For the last several years, we've been very fortunate to have Rackspace sponsoring PrimeGrid and providing our cloud servers free of charge.

We're very grateful for everything Rackspace has done for us, but times change, and this is coming to an end.

We are looking for a new home. Don't worry; this isn't the end of PrimeGrid. This is not the first time we've had to move. It probably won't be the last. But we need a new digital abode in which to take up residence.

If anyone has connections with a corporation, university, cloud provider, or rich uncle that might want to sponsor a crowd-sourced mathematical research site, we'd appreciate any help and advice you can provide.

Thank you
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My lucky number is 75898⁵²⁴²⁸⁸+1

How much do Rackspace want for you to stay put?

Also:
* "What do they need? Money, physical place...??? How much?"

* "what if we sponsor it (The Gridcoin Foundation)? Let's say for a year. It's probably not a large sum and would boost our standing within the BOINC community considerably."

I will help.

I have a very good VPS package that is collecting dust right now as I am between projects.

I would be happy to host for free, and I will work with Gridcoin community on whether or not they wish to reimburse me.

It sounds like you have multiple servers full of data, so it may be too big for what I have available. If that's the case, I will join my Gridcoin community friends in making donations toward your new home :-)

I'd like to clarify something that wasn't obvious in my original post. The new "home" we're looking for doesn't have to be a scenario where one entity is providing us with free servers. Prior to Rackspace, we paid for our own cloud servers, and before that we owned our own physical servers. Both of those choices are viable options moving forward. (Because of the lead time involved with ordering hardware, we're actively investigating hardware options at this time.)
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My lucky number is 75898⁵²⁴²⁸⁸+1

We will be updating the donations page, the bank donations method isn't currently working.

We will be updating the donations page, the bank donations method isn't currently working.

Oops, I just sent something via PayPal - hope it gets to the project.

Who would have thought NOT collecting money would be so difficult? You guys are awesome!

I have totally disabled the donations page -- you'll now get a 404 error if you try to use the link above (which is to a webpage we didn't want people using.) I thought merely removing all links to the page would be sufficient, but with Internet archives, bookmarks, etc., that was not correct. Lesson learned.

(Please note that I'm not blaming anyone for trying to donate -- and with lots of persistence! -- the onus is on me. I should have been more thorough and realized simply removing links wouldn't get it done. The Internet never forgets anything.)

We'll let everyone know when it's safe to donate again (assuming we go that route.)

Thanks for your amazing support!!

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My lucky number is 75898⁵²⁴²⁸⁸+1

At the risk of sounding like the idiot that I am, here's a question: Can some (or all) of primegrid's hosting needs be handled in a distributed way? (in a similar fashion as boinc tasks that are currently being sent out for crunching) I would guess that even the database could be done in some kind of peer to peer or shared way, where stuff is stored and processed in little chunks distributed across thousands of our computers. then pretty much all you need is a simple web host. I'll bet that there are lots of reasons not to do that, just throwing it out there.

After some research and discussions, PrimeGrid has decided that the best way to move forward is to purchase our own dedicated servers. Plans are underway for that right now, including housing the servers in a commercial data center.

We will be opening up the donations page in the next couple of days, for those who would like to help. (And, of course, thanks to those who already have donated.) We want to nail down the actual costs before setting the targets for donations.

As things stand right now, it looks like our total operating expenses, including the data center (the largest single cost), hardware reserve for future server repairs and replacements, and covering the up front hardware costs comes out to less than half of what some of us pay for our monthly electric bills.

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My lucky number is 75898⁵²⁴²⁸⁸+1

Do we run into a deadline for the move?
(Other words: Do we have to leave Rackspace until xxxxx?)

Do we run into a deadline for the move?
(Other words: Do we have to leave Rackspace until xxxxx?)

Any problem with someone hoarding work for 48 hrs? It would mean extra activity when the system is back up due to the bulk submissions but it also means no CPU/GPU cycles would be lost.

