Bitcoin Forum

I recently made an offer to trade USD for BTC via Paypal. (Thread: http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=11150.0)

I got a taker for 2 BTC, and the buyer sent them to the address in my signature (13gDRynPfLH3NNAz3nVyU3k3mYVcfeiQuF). I opened the (default) Bitcoin client and didn't see the transaction. My balance had not increased. So I went to the blockchain explorer, searched for my address, and found this:

http://blockexplorer.com/address/13gDRynPfLH3NNAz3nVyU3k3mYVcfeiQuF

According to this, my address received the 2 BTC. So I waited, restarted the client, waited some more, restarted again, etc. Still nothing. I'm on Ubuntu (Maverick Meerkat) and am using Bitcoin version 0.3.20.2N BETA. I thought that maybe I should download the newer version, so I did, but when I tried to run the executable (with GUI) I just got an error message, so I deleted the newer version.

My client does not appear to be downloading the block chain: it says 125600 blocks and no connections, and I'm fairly sure that it said that when I first checked to see if I'd received the BTC.

Get more connections. Enable UPnP and/or forward port 8333 on your router.

We're at ~12800, that's why. You havn't received the new blocks with your transactions in them.

Isn't this a serious problem? If I weren't technical at all, I would just think that Bitcoin was a scam. Why did the client work for me in the past (I have sent and received BTC through it) without modification, if it now requires modification? Also, there is nothing about UPnP in any of the client's menus.

So no one cares that my previously-functioning client--the standard client--isn't downloading the blockchain anymore? The answer is to mess around with my router or enable UPnP, neither of which I can do from within the client, and neither of which are guaranteed to be safe?  ???

What do you expect? That someone holds your hands and walks you through your life for you to safely die? Take some responsibility, learn something. Your statements are absolute nonsense.
There is more help and good will on this forum than you'll ever need. Do a fucking search!

If this is the attitude in the Bitcoin technical support forum then the whole project has no chance.

Technical support board is a place where you come with technical, well formulated, questions. Where people dedicate their personal time to help out people who are looking for technical help. It is no a place for "Does anybody care about my ego?" and "Look how important I am" type of statements.

This board has all the answers you need. They have been answered hundreds of times before. In fact, on the very first page you'll find EVERYTHING you need to fix your problem.

So do a fucking search and get over yourself.

If you're going to REFUSE help, then there's nothing any of us can do for you.

I admit that I sound a bit petulant in this thread. Still, try to see things from my perspective: it's not that I'm a total noob who can't even figure out the standard client and wants someone to figure it out for him--it's that everything was working fine, until the last transaction, at which point it randomly stopped working. Let me say that again: the issue is not that my client isn't downloading the blockchain. The issue is that it was downloading the blockchain perfectly a month ago, and now it's not, even though I haven't changed a thing.

I will look into UPnP and port 8333. I was just flabbergasted that the answer to my question was, essentially, "Oh, the standard client, which used to work fine out-of-the-box, isn't working at all anymore? Sounds like a problem on your end. Figure it out. Not technical? Well, fuck you then." This kind of attitude is fine if you don't care whether or not people use the software, but it's a major turn-off for non-technical noobs.

The easiest solution to a lack of peers may be to add some fallback nodes: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Fallback_Nodes

I apologize for those two. mewantsbitcoins was probably having a bad day, and just forgot that repetitive questions are par the course for Tech Support. I hope they can take a hint and stop posting in Tech Support until they cool down. However, I suspect that they will come here and yell at ME for helping you. Ah well. Just another day in Tech Support.

What you'll want to do is connect to some Fallback Nodes. See this page for more information:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Fallback_Nodes

What foo said.

Thank you.

I apologize for asking what was apparently an annoying, oft-repeated question. I usually do thorough searches before asking for help; perhaps the fact that money was involved this time fried some of my circuits.

Still, mewantsbitcoins is the perfect example of someone you don't want posting in a tech support forum.

Thank you.

I do not apologize and don't like when people are apologizing for me, when there's nothing to apologize for. I usually am very patient and tolerant; perhaps arrogant prick this time pushed me over the edge.

Still, DATA COMMANDER is the perfect example of someone you don't want spamming on tech support forum.

I didn't apologize for you.

But so far you have cursed at me and called me names about five times, whereas I haven't insulted you once.

Whatever. I'm done.