This web page has the poclbm.py source code. poclbm.exe uses this as well.

https://github.com/m0mchil/poclbm/blob/master/poclbm.py

On that page you can see there are a number of different "Extra Flags" to use.

• The -v flag tells the miner to use vectors. Works great on ATI cards.
  
• The -w flag tells the miner what worksize to use. This is sorta/kinda like how much of the block to work on(?). But bigger is not always faster. You can freely tweak this number up or down. The limit would be your GPU Ram.
• The -f flag tells the the miner how many frames per seconds to use. For me, this has always dedicated more GPU power to whatever is lower. Remember, your video display is also a GPU process (which I think equates to about -f30). Again, you can freely tweak this number to get your system|Mhash/sec to work best for you.

poclbm.exe flags

If you are using command line poclbm.exe (and an ATI/AMD based video card) try this:


And then run poclbm.exe again with you other pool worker sign-on info.

---

If you are using GUIminer (adn ATI/AMD video cards) do this:

• Go to "File" menu and choose "New OpenCL miner"
• A pop-up windows will appear to name the miner. You can name it what even you want. I named it "Guild."
• This will create a new tab in the GUIminer window. Click on it so we can start configuring.
• In the "Server dropdown box, choose "BTC Guild."
• In the Username box, type in your username_workername. Fill in your password in the password box.
• In the Device name, choose your GPU. If you have multiple GPUs, they will be listed in there. They are numbered starting with 0. You will also see your CPU as a usable device. (This is a hint that you can use your CPU to mine, but it will slow your system to a crawl.)
• In the "Extra Flags" box you can type in:
  

• You can tweak these numbers to try to get as many Mhash/sec as you can.
• Remember to go back to the "File" menu and "Save Settings"

Now, repeat these steps again. This time using a different pool. When you get to "Device" just use the same device again.
In the "extra flags" box, just use -f60  or any higher number.

---

The main point is to use two miner per GPU. If you have 2 video cards, setup 4 miners.

If you found this helpful and feel generous, a gratuity would be appreciated at: 1JJjL5nxzBfjFjJWoviU9mzrY3fQKxJfvV

eleuthria, you are doing a fantastic job. We know this is not your primary job and are working on the pool every chance you get.
We, the mining public, can be patient while you work on setting up your fifth server in less than a month.

To all BTC Guild miners:
You will experience some problems when the new server is put online. There is no way to avoid it. All the servers must be in sync and there is no way to do that without some service interruptions.

While BTC Guild is growing, consider setting up a "back-up" pool.

You can configure your miner to mine at a backup pool especially if you use poclbm.exe.
Run two instances of poclbm per GPU. Use the "f" command to give one pool priority over another. The lower the "f" value, the higher the priority.
-f30 to one pool will have priority over -f60 on a second pool.
This will split your GPU processing power to about 92% | 8% between the two pools. If one pool is idle, poclbm will automatically shift your mining power to the backup. This is even easier to setup and monitor using guiminer.
This has worked flawlessly for me and has always kept my GPUs at 100% through BTC Guild's growing pains.

This post will help people new to Bitcoins get up to speed. Everyone else can skip it (or read it for a refresher).

Bitcoins are created by "solving a block." A "Block" is just a collection of Bitcoin transactions that have been hashed and added to the official chain of Bitcoin blocks. The "confirmations" the you get when you send or receive a transaction is the result of your transaction being hashed and included in the block chain.
Since solving a block is so difficult, you get a reward for doing so... 50 Bitcoins.

How do I solve a block?
To complete a new block your computer running mining software tries to guess the hash of the new block based off the hash of the old block. You aren't really computing the answer to an equation per say. You are just making a guess.
In fact, it helps to look at this like buying lottery tickets. The chances of winning the lottery are low, but  you can increase you odds if you buy more tickets.
Your miners compute hashes against the current block and when it thinks it has a potential winner, it submits it as a share. Hashes are generally measured in number of Mhases/sec or Ghashes/sec. This would be millions of hashes per second or billions of hashes per second (respectively). For example an Average ATI 5770 video card can compute roughly 150 to 200 Mhash/sec dependly on how you configure it.
The share you submitted is sent across the entire peer-to-peer Bitcoin network. All peers must agree if a share is the winner.

It's a lottery.
The percent chance that a single hash will be the winner is currently: 0.0000000000000004104346 or about 410,000,000,000,000 to 1.
This changes about every two weeks and is expected to get even tougher.
Even though the odds are so high, there is a potential for two clients to submit a winning share at the same time. When this happens, the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network choses the definitive winner. The loser's block is then declared invalid. Invalid blocks are a rare occurrence, but it does happen.

