Account managers
An account manager (AM) is a web site that simplifies participating in BOINC. Instead of attaching the BOINC client to separate projects, you attach it to the AM. The client will then periodically ask the AM what projects to compute for. This is typically done once per day; you can trigger it using the "synchronize" command in the Manager's Tools menu.
AMs are handy if you run BOINC on multiple computers: changes you make on the AM automatically take effect on all the computers.
The following AMs are currently available:
Science United lets you sign up for science areas rather than specific projects; your computer will then do work for projects in the areas you select. You don't have to read about and compare dozens of projects; you just say what science areas you want to support. All Science United users share a single anonymous account on each project; thus your personal data (e.g. email and password) is confined to Science United.
These AMs show you a list of BOINC projects and let you choose projects by checking boxes. They create an account for you (with the same email and password as your AM account) on each of these projects. You can control the settings of these project accounts (name, email, password, resource share, team membership) from the AM.
This AM gives you units of a virtual currency (GridCoin) for doing BOINC computing. It's like BitCoin except instead of doing meaningless computing (hash functions) you're doing something useful.
The AM framework is open; in the future there may be other AMs, with other ways of expressing preferences.
To use an AM:
- Go to the AM web site and create an account.
- Attach each of your BOINC clients to this AM account.
- If you're in the Simple View, switch to Advanced view.
- In the Tools menu, select 'Use Account Manager...'
- Select the AM you want to use.
- To use a AM not in the list, fill in its URL in the Account Manager URL path.
- Enter the username and password of your AM account.
- Click Next.
The BOINC client will then synchronize with the AM.
To attach to an AM from the command line using the Boinccmd tool, type
boinccmd --join_acct_mgr URL name password
where 'URL' is the URL of the AM, and 'name' and 'password' are your login info there.