About the NFSNET Client Software
The NFSNET client is a distributed implemention of the sieving stage of the Number Field Sieve factoring algorithm. It communicates through HTTP to the NFSNET servers to receive assignments and submit the results that it has found.
Please see the Frequently Asked Questions section for more information about the NFSNET client and the Number Field Sieve factoring algorithm.
The Version 1.17 Release of the NFSNET client software is now available for download. The previous version performs well and continues to be supported while we phase it out.
Please note that at the moment we unfortunately do not support users who connect to the Internet by dial-up. We are working on a solution for this however the significant upstream data requirements inherent in NFSNET sieving make it difficult.
Downloading the Software
The first step is to download the client software for the platforms that you'll be using it on.
If you plan to install the NFSNET client software on a large number of computers (20+), please let us know in advance by sending mail to join@nfsnet.org.
Here are links to the versions that are currently available:
Release 1.17
Simply download and extract the contents of the archive file then follow the instructions in the documentation that is included in the archive.
Mailing Lists
We strongly recommend that you subscribe to the NFSNET mailing lists. It's the best way to keep up-to-date and get answers to any questions you might have.
There are two mailing lists. The "nfsnet-announce" list is a read-only list used to post the results of successful factorizations. The "nfsnet-l" is read-write and is for NFSNET participants to ask questions and get updates about progress and recent events.
To subscribe to each list, send mail to majordomo@nfsnet.org. For "nfsnet-announce" include the following text in the message body:
subscribe nfsnet-announce
end
For the "nfsnet-l" list include the following text in the message body:
subscribe nfsnet-l
end
If you have any questions about the client software or NFSNET in general you can submit them to the nfsnet-l mailing list or send mail to join@nfsnet.org.