How to help

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How to Help us

Read up on the project a bit more, then download the proper client for your OS and architecture. If you're installing it on a corporate computer, make sure you get your system or network administrator's permission, of course.

How does the client work?

When the client program runs, it will connect to one of our proxies your computer will be assigned a block of keys to test, searching for a solution. The default size is 2^32 keys; most typical computers can finish one block of this size in about 30 minutes, though it will depend on the speed of your CPU. The more computers we have working together, the faster the combined effort will be. Any machine with a reliable connection to the Internet will work. Be sure to ask your system administrator for permission if it's a shared system.

Getting assistance

Mailing Lists

If you want more information about the clients or the operation of distributed.net, sign up on one of our mailing lists. Take a look at our mailing lists page for a list of available mailing lists. Take special note of the announcements list, important information is sent to there.

Internet Relay Chat

If you need assistance head over to our IRC channel. See our irc page for more details about this.

Frequently Asked Questions

We now have a FAQ available online that discusses many of the questions that are frequently asked by people. Please look at this document before asking any questions.

International Help

If you would prefer to talk to someone in your native language, go to our Regional Support Page. We have volunteers willing to provide email assistance in many different languages.

Other ways to help us

Donations

Visit our Donation page for information on making monetary donations. As a non-profit organization, we rely on contributions to fund all of our operational and equipment costs.

Slogans

Do you have an idea for a slogan for the contest? If so, visit the slogan page and submit your idea! The slogans database allow participants to contribute their favorite one-liner promotions of distributed.net or distributed computing. Meanwhile, other people can vote on your submissions to rank your contributed slogans relative to those already entered.

Are you an artist? Perhaps you would like to help make an advertising banner for us? Here are our current designs: banner index. If you think you can make a good design for us feel free to send your work so that we can use it to attract more participants to the effort! Details are on that page.

Web Advertisements

Visit the Banner page and learn how you can add a banner to your web pages advertising the RC5 effort. This is a good way to show your support for our effort, in addition to giving your web pages a tasteful touch of color.

Team Involvement

In order to make things more interesting, many people have chosen to work together as a team instead of individually. If you wish to join a team, you can find a listing of active teams. The teams often target specific OS or hardware platforms and can frequently offer further assistance or hints about running the RC5 clients on your specific system.

Recruitment

Most importantly: tell your friends, recruit more CPUs! The more the better!