I have been using BOINC with World Community Grid since 2004, but need to find an alternative for a few months before WCG restarts.
I have created an account here. However when I use Boincmgr to add this project, I get the reply 'please try later'. If I try adding this project using the Boincmgr alternative BoincTasks I receive an error code -184.
The event log shows (in both cases):
Fetching configuration file from https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/get_project_config.php
Project communication failed: attempting access to reference site
Internet access OK - project servers may be temporarily down.

I can access the configuration file using Firefox browser.
I have even tried adding the project with the firewall turned off, but received the same result.

Do you have any advice or require more information?

I had the same thing happen.
Click on your account and then click on Account Keys. It gives you an alternate way to attach a computer. I only had to do this once and then I added the others using BoincTasks.

The project servers have been down for 4 days. They are now ok.

Thank you for your advice Aurum.
I feel I have advanced slightly. I now have a projects folder for QuChem but failed several times trying to download its master file. The server has put a 1 day ban on access from my PC so I will have to wait until tomorrow for further experimentation.
Here is part of the event log:
31 20/02/2022 11:25:51 Setting up project and slot directories
32 20/02/2022 11:25:51 Checking active tasks
33 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 20/02/2022 11:25:51 URL https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/; Computer ID not assigned yet; resource share 100
34 World Community Grid 20/02/2022 11:25:51 URL http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/; Computer ID 6207428; resource share 100
35 20/02/2022 11:25:51 Setting up GUI RPC socket
36 20/02/2022 11:25:51 Checking presence of 101 project files
37 20/02/2022 11:25:51 Suspending computation - initial delay
38 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 20/02/2022 11:25:51 [sched_op] Fetching master file
39 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 20/02/2022 11:25:51 Fetching scheduler list
40 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 20/02/2022 11:25:54 [sched_op] Deferring communication for 1 days 00:00:00
41 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 20/02/2022 11:25:54 [sched_op] Reason: 5 consecutive failures fetching scheduler list
42 20/02/2022 11:26:21 Project communication failed: attempting access to reference site
43 20/02/2022 11:26:22 Internet access OK - project servers may be temporarily down.

Hopefully it will then work as chikito has said the servers are now up.

After waiting more than 24 hours before starting BOINC, I manually started it. However the result is the same:


32 21/02/2022 15:15:06 Checking active tasks
33 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 15:15:06 URL https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/; Computer ID not assigned yet; resource share 100
34 World Community Grid 21/02/2022 15:15:06 URL http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/; Computer ID 6207428; resource share 100
35 21/02/2022 15:15:06 Setting up GUI RPC socket
36 21/02/2022 15:15:06 Checking presence of 101 project files
37 21/02/2022 15:15:06 Suspending computation - initial delay
38 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 15:15:06 [sched_op] Fetching master file
39 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 15:15:06 Fetching scheduler list
40 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 15:15:08 [sched_op] Deferring communication for 1 days 00:00:00
41 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 15:15:08 [sched_op] Reason: 6 consecutive failures fetching scheduler list
42 21/02/2022 15:15:36 Project communication failed: attempting access to reference site
43 21/02/2022 15:15:38 Internet access OK - project servers may be temporarily down.

I will look for more debugging option in cc_config and try again tomorrow.

I have changed my cc_config.xml to include:
file_xfer_debug
http_debug
http_xfer_debug

I also decided to try again within the 1 day exclusion. Here is part of the event log:

34 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 16:39:19 URL https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/; Computer ID not assigned yet; resource share 100
35 World Community Grid 21/02/2022 16:39:19 URL http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/; Computer ID 6207428; resource share 100
36 21/02/2022 16:39:19 Setting up GUI RPC socket
37 21/02/2022 16:39:19 Checking presence of 101 project files
38 21/02/2022 16:39:19 Suspending computation - initial delay
39 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] HTTP_OP::init_get(): https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/viewNoticesRSSFeed.action?userIdHash=431779_91eadecdad4cc5ad30fb8b71db2dacbf
40 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] HTTP_OP::libcurl_exec(): ca-bundle 'C:\Program Files\BOINC\ca-bundle.crt'
41 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] HTTP_OP::libcurl_exec(): ca-bundle set
42 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [sched_op] Fetching master file
43 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] HTTP_OP::init_get(): https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/
44 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] HTTP_OP::libcurl_exec(): ca-bundle 'C:\Program Files\BOINC\ca-bundle.crt'
45 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] HTTP_OP::libcurl_exec(): ca-bundle set
46 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 16:39:19 Fetching scheduler list
47 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#0] Info: Trying 169.47.63.74...
48 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#1] Info: Trying 193.49.146.230...
49 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#1] Info: Connected to quchempedia.univ-angers.fr (193.49.146.230) port 443 (#1)
50 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#1] Info: ALPN, offering http/1.1
51 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#1] Info: Cipher selection: ALL:!EXPORT:!EXPORT40:!EXPORT56:!aNULL:!LOW:!RC4:@STRENGTH
52 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#1] Info: successfully set certificate verify locations:
53 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#1] Info: CAfile: C:\Program Files\BOINC\ca-bundle.crt
54 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#1] Info: CApath: none
55 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#1] Info: TLSv1.2 (OUT), TLS header, Certificate Status (22):
56 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#1] Info: TLSv1.2 (OUT), TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
57 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#0] Info: Connected to www.worldcommunitygrid.org (169.47.63.74) port 443 (#0)
58 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#0] Info: ALPN, offering http/1.1
59 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#0] Info: Cipher selection: ALL:!EXPORT:!EXPORT40:!EXPORT56:!aNULL:!LOW:!RC4:@STRENGTH
60 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#0] Info: successfully set certificate verify locations:
61 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#0] Info: CAfile: C:\Program Files\BOINC\ca-bundle.crt
62 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#0] Info: CApath: none
63 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#0] Info: TLSv1.2 (OUT), TLS header, Certificate Status (22):
64 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#0] Info: TLSv1.2 (OUT), TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
65 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#1] Info: TLSv1.2 (IN), TLS handshake, Server hello (2):
66 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#1] Info: TLSv1.2 (IN), TLS handshake, Certificate (11):
67 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#1] Info: TLSv1.2 (OUT), TLS alert, Server hello (2):
68 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#1] Info: SSL certificate problem: certificate has expired
69 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] [ID#1] Info: Closing connection 1
70 https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/ 21/02/2022 16:39:19 [http] HTTP error: Peer certificate cannot be authenticated with given CA certificates

