
X-Trace: news.xtra.co.nz 965019445 203.96.152.26 (Mon, 31 Jul 2000 16:57:25 NZST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 16:57:25 NZST
To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com

Ever heard of "distributed computing" ?

There are lots of organisations that do stuff like this, www.distributed.net
for example.  But I'm not discouraging you from making your own!

This is certainly possible, the issues you need to worry about, as I see
them:
1. Network communications between the servers.
2. Keeping track of who is doing what part of the work.
3. Making the servers only use spare CPUs, and not slow down the whole
system all the time.
4. Finding some interesting projects to work on.

Have fun with this,
Edmund.

"Steven Knight" <privateryan35 AT free16 DOT freeserve DOT co DOT uk> wrote in message
news:8m2af6$1t0$1 AT news7 DOT svr DOT pol DOT co DOT uk...
> I have an idea and I would like to pick your brains to see if it is
> practical.
>
> OPRS
> This system would work like a client/server relationship where there is
one
> server (Main PC) and all who want to join are servers. The people at
server
> end could download a file that tells there PC to do some calculations (Say
> finding a password).
>
> The idea of setting up a scheme like this is that fairly powerful
computers
> all around the world can simultaneously work on finding the password.
>
> What I would like to do is for the Server to use un-used cpu cycles to
help
> find the password. When they have finished the part assigned to them in
the
> download, they could send a file telling the main Client what the results
> are. If positive then a file is sent to all other servers telling them to
> cease. If negative then that part of the sequence is struck off and then
the
> server is given another file, containing a different part of that sequence
> and so forth.
>
> So do you think this is possible. There doesn't need to be any UI except a
> run command and a receive/send data command.
>
> Thanks for your time and response
>
> Steven
>
>