Bitcoin client vs. instawallet

[pinarphan]

Why does in take my installed client hours to receive a transfer when it shows up in instawallet within 2 or 3 seconds?

[Snapman]

I dunno about it taking hours, as its almost instant on my end, but its most likely due to the required number of confirmations.

[pinarphan]

If I haven't opened my wallet in weeks does it have to run through hundreds of blocks to catch up?

[Vod]

If I haven't opened my wallet in weeks does it have to run through hundreds of blocks to catch up?

Exactly.

If your wallet is up to date, you'll see the payment almost instantly.

You can see the current block number at http://blockexplorer.com/

[finway]

keep the client online, then you'll received transactions almost instantly, with 0 confirms.

[Alphonso Bedoya]

One thing I found with Instawallet is that the btc shows up fast, but you can't transfer them out for a bit. It says "transaction too recent" or something to that effect. It must take a few minutes for the confirmations to catch up.