You can specify preferences determining and limiting how BOINC uses your computers. Preferences are divided into two groups:

General preferences

General preferences apply to all BOINC projects in which you participate. They include: "; list_start(); list_item("When to work", "You can specify whether work (computation and network transfer) should be done 1) while the host is being used (i.e. during keyboard and mouse input); 2) while the computer is being powered by batteries (for laptop users). "); list_item("Confirm before connect", "Whether to wait for confirmation before making network connections."); list_item("Work buffering min and max", " Your computer maintains an estimate of the amount of work remaining (i.e. the time until one of its processors will be idle). You can choose the minimum work and the maximum work to keep. Normally the work remaining is between these two limits. When the work remaining reaches minimum level, your computer contacts one or more scheduling servers, and attempts to get enough work to exceed the maximum level.

This scheme allows computers that are sporadically connected (because they're portable or have modem-based connections) to avoid becoming idle due to lack of work. If the host is frequently disconnected from the Internet, the min should be at least as long as the typical period of disconnection. The larger the difference between min and max, the less often the BOINC client will connect to the Internet. ?> "); list_item("Disk usage limits", "You can limit the disk space used by BOINC in any of three ways: 1) Maximum disk space used by BOINC; 2) Maximum percentage of free space used by BOINC. 3) Minimum disk space to keep free. "); list_end(); echo " You can view and edit your general preferences through a web interface, at the site of any project in which you participate. Changes are automatically propagated to all your hosts; this is done the next time the host contacts the project's server, so there may be some delay.

Project preferences

There is a separate set of project preferences for each project in which you participate. They include:

You can view and edit project preferences through a web interface at the project's web site.

Location-specific preferences

If you have computers both at home and at work you may want to use differences preferences for them. In addition to your 'primary preferences' (which are used by default) BOINC allows you to create separate preferences for home, work, and school.

Your account with a project has a 'default location' (home, work, or school). New computers registered to your account will be given the default location. You can change the location of an existing computer through the project's web site. "; page_tail(); ?>