Bitcoin Forum

So ive been reading everything i can to fix this problem and have been trying to add the fallback nodes,

After looking up how to do so on my router I come to a section where it asks me the port numbers but on the fallback nodes wiki it only tells me IP addresses where do i find out port numbers so i can add them to my router

this is shitty!!!!!!! cant seem to figure out the problem, cant give up but ive ran into many walls and have come to ask the community what i can do,

thank you in advance

always 8333, for bitcoin

do you really need the blockchain, or are you just trying to use a client?
in the second case, here is a client that does not need the blockchain: http://ecdsa.org/electrum
note that I did not test it on windows.

Tried the 8333 port

I have a belkin router if that makes a difference I went to my virtual servers screen and typed in 8333 in all the necessary areas

I am pretty sure blockchain is necessary for me to get my btc, right now it is currently stuck at 152083 my firewall is not blocking it and I have about 11-20 connections on average and nothing changes

thanks to both of you for replying! much appreciated I hope i can figure this problem out soon, I read that i should delete my blockchain file and redownload from 0 but am trying to use this as my last possible option hope to get this sorted asap!!

Someone maintains a downloadable copy of the block chain you can grab as well.  This will download much faster than waiting for the client to do it from scratch.

how do i go about getting the file from someone else? should i try uninstalling and downloading the client again would this solve my problem? such a mind bender it was working fine a few days ago

I dont want to do anything to lose the bitcoins I have in the wallet ive got a fair amount in there and not looking for them to just poof away!! anyone have any ideas ive tried doing the port and its still just stuck on 152083

You won't lose any coins unless you delete the wallet.dat file.  So if you are concerned you already have a backup of your wallet.dat right?  If you don't STOP and make a backup of the wallet.dat.

Now you can delete the blockchain (all other .dat files EXCEPT the wallet.dat) and relaunch the client and it will download it again.  You can never lose access to coins unless you lose the wallet.dat file. 

If after deleting blockchain it still doesn't download correctly there are a couple places where you can download a complete copy, then relaunch the client.  If you are concerned about spoofed block chain (not possible) you can use the -checkblocks command line argument (bitcoind -checkblocks) to force the client to reverify each block.

this is probably a dumb question but would putting the wallet.dat file onto a USB stick be a way to back up the file? also if i download a bitcoin block from http://eu1.bitcoincharts.com/blockchain/ what do i name it and replace so that it works? i feel like there is a simple solution to this i just cant put my finger on it since im not a genius with computers

Also about rescan option am i typing this in the cmd prompt ? what do i type?

Run Bitcoin from the command line like so:

bitcoin -addnode=gamingg.dyndns-server.com -rescan

Or add "addnode=gamingg.dyndns-server.com" to your bitcoin.conf file as a new line (don't include the quotes).

What's your current blockcount?

current block count is 152083 I have 11 connections

Do i type that in my command prompt? it says that bitcoin is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file

would putting a copy of my wallet.dat file on a USB be considered backing it up? and if i download the block chain file from http://eu1.bitcoincharts.com/blockchain/ what would i rename the file and where would i put it?

also where is the bitcoin.conf file? man i feel like an idiot not knowing these simple things

And the number is still not going up?
Yes, you can type that at command prompt, but for that to work, bitcoin would have to be in your path.  The easiest way is to make sure you're operating in the same directory as the bitcoin executable.  Do you know how to change directories?  What OS is this?
Yes, that would work.  Anywhere that you can keep your wallet.dat so that it is redundant enough to be replaced in case of hardware failure without considerably increasing the chance of an attacker stealing it is a good backup.  Just make sure you back up often enough, based on your key pool size.
The same directory that has your wallet.dat also has the blockchain.  The files should be .dat files that are already properly named.
It isn't created by default, but it will be in the same directory as your wallet.dat file.  You can use it to specify options that you want to always use instead of specifying them every single time at the command line.
Don't beat yourself up.  You have to learn sometime, right?

The number still isnt going up no, OS im on is windows 7 I dont have the slightest clue on how to change the directory in the cmd prompt,

Ill make sure to backup my wallet.dat file right now onto a usb i have laying around

thanks for helping me out GamingG you are a serious help right now and appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions one by one, Definitely, I am learning now and hope that if i run into a problem like this ill be the one helping someone else in my situation,

I dont know what else to do but im going to try to download the .dat files and replace my current files to see how it works, I still have 20+ Connections but no blocks are downloaded

Where do I put these tar.sig  and .tar files? i dont see what im supposed to replace

i think all my btc just poofed... I read that deleting other .dat files except the wallet and downloading the blocks from 0 would fix this problem but now i cant even get my client to open up did i just lose all my bitcoins???

the files i deleted were the addr.dat blkindex.dat and blk0001.dat

this is a horrible day

Access to your bitcoins is inside the wallet.dat.  If you haven't lost/corrupted/deleted that you haven't lost anything.

