Question about Mining

[i Donk]

Hey everyone,

I'm new to the forum's and new to bitcoins.  I've done a good amount of research about the system over the last few days, and finally downloaded and installed the software last night.  The program says I've got 8 connections and 120k blocks so far (I assume these are the "community blocks"). 

I was wondering if there's anything I need to do with the software to optimize my mining?  Are there any settings or anything I need to adjust?  or is it as simple as running the program and forgetting about it?  Also, where will I see the progress of the block that i'm actually downloading, or will that become clear to me once I download all the community blocks?

Thanks for the help and I hope my questions make sense, this is all new to me.

[gusto88]

Since Bitcoin 0.3.23 the client does not mine bitcoins. Please read the Miner Beginner's Guide and download one of the specialized clients. Also, do not register at deepbit, because it is growing to strong and has already more than 50% of the mining capacity.

[Valen]

good advice, i started out with GUI miner in that guide just yesterday. it seems the easiest way to get started

[i Donk]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I'm now running GUIMiner with a Bitclock account. Should I be good to go for now as far as mining bitcoins?  I plan to do a lot more research and figure out more advanced uses for the systems, but am I ok for now on a basic level?  Also, is there any reason to continue running the original Bitcoin program?

Thanks again for the help!

[i Donk]

I actually switched over to BitcoinPool because Bitclockers was having trouble connecting, if that makes a difference.

[Valen]

pretty much, if you have it up and running and everything.

it took me a little while to figure out how to "register new worker" and how that works but once i saw how that works it was really nice. i'm using slush's pool with the idea that it would have less downtime.


it seems there is a lot more to learn though, like setting up ways for it to get on backup pools automatically if one fails, and how to run multiple gpu/miners etc but i can take my time learning that part.

[Valen]

oh and i don't think there is a need to run the original bitcoin program but i leave it running in the notification area for now. it's set to auto hide so i don't have to look at it