upon running the manager, i get:
[error] GUI RPC bind to port 31416 failed: 98
gstate.init() failed
Error Code: -180

what gives?
it's not a problem with my network, is it?

Check that there is no other program already using port 31416. Use command netstat -ap as root.

It will be listed in the column Local Address, while any program using that port would be stated in last column - PID/Program name. Some services are listed using port names rather than numbers. Mapping between number and name is taken from file /etc/services, so you may want to check if there's a mapping for port 31416 already.

Now, if that doesn't work out, you can also force BOINC to start with a different port number. It's only necessary if you want to use BOINC Manager or a third party GUI, though. And then mostly only when you want to use these from a remote location to check on this system.

So you could start the BOINC binary using:
boinc --gui_rpc_port <port number>, e.g. boinc --gui_rpc_port 37777, this starts BOINC with port 37777.

If you don't want to use any GUI to check on this BOINC from a remote location, you can also start BOINC without any GUI RPC:
boinc --no_gui_rpc

---