What is UD Monitor?
UD Monitor's primary function is to enable work unit caching for the UD Agent. It accomplishes this by installing multiple copies of the UD Agent on your PC and then automatically switching between them. After a work unit is completed, but before it can be sent, UD Monitor ends that instance of the UD Agent and starts up another one using an uncompleted work unit. This process repeats until all cached work units have been completed. At that point, UD Monitor can either quit or start up another program, such as Genome@Home, Folding@Home, or SETI@Home. This process ensures that no idle cycles are wasted.

Who needs it?
UD Monitor is targeted toward users with dial-up connections that are not able to (or don't want to) let the UD Agent connect automatically when a new work unit is needed. For example, laptops that are not normally connected to a phone line and PC's with modems that share a line with voice calls can benefit from UD Monitor. Broadband users or those with dedicate phone lines could also use UD Monitor to help avoid downtime during UD server outages, although that doesn't happen often.

What is the purpose of the "Backup" function?
UD Monitor provides the ability to backup work-in-progress to minimize the amount of work lost if the UD Agent or PC crashed. However, this function is no longer needed by most people as recent versions of the UD Agent are much more stable and less prone to corruption if there is a system crash.

Where do I get it?
You can download it here »udmon.sourceforge.net/ and there is also an Official FAQ. Yes, it's free, but the author will accept donations.

How do I install it?

Here's a Quick Start guide using settings I recommend. Feel free to adjust to your personal preferences.

1) Exit the UD Agent, if you already have it running.

2) Download the EXE file from the link above.

3) Install the program anywhere on your hard drive, preferably in an empty folder under "Program Files". For example - "C:\Program Files\UD Monitor\".

4) Run the ud_mon.exe program (double-click on it).

5) Click on Settings and then the UD Agent tab. Select the directory where your UD Agent is located.

6) Put a check beside "Run on start", "Log WU Completions”. Uncheck everything else.

7) If you are on broadband 24/7, you may want to check “Send Result before cache auto-switch”.

8) Click on the “Interface” tab. The default settings are ok. You may want to increase the "refresh elapsed time" setting to a larger value (such as 300 seconds) to reduce the CPU time UD Monitor uses.

9) Click on the "Action" tab. Several events are listed. You can specify sound files to play or other programs to execute when those events occur if you wish.

10) OPTIONAL: Follow these steps only if there is another program you would like to run when the UD cache is empty.

a) Select the ".exe to Run" tab.

b) Click on the Browse button and select the program you want to run.

c) Put a checkmark in all of the option boxes.

11) Click “OK”

12) Select the "Backup" tab. This feature is no longer needed (it does NOT backup un-saved work). To disable it, set "Keep __ backups" to 0 and removed the checks from the "Auto backup every..." options.

13) If you want to cache work units, read on. If not skip to step 18.

14) Select the "Cache" tab. Put a checkmark in the “Use cache” box.

15) Right click in the cache window for the drop down menu:

16) Figure out how many work units you want to cache. You want enough work to last you between connections without grabbing so much that the results could become "stale". Try to grab no more than a week's worth.

17) For each work unit you want to cache, complete the following steps. Note that, to UD, each cache entry will appear as a separate "device" (i.e., if you cache 3 work units, UD will report that you're running the agent on 3 separate computers)

a) Click the "New Slot" choice or press the insert key.

b) Select the newly-created cache entry which will be marked as "Empty" and click on "Switch"

c) When the UD Agent configuration box pops up, click on the "Existing UD Member" box and enter your user name, password, and a unique device description. I use a numeric to identify each PC/cache combination (e.g., "ThinkPad #1", "ThinkPad #2", etc.)

d) The UD Agent will connect to the UD servers, download a work unit, and being processing it.

e) Once the work unit has been downloaded, return to UD Monitor and repeat this process until you have the desired number of cached work units.

18) Click on "Minimize" to get UD Monitor out of the way.

19) Replace the UD Agent shortcut in your Start/Programs/Startup folder with one for UD Monitor.

20) After UD Agent finished a work unit, UD Monitor will automatically switch to the oldest unfinished work unit. If you've used the "Switch" button to switch to one that is not the oldest (such as when adding a new cache entry), you can have UD Monitor switch back to the oldest work unit by holding down the Shift key when you click on "Switch".

How do I return completed work units that have been cached?

When you're ready to have UD connect to return completed work and download new work, do the following:

1) Connect to your ISP.

2) Open UD Monitor and select the "Cache" tab.

3) Right click on the cache window.

4) Click the "Send/Receive" choice or press F12.

5) Wait while UD Monitor automatically sends in the results from all completed work unit and then refill the cache. You will notice the UD agent starting and stopping several times during this process. This is normal.

6) When all of the results have been sent, the "Please wait" dialog box will disappear and UD Monitor will re-start the work unit that was processing when you clicked on "Send/Receive".

7) You may now disconnect from your ISP if you wish.

Thanks to MJF for helping out with this entry.