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Killer[MoB]
[H]ard|DCer of the Month - March 2008
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- Jan 15, 2001
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Guide: How to prevent network drops from killing the Windows SMP folding client in Windows XP.
This issue comes up in the forum every few days it seems. A client frozen or seemingly hung up when the box is otherwise running just fine. The problem 99.9% of the time is a network connection issue. Any kind of issue, such as a bad cable, a faulty port on a hub, router or switch, a NIC in power save mode or just flakey wireless connection problems could cause the folding client to stop processing. The problem lies in the way the client uses the network for loopback with the folding cores communicating with each other.
A post this morning made me really get after a fix for this as it just seems crazy that something could not be done to fix this issue without it being some complicated task. I think I have it fixed. Loopback is the problem and also the solution to the problem.
The solution is to install the Microsoft Loopback Adapter. It will help maintain a constant network connection within your own machine. Although this is not its intended purpose, it does work for solving this folding problem. Frame times remained the same. Around 13:55 on a P2653 running on an E4500 @ 2.926 GHz. The major difference?? Now I can unplug the network cable completely and it never misses a beat.
What is it and is it a piece of hardware?
It is not hardware. It is a virtual network adapter installed in some cases when you need to test network related things and there is no network available. It is also used when running some virtual machines in various versions of windows.
Where is it and how can I get it?
You don't need to get it because you already have it. This is almost too easy.
How do I install it and set it up?
1) Go to Add Hardware. (Start>Control Panel>Printers and Other Devices>Add Hardware)
2) You should now be at the add hardware wizard.
Click Next.
Select "Yes, I have already connected the hardware" and click next.
Scroll to the bottom of the list and highlight "Add a new hardware device" and click next.
Select "Install the hardware that I manually select from a list (advanced)" and click next.
Highlight "Network adapters" and click next.
Highlight "Microsoft" under manufacturer and "Microsoft Loopback Adapter" under network adapter. Click next.
Click Next again.
Now click Finished.
Close out the Printers and other hardware window.
3) Go to network connections. (Start>Connect to>Show all connections) or (Start>My Network Places>View Network
Connections)
You will see a new Local Area Connection that is listed as being a Microsoft Loopback Adapter. You will also see that it says Limited or no connectivity. We are about to fix that.
Right click on this new loopback connection and select properties.
Double click Internet protocol (TCP/IP).
Select use the following IP address.
Set the IP address to a 192.168.x.x number that would not normally be assigned on your network. Ex 191.168.255.200
Click on the subnet mask box and it should auto fill with 255.255.255.0.
Leave everything else blank.
Click OK.
This may take the machine a couple minutes to think about.
Once it's done, you can close all the windows. Note that on the Network Connections window, the loopback adapter now shows connected.
4) There is no 4. You are done.
I set up all three of my WindowsXP SMP machines like this. Then I flipped the power strip off that has my cable modem, router and both switches on it. Turned it all back on and the machines didn't miss a folding beat.
I wouldn’t try this at work unless you are the one in charge. No warranties expressed or written. Use at your own risk and all that jazz.
This issue comes up in the forum every few days it seems. A client frozen or seemingly hung up when the box is otherwise running just fine. The problem 99.9% of the time is a network connection issue. Any kind of issue, such as a bad cable, a faulty port on a hub, router or switch, a NIC in power save mode or just flakey wireless connection problems could cause the folding client to stop processing. The problem lies in the way the client uses the network for loopback with the folding cores communicating with each other.
A post this morning made me really get after a fix for this as it just seems crazy that something could not be done to fix this issue without it being some complicated task. I think I have it fixed. Loopback is the problem and also the solution to the problem.
The solution is to install the Microsoft Loopback Adapter. It will help maintain a constant network connection within your own machine. Although this is not its intended purpose, it does work for solving this folding problem. Frame times remained the same. Around 13:55 on a P2653 running on an E4500 @ 2.926 GHz. The major difference?? Now I can unplug the network cable completely and it never misses a beat.
What is it and is it a piece of hardware?
It is not hardware. It is a virtual network adapter installed in some cases when you need to test network related things and there is no network available. It is also used when running some virtual machines in various versions of windows.
Where is it and how can I get it?
You don't need to get it because you already have it. This is almost too easy.
How do I install it and set it up?
1) Go to Add Hardware. (Start>Control Panel>Printers and Other Devices>Add Hardware)
2) You should now be at the add hardware wizard.
Click Next.
Select "Yes, I have already connected the hardware" and click next.
Scroll to the bottom of the list and highlight "Add a new hardware device" and click next.
Select "Install the hardware that I manually select from a list (advanced)" and click next.
Highlight "Network adapters" and click next.
Highlight "Microsoft" under manufacturer and "Microsoft Loopback Adapter" under network adapter. Click next.
Click Next again.
Now click Finished.
Close out the Printers and other hardware window.
3) Go to network connections. (Start>Connect to>Show all connections) or (Start>My Network Places>View Network
Connections)
You will see a new Local Area Connection that is listed as being a Microsoft Loopback Adapter. You will also see that it says Limited or no connectivity. We are about to fix that.
Right click on this new loopback connection and select properties.
Double click Internet protocol (TCP/IP).
Select use the following IP address.
Set the IP address to a 192.168.x.x number that would not normally be assigned on your network. Ex 191.168.255.200
Click on the subnet mask box and it should auto fill with 255.255.255.0.
Leave everything else blank.
Click OK.
This may take the machine a couple minutes to think about.
Once it's done, you can close all the windows. Note that on the Network Connections window, the loopback adapter now shows connected.
4) There is no 4. You are done.
I set up all three of my WindowsXP SMP machines like this. Then I flipped the power strip off that has my cable modem, router and both switches on it. Turned it all back on and the machines didn't miss a folding beat.
I wouldn’t try this at work unless you are the one in charge. No warranties expressed or written. Use at your own risk and all that jazz.
