Do you have NT machines on your network sitting idle at night when they could be crunching SETI? First you will need some basic tools and the permission of person involved. People will think something nefarious is going on here like using target machines to break government codes. Before reading further, you will need administrative right on all the machines you wish to use in this project or it will not work and have the scheduler service running all the source and target machines. The process below can be used with Win2k Pro, NT Workstation 4.0 and NT Server 4.0 with slight variations. You will also need to use the Text Based version of SETI.

Download required applications

Naturally you will need the SETI Text-only client found at http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/unix.html and grab the ‘setiathome-3.0.i386-winnt-cmdline.exe’

You will need a Service control agent, you can find quite a few out there but we are going to use the SETISRVC app because it is easy to install remotely and auto restarts the SETI client. SETISRVC can be found here: http://www.geocities.com/petiepooo/seti.html

From either the NT RESOURCE KIT (NT4) or the RESOURCE KIT PRO (WIN2K) grab the NETSVC.EXE file; this will be used to control the service remotely.

Installation

Create the SETI directory and add the following files:

SETI.EXE (renamed from setiathome-3.0.i386-winnt-cmdline.exe)
SETISRVC.EXE
USER_INFO.SAH

Copy the SETI directory above to all the target machines you wish to run it on. If you want to stay comfortable in your chair and not run around and copy the directories, just map them. I normally place the files under C:\Program Files\SETI and set the directory properties to hidden to prevent accidental deletion. An example of mapping is NET USE T: \\COMPUTERNAME\SHARE

Next you will need to get the service installed, http://www.geocities.com/petiepooo/seti.html has some instructions for general use. To install remotely you need to have the scheduler service running on both machines. From the DOS PROMPT we will use the AT command:

AT \\computername 10:00a c:\PROGRA~1\seti\setisrvc –install

AT is already on all NT machines, so don’t worry about installing it. Place your computer where it says computer name and set the time to whatever time it is now plus 5 minutes. (in case the target machine’s clock is off). The rest of the line has to be similar to the one above, the local path of the target machine displayed in the ‘old’ DOS format.

After 5 minutes or so, the target machines will now have the SETISVC listed under the services but it will not be started just yet.

Verify the service is installed

Windows 2000

Within Windows 2000, you can manage target machines Service.
From the CONTROL PANEL select ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS, and then click COMPUTER MANAGEMENT.
Using the RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON select the top item called ‘Computer Management (Local)’. You will then see ‘Connect to another Computer.

From here you can see a list of services and verify that SETI is listed. (The service is displayed as SETI not SETISRVC).
Open the Seti Service and set the STARTUP TYPE as AUTOMATIC. From the LOG ON TAB you can remove the INTERACTIVE setting by removing the check box ‘Allow service to interact with desktop’. This will hide the Seti operation from sight.
You can also use the same method as the Windows NT below.

Windows NT

From a DOS prompt query the service on the target machine
NETSVC setisvc \\COMPUTERNAME /query
If you get ‘Service is running on \\COMPUTERNAME’ message, then it is installed
To start the service type NETSVC setisvc \\COMPUTERNAME /start

Going the extra mile

What is the best part about all this work? Scheduling SETI to run on the target machines from a single machine. This enables you to add and remove machines from the start and stop file and not worry about connecting to each machine.

Create a directory and a batch file, call the batch START.BAT
In the batch add the target machines to start.
Netsvc setisvc \\MACH1 /start
Netsvc setisvc \\MACH2 /start
Netsvc setisvc \\MACH3 /start
Netsvc setisvc \\MACH4 /start
Netsvc setisvc \\MACH5 /start
Netsvc setisvc \\MACH6 /start

Now schedule that batch to run at a certain time to kick off the start SETI on each machine.

WIN2K shown above can access the local scheduler through the CONTROL PANEL, SCHEDULED TASKS.

WINNT users can access the local scheduler using the AT command. WINAT is the GUI version found in Resource Kit.

You can also create the STOP.BAT file and change the /start to /stop

Now you can have a dozen target machines crunching SETI once the users go home.