Any hints on convincing my pc administrator to run Prime95?

[quicky]

Does somebody have some hints on convincing the administators of the pc rooms in my university to run Prime95?

I'd like to introduce Prime95 in the pc rooms, but they are surely gonna doubt that no viruses can be transferred and that there pc's won't be running slower, etc...

Any hints?

[ET_]

Originally Posted by quicky

Does somebody have some hints on convincing the administators of the pc rooms in my university to run Prime95?

I'd like to introduce Prime95 in the pc rooms, but they are surely gonna doubt that no viruses can be transferred and that there pc's won't be running slower, etc...

Any hints?

Try to tell them about the prize... :-)

Or you could show them the complete source code.
Or the diagram of other Universities working at the project.
Or the free advertise they got if/when a Mersenne Prime show up from their computer room.

As for the "running slower" problem, you can choose priority=1 and start WinTop or a TaskPerformanceMonitor.

Luigi :idea:

[quicky]

list of universities???
Where do I find those?

[Deamiter]

Northwestern University is a big player, but there's others. Just look on the top producers list for names that look like colleges.

[QuintLeo]

The #1 Top Producer is associated with a university (Central Missouri or some such?).

[Prime95]

See http://hawk.fab2.albany.edu/mersenne/mersenne.htm

[lycorn]

Quicky

The risk of introducing computer virus in the PC rooms shouldn´t be a concern. Your university shall, I´m sure, have installed a decent anti-virus program. Check the executable before installation, have the AV checking all Intranet/Internet traffic and the PCs will be safe.

[quicky]

The administrators of the pc's say that the problem is that the security isn't fully guarenteed as there are ports being opened, and so on, so that the firewall can't do its job perfectly.

But what can possibly happen if there are only sent a few hundred bytes every month???

Can George or somebody else who knows a lot about security and firewalls answer this please?

[Prime95]

Originally Posted by quicky

The administrators of the pc's say that the problem is that the security isn't fully guarenteed as there are ports being opened, and so on, so that the firewall can't do its job perfectly.

But what can possibly happen if there are only sent a few hundred bytes every month??

Prime95 uses port 80 - the same port your browser uses. Thus, no changes should be required of the firewall. However, if they are using a program like ZoneAlarm that monitors which programs access which ports, then prime95 would need to be given permission to access port 80.

From the administrator's point of view, running any unfamiliar program is a security threat. He has no way of knowing if there is malicious code in prime95 that code wipe out his disks, install viruses, etc. He has nothing to gain and everything to lose by running prime95. Your only hope is to patiently beg and cajole with examples of other large groups that participate without problem. Offer to start out on one or two computers to show him how that the program will not increase his workload. A professor on your side would probably be a big help. In the final analysis, it is his right to refuse to install prime95. If I were in his place, I'd probably refuse your request.