Could there be options if we raise enough money to get more powerful servers?

Seriously, the servers are ordered, so that part's set in stone now.

The geek in me would love to know the details of what you guys ordered, but I understand if you don't want to open yourself up for discussion, second guessing, etc. :)

I think that all of this is being handled very well. It's nice to know nuts and bolts but the reality is that as long as the work units keep getting pushed out the door and accepted back when completed is all that's really important. :-) And once you get things firmed up budget wise I'm more than happy to contribute financially. Love this project! :-)

We will be opening up the donations page in the next couple of days, for those who would like to help. (And, of course, thanks to those who already have donated.) We want to nail down the actual costs before setting the targets for donations.

err: 8 WebMoney payments for this merchant are not set up or set up incorrectly by it`s payment processor. Please contact the merchant`s technical support. (LMI_SHOP_ID not specified for this merchant!) step:13.4

Webmoney doesn't seem to be working for me.

I got in touch with Paysera and they will look into the issue. I will let you know when the issue is resolved - thanks for letting us know!

As for PayPal, we are aware of the rather large fees. Sadly I don't think there is a more convenient service for international payments. Within the EU we have an (almost) free SEPA system, but going worldwide presents some challenges.

Apparently it is against WebMoney terms of service to use their service for donations, so we cannot accept WM. The payment option has been removed. Sorry for the inconvenience.

With PayPal, there is an option to send money to friends and relatives. The last time I used it, I was charged $1 for using this option. I do not know if there are any limits when using this option and/or whether the $1 is valid up to some limit of its own.

With PayPal, there is an option to send money to friends and relatives. The last time I used it, I was charged $1 for using this option. I do not know if there are any limits when using this option and/or whether the $1 is valid up to some limit of its own.

I would be very surprised if this qualified as "friends and relatives".

With PayPal, there is an option to send money to friends and relatives. The last time I used it, I was charged $1 for using this option. I do not know if there are any limits when using this option and/or whether the $1 is valid up to some limit of its own.

I would be very surprised if this qualified as "friends and relatives".

I would think we're all friends here.

But seriously. What if Paypal donations were sent directly to Rytis then he could forward it monthly (or however often he wants to) to Primegrid's account. If Primegrid's account is at a local bank (or online bank) that Rytis has a personal account at (or open one), it should be easy for him to transfer without fees. This could bypass the usual fees (especially advantageous for donors of larger donations) that Paypal charges for normal transactions. Just a thought.

I dont know what ( and how ) EU handle cryptocoins: but if somebody send any kind of coins, and if that coin is sold and changed for $ then there will be no fee for that transaction.
In days that price can go up and down rapidly, it will be good to have one person, that will we sold coins immediately , and convert it to solid value ( like $)
In that case you will not lost anything because of unstable price.
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92*10^^1585996-1 NEAR-REPDIGIT PRIME :) :) :)
4 * 650^⁴⁹⁸¹⁰¹-1 CRUS PRIME
2022202116^¹³¹⁰⁷²+1 GENERALIZED FERMAT
Proud member of team Aggie The Pew. Go Aggie!

Thanks everyone. We appreciate everybody's contributions.

As for the costs charged by the various intermediaries, that's just the cost of doing business. You don't see it as a consumer, but every time you use a credit card to purchase something, the credit card company takes a small percentage out of what the merchant gets paid. These services aren't free (nor should they be.)

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My lucky number is 75898⁵²⁴²⁸⁸+1

just try the SEPA-way ...
I am curious whether my existing crown will change ;-) *)


*) this was not a requirement
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Sysadm@Nbg
my current lucky number: 113856050^65536 + 1
PSA-PRPNet-Stats-URL: http://u-g-f.de/PRPNet/

My homebanking asked for some info that is not available on the donation page (the address and country of the account owner).

We think the donation issues may have been HTTPS related. The page has been modified and the transaction will happen over secure connection, which will hopefully solve the issue.