Mining Pools
Since the probability of the average home computer to find the correct hash is so slim, people have started to "pool" their resources together--in much the same way an office might buy several lottery tickets together.
You along with all the others in the pool submit shares. When a block is solved among one of the pool members, the 50 Bitcoin reward is split among all those who submitted shares during that block. The more shares you submit, the larger your portion of the reward.
Pools are operated by groups, or individuals and are kept alive by taking a small cut of your profits (usually a fee of about 3%).

Bad Things - Stale Shares and Idles
When you belong to a pool, you are trying to solve a block that the pool has relayed to you:

• The Pool gets the current block from the Peer-to-peer Bitcoin network.
• It sends your miner that information.
• Your miner works on it.
• Your miner submits shares it thinks will be potential winners.

If a block is solved elsewhere on the Bitcoin network, the pool must tell you miner to stop what it is doing and start work on the new block.
If your miner does not get this new block information, it will continue to work on submitting shares for the previous block. When this happens, your shares are stale and do not count for anything.
If the pool does not send any block information to your miner, it will become idle and not do anything (not contributing).
The best way to fix any of these problems on the miner end is to stop--and restart the miner software. It will then submit a new request for new block information from the pool.

BTC Guild
To keep this on topic.....
The BTC Guild mining pool was created (founded?) by eleuthria. He has committed countless hours and many of his personal resources to bring the fastest growing Bitcoin mining pool in the world.
Of of this writing it is also the second largest pool in the world.
eleuthria has made numerous enhancements to the pool in the short months that it has been in existence. However, most of his time lately has been trying to keep up with the explosive growth of the pool. And when I say "explosive" I think one of his early servers has actually melted. (I may or may not be making up that last statement.)
The number one reason the pool is so popular is that this is the only pool that I know of where the fee is optional. You can choose how much or how little of a fee to pay.
That's right, you can join the pool for absolutely free if you want to. However, you get perks for paying a fee. And the more you pay, the more perks you get! 
Get all the perks for paying a fee of 2.5% or more. This is still a great value compared to other pools.

• At 0% fee (the default) you can join the pool and get paid based on the number of shares you submit. When the pool solves a block, you get paid your portion after 120 confirmations.
• At 2% you can setup Idle miner email warnings. If you miner(s) stop submitting shares for some reason, you can be notified by email.
• At 2.5% you get the above. AND you get paid immediately when a block is solved. You don't have to wait for 120 confirmations. AND you get paid even if the block later becomes invalid.

It's the best pool I have seen. The community is great and the maintainer, eleuthria, is extremely active. You can reach him right on this discussion in the forum, or on IRC chat (#btcguild on FreeNode).


If you found this helpful and feel generous, a gratuity would be appreciated at: 1JJjL5nxzBfjFjJWoviU9mzrY3fQKxJfvV

Eleuthria is prepping the new UK server. There are going to be many issues as the servers are re-balanced.
Again, you patience is appreciated.

As always, you can configure your miner to mine at a backup pool especially if you use poclbm.exe.
Run two instances of poclbm per GPU. Use the "f" command to give one pool priority over another. -f30 to one pool will have priority over -f60 on a second pool. This will split your GPU processing power to about 92% | 8% between the two pools. If one pool is idle, poclbm will automatically shift your mining power to the backup. This is even easier to setup and monitor using guiminer.
This has worked flawlessly for me and has always kept my GPUs at 100% through BTC Guild's growing pains.

I agree.

Also, I just played a few hands and came away a winner! [Deposit .50 and withdrew .80 - .01 = .79]
I had fun playing. I had several streaks. I won several in a row then lost several in a row (kept getting dealt 16 for some reason). I kept going back and forth like this many times
I ended on a winning streak.


Feature requests:

• When a new user goes to make a deposit, clearly state "Your deposit will be complete with the next block"  OR "Your deposit will clear after 1 confirmation."
  I got a little nervous when I made a deposit and I had to wait for a particular long block to be solved.
• During the actual game, I have no idea how many Bitcoins I have.
  The game shows "You won or lost XX BTC!" But it does not show my current balance. I have to keep a running total in my head, or I have to click on the Home Page link to see my current balance.
  
• When I go to the Home Page, the preset bet is set back to default.
  It should be set to what ever the last bet was in the last game. I don't want to accidentally make a bigger bet, and then lose.
• This is Blackjack! You allow us to Double Down, so Please allow us to Split

He just implemented this feature over last weekend.
His mulit-bitcoind back end instances are mapped to the same pushpool server front end, so it uses the same port (for convenience).

