The Dimes Project

[[XC]thewildblue]

I thought that I had better create a little thread on what dimes is and its requirements.

It doesn't require any CPU power, so it works well running with D2OL or FAH or any other project. It requires Java, but since D2OL also requires it, everyone probably already has it installed.

The goal is to map the internet. The client sends out traceroutes to various IPs and maps them. I'd like to warn people who have bandwidth usage limits, even though this project doesn't use a lot of bandwidth, it might not be for you, but I still encourage you to at least try it. The client itself seems pretty stable and the project admins are really into it and seem to communicate well. Sometimes the client may respond a little slowly, but I think that is just the nature of java.

The installation of the client is nice and easy, just choose a username and password, choose to join Xtremesystems in the team list (interesting to find as its not alphabetical....) and hey presto watch your points and the teams climb.

The only thing to be aware of is that if you have download/upload limits on your connection this will take some of your traffic. I think its about 20-35mb a day from what I remember seeing, Im uncapped so it doesnt really affect me.

The official site is here:
http://www.netdimes.org


Free-DC of course has stats here:
http://stats.free-dc.org/new/projpage.php?proj=dimes


The client is limited to one per machine irrelevant of CPUs, but it does run great on low end systems (PII etc) as all you really need is an internet connection that is always on and a connection to that (if more than one rig).

The client can be tweaked to work 4 times a minute (or less) and also the amount of bandwidth used, the less you use the less you score.

Points are uploaded every hour so its a nice project to watch your stats rocket up.

When I first started running this project I was worried that my internet connection would lag, but after running for a couple of weeks no one at home has complained ( 5 of us using it) my usenet access is exactly the same and my gaming ping hasnt changed.

Currently the XS team is about to enter the top 20 overall, we are 6th highest producer overall and me and helhiem are starting to spend alot of time in the top 10 producers also...!

Any questions give me a shout and I will do my best to answer them.

Edit:

Here is the link to create Dimes sigs:

http://sigs.canyonlake.net/dimes/dimessetup.php

Edit:
VMware Guide

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...37#post1050037

Edit:

Control Panel Link----Use This to upgrade your clients to newer versions----Great for people running VMs

https://www.netdimes.org/DIMESControlCenter/login.html

[saaya]

whats the goal of this project?

[2fink]

whats the goal of this project?

the goal is to map the internet... read closer

[saaya]

yeah but for what purpose?

[2fink]

yeah but for what purpose?

i think, they want to see how different servers/ips are connected. maybe they also want to see if you can make the inet faster if you know "shorter" routes.

[[XC]thewildblue]

The Dimes project also has its own forum located here:

http://www.netdimes.org/phpBB2/

[[XC]thewildblue]

Opps wrong thread....

[saaya]

so what esactly does the client do?
it connects to different servers and then the tool is checking hwat routes were used and how fast the response was etc?

[stealth17]

bump ^^^^^^^^^^

[[XC]thewildblue]

Hope this helps:

How does the Internet look like? How does it evolve?

DIMES is a distributed scientific research project, aimed to study the structure and topology of the Internet, with the help of a volunteer community (similar in spirit to projects such as SETI@Home).

Due to the way the Internet is engineered, distributing the Internet mapping effort is very important, and the only efficient way to measure the Internet structure is by asking you to participate. What we ask is not so much your CPU or bandwidth (which we hardly consume), but rather, your location. The more places we'll have presence in, the more accurate our maps will be. Understanding the structure and function of the Internet is an important research task, that will allow to make the Internet a better place for all of us.

The DIMES agent performs Internet measurements such as TRACEROUTE and PING at a low rate, consuming at peak 1KB/S. The agent DOES NOT send any information about its host's activity/personal data, and sends ONLY the results of its own measurements. Aside from giving a good feeling, running the DIMES agent will also provide you with maps of how the Internet looks from your home (currently) and will (in the future) provide you with a personalized 'Internet weather report' and other user-focused features.

[Mr_Slinky]

What we ask is not so much your CPU or bandwidth (which we hardly consume), but rather, your location. .

who is the WE and
how do they compile the results?

[[XC]thewildblue]

Ive pulled all this from www.netdimes.org

[PS2pcGAMER]

I moved the DIMES sigs to the D2OL server which still seems to be working. I am not going to make any guarantees though.

Let me know if you run into any problems.

[[XC]thewildblue]

Thanks Jeff we appreciate it.

[xman01]

will join as soon as i get adsl

[demonR6]

I'm game.. have plenty of broadband available so...

[Rodzilla]

I'll load it up on everything and scale back or up as nesseccery...

[[XC]thewildblue]

Cheers Rod ! Looking forward to seeing you on the stats.

[Rodzilla]

Are the servers down????? This is confusing...

We need a getting started/FAQ/tweaking sticky... badly.

[vapb400]

come on rodzilla It's a new members battle

[Rodzilla]

Looks like a neat project... but I keep getting a REALLY anoying NIS firewall warning every 10 seconds!!!!!!!!!!!! Drove me crazy.

[Mr_Slinky]

umm time to disable NIS

[Rodzilla]

umm time to disable NIS

That's not an option...

[Ugly n Grey]

Rod, just put one blank rig in your DMZ where you don't care what happens. I am doing this by leaving a lappy hooked up at the house in toronto until the new owners take posession early next month...It has only a bare bottom xp sp2 build and enough java to run dimes

[Rodzilla]

Rod, just put one blank rig in your DMZ where you don't care what happens. I am doing this by leaving a lappy hooked up at the house in toronto until the new owners take posession early next month...It has only a bare bottom xp sp2 build and enough java to run dimes

It's not my hardware firewall... it's norton internet security. I run it on all of my rigs.