I'm relatively new to mining, as I've only been mining using a pool (Coin-o-tron) for a month and a half now, and I just did it as a lark to see if my super low hash-rate computer would do anything.
It hasn't. The interface displays my stats in Mh, which I'm assuming is not a good sign, especially since its in the single-digits.
mining single digit hash-rates will work EVENTUALLY. you would want to find a PPS pool if you want to see consistent results, although most pools won't let you withdraw very small amounts of btc, so you could be mining for months before you reach that minimum limit.....
I'm thinking that the only way to mine now effectively, would be to purchase space (or re-purpose personal space in your apartment or home) to store 10 industrial-strength servers side-by-side to participate in a mining pool. Is everybody mining in a pool? If so, what are the most reputable ones?
mining with CPU's is not a good idea generally, the cost to benefit ratio is very small, and they use much more energy than a GPU will. As previously mentioned in the thread, you will want to keep an eye on power usage, and for large scale mining operations (especially with CPU or GPU based mining outfits) your limit is dependent on the houses cabling.
If not, how does one set up a mining operation on a single stand-alone PC.
either ASICs [sarcasm](Place an order now, and receive one next year!)[/sarcasm] or GPUs can be used, you just need to have a motherboard and either a 'milk crate' or a box that is capable of housing the cards you want. Depending on how much you plan to invest will determine the best setup for you. They range from single cards that can get 600MH/s, through to multi card setups of several GH/s
Another random question - does the speed of the internet connection matter? I wouldn't think so, but I'm not 100% on this. Can anybody comment?
if you are mining on a pool, then internet speed plays a 'bigger' part than if you are solo mining, since you are sending shares more often, but is still largely irrelevant. Having a low ping is more important, but even then the difference between high and low ping is very small. You are basically just trying to beat every other miner to submit the solution, so if two miners solve the same block at the exact same time, the miner with the lowest ping usually will submit first. This happens VERY rarely, so it should bear little weight to any future decisions...