Sent some donation recently.
Since I already have donation crown from earlier donation, I got curious how do I know that it reached the destionation?
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My stats

Sent some donation recently.
Since I already have donation crown from earlier donation, I got curious how do I know that it reached the destionation?

If you were logged in when you made the donation from the link on the page, you will receive PrimeGrid private message from Rytis.

For a few years I have been using dedicated servers from online.net (https://www.online.net/en/dedicated-server) and can recommend at least considering their offers, either as a backup solution or maybe even as a permanent one. On a three-year horizon the TCO is going to be less then hosting own servers in a colo.

We just received a new, much better quote for colocation, so the donation target has been updated accordingly.

Just try to create a new beneficiary using the information on the donation page and it fails.
My bank ask for IBAN (that's ok) and BIC information (=SWIFT) that was rejected.

After some search on BIC information, I found there are 2 version of the BIC, BIC8 and BIC11 for 8 or 11 chars.

On the donation page you set only the BIC8 and obviously my bank ask for the BIC11.

As DuckDuckGo is my friend, a search for BIC & AB DNB bankas found the missing information: here

BIC8 = AGBLLT2X
BIC11 = AGBLLT2XXXX

....

Must the amount be prime ?
Hopefully, it should not be one of the T5k :)

Donation ongoing ....
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Badge Score: 1*4 + 1*5 + 7*6 + 8*7 + 3*8 + 1*9 = 140

Thanks - my bank doesn't even provide the longer version in their information page. Added this information to the donation page.

Quick update: we now have enough money to pay for the servers - and I just got news they will be delivered to me tomorrow. It will take a while to set things up, but the first major step is done. Expect photos :)

We are now in the next donation progress bar, which covers hosting both servers in the datacenter. It is going to cost us 140€ per month (5000€ for the next three years), so all your help is very much appreciated.

The new servers are back in their boxes and I'll bring them to the datacenter tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who donated!

Thanks - we did get those, thank you for your support! Tallying up donations is a manual process that I just completed, so you should get your crowns very soon.

If we are no longer being provided for by Rackspace, why is their log still present in the side bar?
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If we are no longer being provided for by Rackspace, why is their log still present in the side bar?

If we are no longer being provided for by Rackspace, why is their log still present in the side bar?

tl;dr: We'll be at Rackspace for another year, so we're saving money in 2018.

If we are no longer being provided for by Rackspace, why is their log still present in the side bar?

tl;dr: We'll be at Rackspace for another year, so we're saving money in 2018.

while you stay another year at rackspace, will you reopen PSA / PRPNet
or will you let it down unless the porting problems to the own servers are solved?

thanks in advance for any short comment

I may not have been the most consistent PRP runner, despite my showing in the last years' challenges, but I do like having it available as a part of my subproject rotation, and the FPS/PRS searches were pretty decent on my pre-AVX machine.

I think many of us were silent on the issue because the posts about the shutdown were all about the move and being back online after a few things were resolved, and like anyone who loves GFN22, we have a lot of patience to spare!

So, bring it back, please?
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Eating more cheese on Thursdays.

some inline comments - sorry for this "unreadable"

If we are no longer being provided for by Rackspace, why is their log still present in the side bar?

tl;dr: We'll be at Rackspace for another year, so we're saving money in 2018.

while you stay another year at rackspace, will you reopen PSA / PRPNet
or will you let it down unless the porting problems to the own servers are solved?

thanks in advance for any short comment

This mindreading thing really has to stop. :)

I was literally thinking a few minutes ago about how nobody has asked or complained about PRPNet.

Here's my question to everyone: WWWW is down until it's modified to produce a meaningful residue so it can be double checked reliably. If and when it returns, it's conceivable it might run on BOINC rather than PRPNet.

That leaves only 27, 121, primorial, and factorial running on PRPNet.

