Folding@home Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

You can help scientists studying Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and many cancers by simply running a piece of software on your computer or game console. Join others around the world to form the world's largest distributed supercomputer.

READY

What are proteins?

Proteins are biology's workhorses -- its "nanomachines." Proteins help your body break down food into energy, regulate your moods, and fight disease.

What is protein folding?

Before proteins can carry out these important functions, they assemble themselves, or "fold," into a specific structure. While protein folding is critical and fundamental to virtually all of biology, much of the process remains a mystery.

For more information see the Science page.

Why is it important to understand how proteins fold?

When proteins do not fold correctly, also known as misfolding, there can be serious health consequences, including many well-known diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's, and many cancers. If we better understand protein misfolding we can design drugs and therapies to combat these illnesses.

For more information see the Folding@home FAQ on diseases.

How can I help?

The best way to help is by downloading and running the free Folding@home (FAH) client software. Each computer that donates processing power increases our ability to understand how proteins fold, and eventually discover therapeutic drugs to combat the diseases that result from protein misfolding.

Once installed, the FAH software runs behind the scenes using otherwise unused computing time. It's designed to be very safe and secure, and requires very little intervention on your part. Participation is always voluntary.

If you would like to make a direct donation to our non-profit organization, please see the Donations page.

SET

Where can I get the Folding@home software?

You can download it from our main homepage. The "Set" box displays the recommended software for your computer. The page also offers the software of other platforms.

How do I set it up?

It's easy. We recommend you read and follow an installation guide, which we offer for Windows, Linux, or Macintosh. Adjustments during installation is completely optional. You may choose a username and a team, and we recommend that you receive and enter a passkey. If you need assistance or have any questions, visit our Folding Support Forum.

Once installation completes, the software will start folding automatically.

FOLD

Where do I start?

The first thing to do is install the software. See the Installation Guide if you need help with this.

How do I monitor my folding status?

Once you've installed the software run FAHControl and look for the "Online: Running" status. And you can view the protein running on your computer in 3D by running FAHViewer.

Where can I find more help?

There are many resources for Folding@home help.

The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page answers many common questions. The FAQ Index has further information on other FAH topics.
On the Client Development Project page you can find information specific to the new V7 client, report bugs and learn about the 3rd-party development API.
The Folding Forum has a very active community of expert folders who would be glad to help you with any problems you might have. It is also a great place to get more involved.

Do you have the latest hardware... Are you itching to show off what your new GPU or overclocked CPU can do?

Competing as an individual or on a team is fun and helps the cause.

Complete folding Work Units and earn points.

Monitor your Points Per Day (PPD) to keep track of your performance. Visit sites like Extreme Overclocking, Kakao Stats or Hard Folding to see how you and your team compare to folders around the world.

Start or join a team.

Starting a folding team is a great way to promote Folding@home. Use your technical skills to build a folding power house. Compete with teams across the globe or for top positions with in your own team.

To check out current Folding@home statistics or to start a new team see the Folding@home Stats page.

What is displayed on the screen?

We recommend that you visit this project page for details. If you'd like to know more about the 3D viewer that displays the protein your computer is folding, see this page.

What do I get for folding?

Each time your computer sends a completed work unit back to us, we award you points in return for your scientific contribution. The more work your computer had to do and the faster it does it, the more points you can get. The points for you and your team are posted on our Stats page.

What is "PPD"?

PPD stands for "Points Per Day," a measure of your scientific productivity. In order to understand how a protein folds, we need to complete our simulations of the folding process in a timely manner. For that, speed and reliability are important. To increase your PPD, we recommend that you use a passkey and if you reliably complete work units for us, you may be given additional points the faster you fold.

What is "PRCG"?

This is an abbreviation corresponding to four numbers which identifies and distinguishes each work unit. The first number specifies the project, which is the protein under study. Each project has a description, which is displayed on the bottom of the screen. Work is rarely duplicated, so every set of PRCG numbers is unique.

How do I change my configuration?

There are options to adjust what your computer uses to fold proteins, as well as many other settings. You can find information on this in the Install Guides listed on this page. If you need assistance, please ask for help on our Folding Support Forum.

How do I pause or shut down the software?

To pause folding, click the large button at the top of the screen labeled "Pause." This will cause the program to stop its work until you click the "Fold" button. The "Finish" button will pause after the work unit completes: useful if you don't to fold for a longer period of time.

To uninstall, for Windows follow this guide for Windows, and for Linux follow this guide.

For More Information, Please See:

Last Updated on February 14, 2013, at 03:14 PM