Testnet blockchain download taking forever

[Charles Hope]

Installing bitcoind on a brand new Mac, with plenty of memory, and I set it for testnet. Downloading most of the blockchain has taken 24 hours, but now loading the last two weeks has ground to a snail's pace. My download bandwidth is just over 1Mb.

This is what over 10 minutes of activity looks like:

Code:

2014-04-08 02:22:03 ResendWalletTransactions()
2014-04-08 02:31:40 socket recv error 60
2014-04-08 02:32:58 receive version message: /Satoshi:0.8.2.2/: version 70001, blocks=209440, us=67.101.29.73:37885, them=83.170.86.67:18333, peer=83.170.86.67:18333
2014-04-08 02:32:58 Added time data, samples 17, offset -96 (-1 minutes)
2014-04-08 02:32:58 nTimeOffset = -3  (+0 minutes)
2014-04-08 02:34:36 ProcessBlock: ORPHAN BLOCK 3, prev=00000000e846ac6272015cf3420fcf1e3681f72fa9c7f15dc31c341435b0a1c7
2014-04-08 02:35:05 socket recv error 60
2014-04-08 02:35:12 socket recv error 60
2014-04-08 02:35:22 socket recv error 60
2014-04-08 02:35:52 socket recv error 60
2014-04-08 02:37:34 UpdateTip: new best=000000003e64532930e2315d0916d0523f33ef0ba46311ac4a3f4e4707dc5e5a  height=208152  log2_work=58.29812  tx=1330799  date=2014-03-27 05:00:37 progress=0.997298
2014-04-08 02:37:34 ProcessBlock: ACCEPTED
2014-04-08 02:37:52 socket recv error 60
2014-04-08 02:37:52 socket recv error 60
2014-04-08 02:37:54 ResendWalletTransactions()
2014-04-08 02:38:32 socket recv error 60
2014-04-08 02:40:51 connect() to 162.13.156.125:18333 failed after select(): Connection refused

I know this isn't normal. Is there something I can do to speed this up?

Thanks!

[izz]

It's pretty bad isn't it.

One thing you could try is https://multibit.org/features.html they have a feature that allows it to sync alot faster. You'll just need to figure out how they enable testnet and get going with that.

I noticed your using bitcoind though, if its something you want to interface with via RPC calls you will most likely need to wait it out.

[sd]

I noticed the same thing on testnet yesterday. As far as I could tell there were only 8 testnet nodes out there.

I put a physical server with decent bandwidth on it and left it CPU mining. Now there should be 9 nodes.


EDIT: My connection count on testnet is now up to 13. And I CPU mined my first block.

[Charles Hope]

It was all very strange. Soon after I posted this message, suddenly the network came back to life, and caught me up rather quickly. So now I'm turning on CPU mining, so I can earn some development coins, and also contribute to the other developers out there.

[-ck]

Testnet difficulty is too high for cpu mining.

[thezerg]

It was all very strange. Soon after I posted this message, suddenly the network came back to life, and caught me up rather quickly. So now I'm turning on CPU mining, so I can earn some development coins, and also contribute to the other developers out there.

there are testnet faucets try google

[Charles Hope]

Testnet difficulty is too high for cpu mining.

Yeah, I noticed. Several days and not a single block won. Are people testing GPUs here?

[gmaxwell]

Testnet difficulty is too high for cpu mining.

You can still get the 20 minute blocks from time to time.

[eleuthria]

Generally when using testnet, it's recommended you use a 'testnet-in-a-box' setup where you have your own private testnet, especially if you're using it to test mining of any kind.

[TierNolan]

The newest version of the client has a regression test mode, where it can find a block almost instantly, even with a CPU.

It is like a built in testnet-in-a-box.