How should the main bitcoin client behave?

[ZomZilla]

So!

I installed the bitcoin client (windows) and it started downloading the blockchain. some people have implied that on its start it should give you 10 addresses? well it didnt do this.

I assume i just have to wait for it to finish its "catching up"

BUT!

its been "catching up" for the past 5 days! i have 3mb/s internet!


is this normal?

[DannyHamilton]

The amount of time to acquire and validate the blockchain depends more on your computer (disk access speeds, CPU, RAM, etc) than on your internet bandwidth.

By default I think the "Receive coins" tab only has a single address when you start it up, but you can generate as many more addresses as you'd like by clicking the button.

There have been many reports of faster blockchain synchronization by using a SSD drive or setting up a RAM disk.

Depending on your needs, you may also want to look into using one of the lightweight clients that don't store the entire blockchain such as Electrum or Multibit.  You might also want to consider a web hosted wallet such as blockchain.info.

[Burotino]

Mine took around 3 days to sync.  I have 7mb internet connection, given my computer sleeps at night.

[Gabi]

That's why lightweight clients exists. Give multibit a try

[ZomZilla]

When I get my new computer (counting down the weeks) I will be able to set up a decent install of linux ('Buntu!) to try these lightweight alternatives (my laptop has a tiny 180gb HDD full and I CBA to shuffle things around to try a new program at the moment)

for now I will stick with default, I can use online until the main client is finished


TBH i was more worried that it was bugging out or doing something else terrible than about the speed of the download, but if its normal then good