How strong is the demand to run any of those 4?

I'm not saying we'd necessarily turn it on anytime soon (there's some issues), but I do want to know how important it is to all of you.

IMO factorial and primorial should be moved to BOINC, and the other PRPNet projects can be stopped.
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What I liked about PRPNet was a way to get the PSA badge without a GPU. If CPU manual sieving opens up sometime, PRPNet wouldn't really matter to me, but if it doesn't, I would like PRPNet back.

At PrimeGrid PRPNet seems to be a Sideshow compared to the BOINC Main Event. As a proving ground it has a place.

It occurred to me that PRPNet/PSA credit could serve as a welcome mat for "pet prime projects" and "junior project admin" development experience - I'm looking at mackerel's "my little play with generalized fermat primes".

PRPNet could become an integration point for onboarding projects that don't qualify for T5K treatment but whose project admins might wish to come under PrimeGrid's Big Tent. I think the primary benefit would be sharing the overhead of hosted services and deduplication of overhead work.

I'm not sure PrimeGrid would see any benefits from doing that other than building a bigger community.

Thanks for sharing your opinions. Keep them coming!!

::Administrator hat off::

Here's my personal thoughts:

WWWW: I'd like to see it back once it's in a position to be double checked. As a GPU project, it's especially prone to errors, and it really needs the ability to double check.

Primorial/Factorial: I'd like to move them to BOINC. There's two difficulties here: It's PFGW, not LLR, so we'd need an entirely new wrapper/interface. No multi-threading. Does it checkpoint? (I think it does on this test.) Biggest issue: sieving. A lot more tests will be done on BOINC than PRPNet, so we'll need to sieve more before starting.

27/121: This predates me, and my understanding may not be accurate. I believe this was originally an external mega prime project that was later merged into PrimeGrid. The 2 k's were picked because they were "high weight". As a mega prime project, PPS-MEGA is better, in my opinion. I personally wouldn't have a problem with shutting 27/121 down.
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My lucky number is 75898⁵²⁴²⁸⁸+1

Generally, double-check ability of BOINC is why we move from PRPNet to BOINC, and we should keep it that way.

WWWW - I would really like to see it back when it is usable. With PG BOINC push and considerable more participants (ie. those badge hunters alone), should shortly become most complete search. Only GPU version is ok.

Primorial/Factorial - same reason, should be most advanced search when it runs on BOINC.
Since PFGW is not LLR (not as highly optimized, not MT), running it on older servers sounds convenient (ie. keep Coffee Lakes warm on LLR).

27;121 - no extra interest (even my third largest prime so far found back in 2009)
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My stats

Since PFGW is not LLR (not as highly optimized, not MT), running it on older servers sounds convenient (ie. keep Coffee Lakes warm on LLR).

I understood that PFGW uses gwnum like LLR/Prime95, so apart from not having multi-thread enabled, it should make good use of available CPU instructions.

Iain had a go at making PFGW multi-thread, in a similar way to how it was implemented on LLR. http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?t=22607
I'm no programmer or mathematician, so can't comment on that any beyond giving the link. If there eventually comes a Windows version, I'd certainly help out in any testing.

I was literally thinking a few minutes ago about how nobody has asked or complained about PRPNet.

Here's my question to everyone: WWWW is down until it's modified to produce a meaningful residue so it can be double checked reliably. If and when it returns, it's conceivable it might run on BOINC rather than PRPNet.

That leaves only 27, 121, primorial, and factorial running on PRPNet.

How strong is the demand to run any of those 4?

I'm not saying we'd necessarily turn it on anytime soon (there's some issues), but I do want to know how important it is to all of you.

What was the relation between the 27;121 projects on PRPNet and the Proth projects PPS and MEGA on BOINC? Are the BOINC projects excluding the specific multipliers 27 and 121? It appears that PRPNet 27;121 worked on higher exponents (n around 6 to 8 million) than the BOINC projects?