First time user unable to connect to server

[Lord varith]

Hi,

I downloaded Electrum 3.3.2 from https://electrum.org/#download

Set up my wallet etc.

Didn't realise it wasn't connected to a server yet and purchased some Bitcoin.

I haven't been able to get Electrum to connect to a server yet.

After it wouldn't connect automatically, I tried several different servers that the "Monitored List" lists as OK.
( https://1209k.com/bitcoin-eye/ele.php via https://electrum.org/#community )

I don't have any sort of complex network where I am at the moment, however my internet is currently over the 4G mobile network and not fixed internet (unsure if this would cause issues as Electrum does have a portable version for mobile devices)

I've allowed the app through the firewall as well.

I've spent about 90 minutes this morning reading through Reddit and bitcointalk.org but haven't had any success.


Would anyone be able to offer me some support please?

[jackg]

Is it stuck on not connected or synchronising?

What type of phone is it, os version.

If you have sent any money to the addresses those are safe providing you’ve backed up your seed. I often use 3G for electrum so the mobile network shouldn’t be an issue.

There is a user here called anduck and he has a node on electrum, one of the first ones I remember was a domain that included hsmith also, try both of those?

What country are you in, what company is it with and are you near a border?

[Lord varith]

Stuck on not connected.

Not using a phone, Windows 10 on PC. Just moved house and don't have a fixed internet service yet

My seed is backed up, https://www.blockchain.com/explorer says the money is there

I've tried the hsmiths one but no love

I'm in australia, not sure what you mean by company (purchased from coinmama?), and we dont really do borders haha

[jackg]

Borders as in for example the Australian - New Zealand border if each have different phone companies.

What company the phone sim is with I mean.
Is it allowed for you to connect your phone in that way by your phone companies, I'm in the UK and a lot of them take issue with doing that (if there's a way to work out if you're doing it).

[Lord varith]

I'm with telstra. Im not using my phone for internet either, the latest modem they provide has an inbuilt SIM so you can use the 4G network until the landline is activated.

[Effingham Hoofnagle]

Can you open a terminal/CMD window and try to launch Electrum from there using the -verbose flag, in order to
see what goes on, including error messages while it tries to connect?

Not even sure if that would work using windows, but worth a try.

If it does work and you get info from the attempt, post it here and maybe someone will
see the problem. If not, try the electrum IRC channel on freenode. The people there
are very friendly and helpful
https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=electrum


As an afterthought, do you have all of the required python/dependencies installed on your W10 instance?

[Lord varith]

I know how to open via cmd, but not sure what you mean about the -verbose flag?



Aaaaand I didn't realise I would need python or anything. All the articles I read about which wallet to use pretty much said electrum was the easiest and made it seem like plug n play.

[pooya87]

first of all don't worry about your money you still own the bitcoins that you have bought and can access them as long as you have backed up your Electrum seed and as long as the address was from this wallet seed (meaning if you haven't copied a wrong one from elsewhere). even if you could never get Electrum to connect, you still can spend them.

with that said, there has been a problem with Electrum when it is first synchronizing. when you first run Electrum it has to download a file called blockchain_headers which is currently at 42.4 MB and depending on your internet speed and connectivity it can take a while to sync. i have also noticed that if the internet is very slow then it won't be able to build the chunks and the file.
if you can monitor your traffic see if Electrum is even receiving anything. you can also go to your application data folder (paste this in your windows explorer %APPDATA%\Electrum) and see the file and its size.

Aaaaand I didn't realise I would need python or anything. All the articles I read about which wallet to use pretty much said electrum was the easiest and made it seem like plug n play.

if you have already opened Electrum, created a new wallet and acquired an address which you used to receive bitcoins when you bought them, then you don't have any problems with python or anything. you already have all the dependencies!

[Lord varith]

Yeah I have the seed written down, and it's the same address.

How do I spend them without electrum connecting? I saw an option for email, but i didnt want to start messing around with other bits yet in case I made a boo boo

I have the blockchain_headers file, it's at 43,466kb so I guess it's done something haha


Cool, so it's not dependencies then

[pooya87]

How do I spend them without electrum connecting?

you can do many things but better keep them in mind for worse case scenario. the simplest way is to right click on your address from your address tab (you may need to enable this tab from View in the menu) and selecting private key option. then import that in any other wallet that allows you to import private keys and have access to your funds.

another, a little more complicated, way is to build an unsigned transaction yourself (like using another tool by only giving the tool your address and nothing more) and then give it to your wallet and force it to sign and then broadcast it using a block explorer's push_tx option.

I have the blockchain_headers file, it's at 43,466kb so I guess it's done something haha

this means you are over the initial sync barrier!
you should now see the transaction history in your history tab too if you succeed in communicating with a server.