Yes, this is exactly what it means.
When you donate 2.5% (or more) you get:

• Satisfaction knowing that you are supporting the best pool in the world.
• You get paid for every block found... even if it later becomes invalid.
• You get paid immediately! All estimated rewards skip confirmation and go directly to confirmed rewards when a block is found
• Plus, you get all other donator perks like idle miner warning emails, etc.

Although this would solve problems for the pool servers, we "the masses" are not very good at doing this. I'm sure most people who are mining right now know their way around an IP address. But the "average" person doesn't. Plus then you have to deal with dynamic IPs and the whole thing gets way to complicated.

I don't think you realize that this is the first time this has happened to this pool.
I very sure eleuthria will do exactly what you suggest to take care of any future problems.

Again everyone.... You patience during these growing pains is appreciated. Eleuthria is working his ass off trying to make this the best pool there is.

If you are new to this pool...
BTC Guild is experiencing minor technical difficulties at the moment.
The "difficulties" currently experienced are: Idles, RPC errors, and connections errors.
All of these error are sporadic and are in the process of being eliminated by the pool maintainer: eleuthria.

In the mean time, configure your miners to point to this pool as well as a back-up pool (so you won't loose any mining time).

Thank you for your patience.

I don't have anything to add that will help, but I just want to say:
I think you are doing a great job with your pool. Please keep doing what you do. You have many supporters.

I second, third and fourth this request.

Everyone.... everyone.... take a breath. It will be OK.   

Let me recap the entire thread for everyone who is just joining in. IF you have read everything and now whats going on, you can skip this post.

When eleuthria set up his mining pool less than 20 days ago, he never imagined it would grow so fast. The pool basically went from 0 to 250 gH/sec. This is simply too much for the server he was testing this pool on. Eleuthria simply had no idea that having 0 fees and such an awesome interface would attract so many miners to his pool.

Facts:

• You choose what percentage you would like to Donate, this means you can choose 0%
• If you donate 2.5% or more, you can take a payout immediately after a block is solved. Even if the block is later found to be invalid!
• If you donate 0 - 2.4% you have to wait for the Block to be confirmed before you can take a payout. A Block is confirmed when 120 additional Blocks have been solved after that. (The additional blocks include any blocks solved anywhere in the world.)
• The payout is based on the number of shares your miners submit during a Round.
• Eleuthria is setting up a new server. After this is complete the current "idle/rpc" errors will go away. Until then, I would suggest to setup your miner to connect to a backup pool--this way you will be constantly mining somewhere if BTC Guild goes down for a bit.
• After the new server is setup, new registrations will be open again.
• The new server is supposed to be set up within a week (hopefully this weekend).
• Eleuthria is extremely active on this forum and on IRC chat (freenode.net  #btcguild )
• This is the best pool I have ever seen.

How the pool shares work:
A share is every "Accepted" hash. A Round is how long it takes for the pool to solve a block.

Example:
Lets say a round takes 90 minutes, then a block is found. During those 90 minutes all the workers and miners in the entire pool submit 300,000 "Accepted" shares. First the pool takes the 50 Bitcoins and divides them among all the shares:
50  / 300000  =  0.0002 BTC per share.
Now, lets say that during that same 90 minute Round, your workers submitted 250 of those 300,000 shares. You would get paid:
0.0002 BTC per share  *  250  =  .04 BTC paid for that round. Makes sense, right?


New Example:
In this round there are 275,000 shares. Right now each share is worth 0.000181818 BTC. Your workers have been mining for 120 minutes and you have 300 "Accepted" shares in the pool. If a block were to be found at that instant, your payout would be:
(50 / 275000) = 0.000181818 BTC * 300 = 0.054545 BTC
Please note: this is how the "Estimated Rewards" section of the "My Account" page on BTC Guild works.
BUT you decide to stop mining. You still have 300 shares in the pool, but the other miners keep working and keep submitting more shares. Finally after 180 minutes a block is found. In total, there are now 395,250 shares submitted during that round. This means that each share is worth 0.0001265 BTC
You still have 300 shares submitted during the round (even though you left early) so you would still get paid:
0.0001265 BTC * 300 = 0.03795 BTC


I know this is pretty basic, but I hope it helps new users to Bitcoins and Pools.


1KFvGaeqNVWiBgMdTHXDWMqBnw1nPKjFPq