Two Computers Soloing

[worldinacoin]

I have a current computer which I intend to setup soloing for bitcoin.   Am building another computer which I want it to help the other computer in the soloing efforts. So for the host instead of localhost, what should I put?  Any configuration changes in the original computer?

[RyNinDaCleM]

Subbing, because I'd like to know this too!

[phorensic]

If you want your computers to work together you would have to set up your own pool using pushpool or poolserverJ.  Otherwise they are just separate solo instances and would take even longer, statistically, to find a block.

[JL421]

I may be in the wrong here, but wouldn't you just put the ip address of the computer that you are running a bitcoin server on as your second machine's host? Then login with the same username and password. You'd have to make sure the firewall ports were open on your local network, but that should work.

Actually here's the thread with the solution: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=10266.0

I think what you're looking to do is solo mine with 2 computers from the same bitcoin.exe client, hosted on one computer right?

To do that, set up your bitcoin.exe and guiminer on one computer. In Guiminer set the bitcoin.exe client path on that computer from the "solo utilities." Create the solo username and password (from solo utilities), this will let your other computer connect.

I found this easiest, but on the bitcoin.exe shortcut you use to launch the program, right click and hit properties. in "target" go to the end of the line, add a space, then put

-server

This will make bitcoin.exe start up as a server.

On computer #2, you only need guiminer. Set the server to "solo." For the host, input the ip address of your first computer, if its on a lan, use its 192.168.1.xxx address. Port is 8332, then use the username and password you created on your first computer. Set the device and flags, then hit start mining.

If you cant connect, you might have to go into your router your first computer is on and forward port 8332 to allow connections.

There need to more write to  bitcoin.conf

rpcuser=yourusername
rpcpassword=yourpassword
rpcallowip=192.168.1.*
rpcport=8332

And after a quick test on my own network, I can confirm this works...yay, now I have a computer manufactured in 2003 cpu mining for me with an outstanding rate of 1.4 Mhash/s...

[worldinacoin]

If I need a few connection is this the way to setup?

rpcallowip=192.168.1.* , 123.456.789.0, 123.456.789.1

I may be in the wrong here, but wouldn't you just put the ip address of the computer that you are running a bitcoin server on as your second machine's host? Then login with the same username and password. You'd have to make sure the firewall ports were open on your local network, but that should work.

Actually here's the thread with the solution: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=10266.0

I think what you're looking to do is solo mine with 2 computers from the same bitcoin.exe client, hosted on one computer right?

To do that, set up your bitcoin.exe and guiminer on one computer. In Guiminer set the bitcoin.exe client path on that computer from the "solo utilities." Create the solo username and password (from solo utilities), this will let your other computer connect.

I found this easiest, but on the bitcoin.exe shortcut you use to launch the program, right click and hit properties. in "target" go to the end of the line, add a space, then put

-server

This will make bitcoin.exe start up as a server.

On computer #2, you only need guiminer. Set the server to "solo." For the host, input the ip address of your first computer, if its on a lan, use its 192.168.1.xxx address. Port is 8332, then use the username and password you created on your first computer. Set the device and flags, then hit start mining.

If you cant connect, you might have to go into your router your first computer is on and forward port 8332 to allow connections.

There need to more write to  bitcoin.conf

rpcuser=yourusername
rpcpassword=yourpassword
rpcallowip=192.168.1.*
rpcport=8332

And after a quick test on my own network, I can confirm this works...yay, now I have a computer manufactured in 2003 cpu mining for me with an outstanding rate of 1.4 Mhash/s...

[JL421]

On the rpcallowip line, the * is a wildcard, meaning that anything in the 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.255 will be accepted. So if you're trying to connect two computers with an ip address of 192.168.1.5 and say 192.168.2.8, then all you need to do is enter rpcallowip=192.168.*.*

[RyNinDaCleM]

Otherwise they are just separate solo instances and would take even longer, statistically, to find a block.

This isn't the case!
1000Mh/s from one rig is the same as 2x500Mh/s rigs working together.

If you make 1BTC/day with the 1000Mh machine, you'd also make .5BTC/day for each 500Mh machine! It all comes out the same in the end.

[RandyFolds]

Otherwise they are just separate solo instances and would take even longer, statistically, to find a block.

This isn't the case!
1000Mh/s from one rig is the same as 2x500Mh/s rigs working together.

If you make 1BTC/day with the 1000Mh machine, you'd also make .5BTC/day for each 500Mh machine! It all comes out the same in the end.

Agreed.

phorensic is basically claiming that it will take my rig 'statistically' longer to find a block if I fire up another rig beside it. Hashes are hashes, each with equal probability of solving a block.

[teukon]

After reading a thread about solo mining filled with anti-solo trolls this is a nice change.  I just wanted to stop and mention solo merged mining if you hadn't come across it.  It would take a little more setting up but your expected return would rise significantly.

Personally I like the idea of having a single wallet on one machine and pointing all the others to it.  Pooled mining software would only be required if you wanted each computer to get it's fair share but didn't want the higher variance of each computer solo mining (a rather strange desire in my mind).

[worldinacoin]

Maybe you can give more information on how to do such merged mining?  That would be deeply appreciated.

[teukon]

Maybe you can give more information on how to do such merged mining?  That would be deeply appreciated.

I'm afraid all I know is that it is apparently quite a bit easier to do than setting up a merged mining pool.  There was a merged mining testnet running for a fair while before merged mining was officially rolled out for the main block chains.  Also, it is much easier to find information on Namecoin sites and forums than on Bitcoin ones.

I've not looked into it myself because I'm happy with pooled mining right now (simplecoin.us PPLNS for its decent promotions and server stability).  Good luck with your operation though.  I'm a fan of solo mining myself and only moved to pooled mining a month or so ago as PPLNS started to become popular.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Why do you need to "link" multiple solo computers?

Keep it simple:
Give each computer their own wallet and start them hashing.

Linking the computers provides no performance benefit and creates a single point of failure.

Remember the coinbase transaction includes the receiving address and extra nonce (random) so even if you had 1 million solo computers they aren't going to be duplicating work.

[teukon]

Why do you need to "link" multiple solo computers?

Keep it simple:
Give each computer their own wallet and start them hashing.

Linking the computers provides no performance benefit and creates a single point of failure.

Remember the coinbase transaction includes the receiving address and extra nonce (random) so even if you had 1 million solo computers they aren't going to be duplicating work.

+1

This is exactly what I'd do.  It's not as if you're going to get blocks very often.  The network link and configuration to make both computers use one wallet is just another thing to go wrong.  You might find that two instances of bitcoind will end up using more bandwidth than one but I would only address this if it becomes a problem.