Make sure you have a backup.  After than you can uninstall bitcoin client complete and reinstall it if necessary.

Alright well that is the light at the end of the tunnel i just have to figure out what i have to do in order to get my client running again I thankfully backed up the wallet.dat file onto a USB key before doing anything so hopefully i still have all my coins or im out a good amount of money, thank you for letting me know

man all this just because my blocks werent downloading

Do i just replace the new wallet.dat with my one on my USB key to see my bitcoins again?

Started redownloading blocks at 0 client opened up now which is good and blocks are downloading hoping this time it gets passed where i was , my wallet says i have 0 coins in it at the moment but i still see all my transactions from before i am hoping when the block number catches up my coins will show back up

stressful shit.

Take a deep breath.  As LONG as you keep a backup (or two or three) of your wallet.dat you can't lose the coins.  An analogy would be the Bitcoin client is like Microsoft word, your wallet is like a term paper.  While it may be annoying if word won't start you term paper isn't stored in word.  Uninstalling word won't erase your term paper.  As long as you have a copy of your term paper document you can't lose any data.

To answer you question... Yes you need to copy the wallet.dat from your backup and overwrite the one in configuration folder.  Everytime the client runs if there is no wallet.dat it makes a new one but they new one is going to have different addresses and thus not have your coins.

YOUR wallet.dat contains keys to YOUR coins.  No other wallet.dat is going to work.  You can close the client, replace the wallet.dat with backup on your usb stick, and then launch the client again.

As for when the coins will "show up".  You won't see them until you have download the block which contains your transaction. So if someone sent you coins in block 152400 then you won't see the value of your wallet go up until you have downloaded block 152,400. Remember the wallet is simply a set of keys.  They give you CONTROL over an address.  The block chain lets us know how much each address is worth.  For the client to know how many coins you have it needs both the wallet.dat (to know which addresses you own) and the blockchain (to know how much each of those addresses are currently worth).  The client only "knows" how many coins you have by looking at the block chain and finding transactions which involve your keys.  If it hasn't seen the transaction where you gained coins they it will not "know" you have gained any coins.

whew thank you that analogy put it right into perspective I still see all my transactions and have my addresses from previous transactions thank you again it is appreciated to the fullest I wouldnt be worrying but i was an early adopter and have traded my way to a good amount of coins thus why im panicking a little bit not only would it be money lost but the time it took to gain then would be the bigger loss to me,

thanks dandt you and gamingg have been nothing but SUPER!! helpful and if i can get a wallet address from you guys id be glad to donate some for your time and knowledge, PM me them and ill put some coins in your hands

thank you again cant say it enough

If all else fails, try setting up a static IP with DMZ Host enabled in the router, and use a software based firewall.

For troubleshooting purposes of course, lol

Microsoft Security Essentials can block proper Bitcoin connections, you should check to see if you have installed this.

What you need to configure in your router is port forwarding - port 8333 should be forwarded to the IP address of the internal computer running bitcoin (and you should make sure this computer gets a static IP address too). This may be the problem if you are only seeing eight or fewer connections.

I have posted something relevant here, you can manually download the blockchain and put it in your Bitcoin install: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=51456.0

Maybe try updating your firmware too.

Hey thank you for the replies,

I have set my port forwarding to 8333 and currently am downloading blocks once again, my wallet.dat file is backed up on a usb, and i am currently at 136xxx blocks downloaded, figure im close enough and will just let it download

what does it mean to run bitcoin using the rescan command line? I know that obviously i have to use cmd prompt but what do i type in and what directory do i have to be in c:\program files\bitcoin? im not a techy when it comes to cmd but dont want to lose my bitcoins as i did have quite a few sitting in this wallet

I hope my bitcoins arent lost but from what i am hearing as long as i backed up my wallet.dat recently my coins should still be in my wallet once the blocks are downloaded up to current,

thank you for all being so kind and helping me out in a time of need,

On recan.  Yes you need to be in the folder where Bitcoin is installed.

Remember the bitcoin program is actually called bitcoind  so it is:
bitcoind -rescan

ok so i only have to do that if i downloaded a blockchain from somewhere else correct? if i just let it download my coins should show up as the associating blockchain is downloaded?

Yes.  If for some reason they don't even when block count is at current block you can use rescan option to force a rescan of entire block chain.

Not quite correct, there are two seperate executables included in the distribution - bitcoind is the daemon that has no user interface, and bitcoin is the program that 99% of people use.
C:\Program Files\Bitcoin\bitcoin.exe -rescan is the command to put in Start Menu -> Run for just about everybody.

The rescan option is used when you wallet file doesn't indicate the correct balance because transactions were missed somehow (usually database issues).

What??

Thanks for the correction.