DIMES project info

[j3pflynn]

DIMES (Distributed Internet MEasurements & Simulations)

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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Download the agent here:
http://www.netdimes.org/download.html

Sign up here:
http://www.netdimes.org/login.php (team name = nForcersHQ, team no. = 712)

Team page here:
http://www.netdimes.org/data.php?team=712

You can either get stats at netdimes.org, or a more useful system here:
http://stats.free-dc.org/new/teamstats. ... nForcersHQ
Edit( 6/11/08 ) : Bok reworked the whole system, the new link is here:
http://stats.free-dc.org/stats.php?page ... nForcersHQ

Finally - no, there is no service-based agent; it may be in the works, though.
Edit: (5/26/06) - there's now a service-based agent available for download.

Just install the DIMES agent, fire it up, let it run for 20 minutes, and then tell us what happens in the Message tab and the Graphs tab.(Don't leave it on the Graphics tab, though, it uses up too many resources)

The netdimes forums are here:
http://www.netdimes.org/phpBB2/


Several pertinent threads:
ZoneAlarm firewall setup info:
http://www.netdimes.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=155

nFHQ thread at netdimes forum:
http://www.netdimes.org/phpBB2/viewtopi ... highlight=

System/agent "tuning":
http://www.netdimes.org/phpBB2/viewtopi ... highlight=

Edit(7/29/2007)
An additional useful tool I discovered is here:
https://www.netdimes.org/DIMESControlCenter/login.html

It's a web-based DIMES Control Center that allows you to modify numerous configuration settings and to start/stop/restart/update your agents as well.

Just holler at us in this thread:
http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/nfhq-dimes-vt65319.html
if you have any trouble!