Boltz and OpenFold servers now work with UCSF computer security software

[Tom Goddard]

In January 2026 in the Macromethods course the student MacAir laptops on UCSF WPA wifi could not run Boltz predictions on RunPod.io or minsky.cgl.ucsf.edu. In both cases the job submitted but the socket connection closed before the job id was returned. This did not happen on my laptop or my office computer, presumably because those were not running UCSF security software.

Today I tested a student MacAir computer obtained from Nicole Flowers with UCSF security software and it was able to run Boltz and OpenFold predictions using ChimeraX on servers Trooper.ai and minsky.cgl.ucsf.edu. So it appears the UCSF network security rules that blocked the prediction server in January 2026 are now not blocking it in July 2026. I even tried taking the MacAir laptop to the Genentech Hall 2nd floor classroom where the blocking was happening in January, and predictions worked.

This may be helpful for the January 2027 Macromethods structure prediction course, although it is uncertain if UCSF network restrictions will change again and block prediction server access.