I think the problem is in the last three lines but I need advice on correcting the problem

Expired certificates sounds like a problem with a previous version of BOINC for Windows. I use the latest BOINC Linux version from the repository (7.16.6) and have not had that problem. If memory serves the easiest fix was to upgrade BOINC to the latest version.

This thread may help you:
https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/forum_thread.php?id=149#1479

Thank you Aurum. I downloaded and installed BOINC 7.16.20 over 7.16.11 which included a more up to date ca-bundle.crt file.

I can now communicate with the server but have not received any tasks, even though the server status shows work units are unsent.

DESKTOP-0AUP2S8

778 QuChemPedIA@home 21/02/2022 20:54:38 [sched_op] Starting scheduler request
779 QuChemPedIA@home 21/02/2022 20:54:38 Sending scheduler request: To fetch work.
780 QuChemPedIA@home 21/02/2022 20:54:38 Requesting new tasks for CPU
781 QuChemPedIA@home 21/02/2022 20:54:38 [sched_op] CPU work request: 518400.00 seconds; 12.00 devices
782 QuChemPedIA@home 21/02/2022 20:54:38 [sched_op] NVIDIA GPU work request: 0.00 seconds; 0.00 devices
783 QuChemPedIA@home 21/02/2022 20:54:39 Scheduler request completed: got 0 new tasks
784 QuChemPedIA@home 21/02/2022 20:54:39 [sched_op] Server version 715
785 QuChemPedIA@home 21/02/2022 20:54:39 No tasks sent
786 QuChemPedIA@home 21/02/2022 20:54:39 Project requested delay of 7 seconds
787 QuChemPedIA@home 21/02/2022 20:54:39 [sched_op] Deferring communication for 00:00:07
788 QuChemPedIA@home 21/02/2022 20:54:39 [sched_op] Reason: requested by project

Click on your account and then your Edit QuChemPedIA@home preferences.
Resource Share = 100
Use CPU
NWChem
8
1
It uses a fair amount of memory so try a few and see how it runs.

It uses a fair amount of memory so try a few and see how it runs.

hay Aurum, how many GB memory per task does is being used, roughly ?

I can now communicate with the server but have not received any tasks

The Windows apps require VirtualBox to be installed.
See: https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/apps.php

In addition they are marked as "beta test".
Hence, it might be required to also allow beta apps here:
https://quchempedia.univ-angers.fr/athome/prefs.php?subset=project

Thank you all for your efforts trying to help me get started. Yesterday I even tried the equivalent of switch it off and then on again - i.e. project detach then add project again.
I had not appreciated that a Virtual Box was required to run the project on Windows. I do not particularly want to have the overhead and complication of a virtual machine so I will withdraw from this project and look elsewhere.

I had the same thing happen.
Click on your account and then click on Account Keys. It gives you an alternate way to attach a computer. I only had to do this once and then I added the others using BoincTasks.

I followed the instructions and added the .xml file to the BOINC data folder (where also the xml files of the other installed projects were present), but now the question is: how can I get the new project started? It does NOT show up in the project list of the BOINC manager. What am I missing?

I followed the instructions and added the .xml file to the BOINC data folder (where also the xml files of the other installed projects were present), but now the question is: how can I get the new project started? It does NOT show up in the project list of the BOINC manager. What am I missing?

Did you stop and restart Boinc ?

Did you stop and restart Boinc ?

yes, I did

yes, I did

What else have you done that you haven't told us ?

yes, I did

What else have you done that you haven't told us ?

I did not believe that it was necessary to point out to begin with that I had stopped and then restarted BOINC. This normally goes without saying, doesn't it?

And to answer your question: I did nothing else, since according to the instructions there was nothing else to do, Unless I was misreading the instructions or misunderstanding something.

Well it would normally go without saying to look in the event log to see what it said when it found the account xml file, assuming it found it, but you seem to know best.