Try to add: addnode=pxl.bitember.com
Thanks, that helped.
I tried to get the wallet up and running on my other computer. Quite a bit of trial and error, but this made the computer finally be in sync at a block way past 29277:
1) install the 8.6.2 wallet software
2) install the 8.6.3 wallet software too
3) start 8.6.2 and stop it again to have the appdata dir created
4) delete everything but pxlcoin.conf and wallet.dat in the appdata dir
5) addnode=pxl.bitember.com in the pxlcoin.conf file
6) start the 8.6.2 wallet - it read blocks in, until 22000 where it stops
7) close 8.6.2, start 8.6.3 - it continues until 22500
close 8.6.3, open 8.6.3 - it continues to read 500 more
9) eventually, by repeating 8, you reach the top of the chain
There surely must be an easier way than this , but it seems to work. From 22000 onwards, 500 blocks every restart, whizzes past 29277 as if it was no problem at all. my top block is now 33471