[Abdussamad]

Borders as in for example the Australian - New Zealand border if each have different phone companies.

They are very far away on account of both being surrounded by lots of ocean

Can you open a terminal/CMD window and try to launch Electrum from there using the -verbose flag, in order to
see what goes on, including error messages while it tries to connect?

Not even sure if that would work using windows, but worth a try.

It wouldn't work on windows. The python wrapper they use discards any output sent to the terminal.

@Lord varith: A few things to try:

- What color orb icon are you seeing in the bottom right?

- Try changing servers again. To change servers you have to go to tools > network > server tab and uncheck select server automatically and then right click on a server in the list there and choose use server. Did you do that?

-  Do you have a proxy configured on the proxy tab of the network window ? Try disabling the proxy if you have a proxy configured there.

[Lucius]

I have the blockchain_headers file, it's at 43,466kb so I guess it's done something haha

You probably have a really slow internet speed of your 4G network, even it should be from 20Mbps to 50Mbps, and blockchain_headers file should be downloaded in less then a minute if Electrum is connected to good server. It is possible that your blockchain_headers file is somehow became corrupted during download, so if the problem continues it is best to close Electrum and delete that file (only that file), start Electrum and give it some time to sync again.

[jackg]

Borders as in for example the Australian - New Zealand border if each have different phone companies.

They are very far away on account of both being surrounded by lots of ocean

The two countries are actually quite close afaik aren't they?
Edit: what's 4000 kilometres, there must be coverage over that channel though? My globe is printed without a New Zealand :-(.

I have the blockchain_headers file, it's at 43,466kb so I guess it's done something haha

You probably have a really slow internet speed of your 4G network, even it should be from 20Mbps to 50Mbps, and blockchain_headers file should be downloaded in less then a minute if Electrum is connected to good server. It is possible that your blockchain_headers file is somehow became corrupted during download, so if the problem continues it is best to close Electrum and delete that file (only that file), start Electrum and give it some time to sync again.

I've done it on 3G and 4G should be higher if he can get a connection there. Also the 4G should be rated at.
@OP, try and test it by going to ("system" >) "about phone" > "status" and see what the signal strength is in dBm (mine's at -90dBm and 11asu for example as it's an old sim).

If you can't get it to work, the best thing you can probably do is wait for your broadband to be set up.

[Lucius]

The two countries are actually quite close afaik aren't they?

I've done it on 3G and 4G should be higher if he can get a connection there. Also the 4G should be rated at.
@OP, try and test it by going to ("system" >) "about phone" > "status" and see what the signal strength is in dBm (mine's at -90dBm and 11asu for example as it's an old sim).

Yes, they are close - only 4000+ kilometers if it can be considered close...so I think this is not OP problem. However he should test internet speed and only if there is some big problem for that matter (very slow speed), then it takes too long to download blockchain_headers file.

jackg you have to go back to geography learning

[Lord varith]

Re: Abdussamad

Red icon in the bottom right

I've tried using several different servers, including going off the list from electrum.org that monitors them to make sure i was using servers that were up

Proxy is disabled



So the speed on my mobile phone (with kogan) is 116mbps down and 15 up, but on my desktop (which is using the telstra mobile network) its about 5mbps down and 1 up.

Fixed internet is meant to be activated here today, so if its just a speed issue then I should have a positive outcome in a few hours and will let you all know

If it doesn't fix it then I'll probably have a little cry in bed before I come back to ask for more help

Thank you everyone for everything so far!

[Abdussamad]

It's not a speed issue. Could be a firewall or antivirus software on your PC blocking outgoing connections. It's also possible that your ISP is blocking them. You can rule out your ISP by simply using the fixed internet connection once it's installed. If it still doesn't work with that then look at your firewall and antivirus software settings.

[joniboini]

Just in case you still have this issue and the problem is a block from your ISP, as an alternative to Tor, you can also use DNScrypt to bypass it.[1]

[1] https://github.com/jedisct1/dnscrypt-proxy

[jackg]

I'm guessing it's fixed now he's not using mobile data and is using broadband but I might be wrong (he hasn't logged on since 3rd either)...

[Lord varith]

Sorry all, started a new job and Telstra still hasn't connected my internet 

Opened the wallet just now and it connected and synch'd so not sure what the problem was but it seems to have resolved now

Thank you everyone for your help, it's very much appreciated

[pooya87]

Sorry all, started a new job and Telstra still hasn't connected my internet 

Opened the wallet just now and it connected and synch'd so not sure what the problem was but it seems to have resolved now

Thank you everyone for your help, it's very much appreciated

it was most probably your previous internet service provider that for some reason was blocking your communication with Electrum servers which happens over a fixed (same) port of 50002 and closing down a port is easy and that can have the effects on you which you described here.