Blockexplorer is either Down or Running Extremely Slow & Stuck at 166899 Blocks

[ForceField]

Blockexplorer is either down or running extremely slow and is stuck at 166899 blocks.

Currently using http://www.blockchain.info as it's the only available alternative.

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[mcorlett]

For what it's worth, Block Explorer is always extremely slow for me.

[Revalin]

BlockExplorer?  Pffft.  All the cool kids are using http://blockchain.info/ these days.



Not sure what's wrong over there but blockchain.info works if you need something for now.

[Herodes]

you could also download and use bitcointools by gavin. I don't have the link here, but it's been posted at the forum before.

[theymos]

Looks like it's caused by a lot of traffic. Maybe a DoS attack. I'm fixing it now.

[Remember remember the 5th of November]

Blockchain.info is indeed nice eye-candy, and while I tend to use it more, sometimes Blockexplorer displays information differently than blockchain.info so it's good it's around.

[ForceField]

Looks like it's caused by a lot of traffic. Maybe a DoS attack. I'm fixing it now.

Was fixed for a short while but it seems like there is still an issue with Blockexplorer.

PM'd you theymos.

[theymos]

I think everything is fixed now. Sorry about that.

IPs will now automatically be banned (temporarily) if they connect much faster than once per second.

[slush]

IPs will now automatically be banned (temporarily) if they connect much faster than once per second.

http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/blockexplorer.com

It looks that BE is still down.

[cypherdoc]

IPs will now automatically be banned (temporarily) if they connect much faster than once per second.

http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/blockexplorer.com

It looks that BE is still down.

Just to be clear, you guys are complaining that theymo's block explorer service is down, not the block chain itself.  Everything looks ok on Bitcoin Monitor.

[EhVedadoOAnonimato]

IPs will now automatically be banned (temporarily) if they connect much faster than once per second.

You should consider a captcha. Or you risk blocking proxies.

[ehmdjii]

IPs will now automatically be banned (temporarily) if they connect much faster than once per second.

how long is temporarily?

[slush]

Just to be clear, you guys are complaining that theymo's block explorer service is down, not the block chain itself.  Everything looks ok on Bitcoin Monitor.

Of course we're talking about blockexplorer.com. How can be block chain down?

[slush]

You should consider a captcha. Or you risk blocking proxies.

Well, some services (like my pool) is using blockexplorer.com's API for confirming that local blockchain copy is OK. So captcha won't work for API calls, obviously.

[theymos]

It's really fast whenever I restart the database and web servers, but then I guess it gets overwhelmed with traffic. I'll look into it later today.

(Usually I have two "master" servers constantly available and capable of either handling the full load or sharing the load, but the one that I have at home was unfortunately damaged when I moved recently, so I have to rely entirely on the Private Internet Access server.)

[cypherdoc]

Just to be clear, you guys are complaining that theymo's block explorer service is down, not the block chain itself.  Everything looks ok on Bitcoin Monitor.

Of course we're talking about blockexplorer.com. How can be block chain down?

you'd be surprised at how many noobs will think blockexplorer IS the blockchain.

[broken]

Just to be clear, you guys are complaining that theymo's block explorer service is down, not the block chain itself.  Everything looks ok on Bitcoin Monitor.

Of course we're talking about blockexplorer.com. How can be block chain down?

you'd be surprised at how many noobs will think blockexplorer IS the blockchain.

Maybe the Internet is broken.

[theymos]

The server won't start up now, due either to a bad disk or to my tweaks meant to make the system faster. Rasengan (who, on behalf of Private Internet Access, generously provides this BBE server for free) is working on fixing it and maybe upgrading it so that it can handle more traffic. Hopefully at least /q/getblockcount will be working tomorrow.

Maybe the Internet is broken.

You're the Internet? 

[payb.tc]

Hopefully at least /q/getblockcount will be working tomorrow.

thanks, i'll send another donation on behalf of the clock

[Wandering Albatross]

Time to come up some ideas for a decentralized block data tool?

[terrytibbs]

Rasengan (who, on behalf of Private Internet Access, generously provides this BBE server for free)

Advertisers are also very generous, they donate millions of dollars to the cable companies. Oh, I forgot to mention they got an ad in exchange. Still "free", right?

[Revalin]

Time to come up some ideas for a decentralized block data tool?

Everyone already has a copy of the blockchain.  All we need is a GUI or CGI to read it.

[theymos]

Advertisers are also very generous, they donate millions of dollars to the cable companies. Oh, I forgot to mention they got an ad in exchange. Still "free", right?

I doubt the ad even comes close to allowing them to recoup the cost of running the server.

[Wandering Albatross]

Everyone already has a copy of the blockchain.  All we need is a GUI or CGI to read it.

bitcoin has lots of commands that can be issued to a running bitcoin instance:

Code:

backupwallet <destination>
getaccount <bitcoinaddress>
getaccountaddress <account>
getaddressesbyaccount <account>
getbalance [account] [minconf=1]
getblockcount
getconnectioncount
getdifficulty
getgenerate
gethashespersec
getinfo
getmemorypool [data]
getnewaddress [account]
getreceivedbyaccount <account> [minconf=1]
getreceivedbyaddress <bitcoinaddress> [minconf=1]
gettransaction <txid>
getwork [data]
help [command]
keypoolrefill
listaccounts [minconf=1]
listreceivedbyaccount [minconf=1] [includeempty=false]
listreceivedbyaddress [minconf=1] [includeempty=false]
listsinceblock [blockid] [target-confirmations]
listtransactions [account] [count=10] [from=0]
move <fromaccount> <toaccount> <amount> [minconf=1] [comment]
sendfrom <fromaccount> <tobitcoinaddress> <amount> [minconf=1] [comment] [comment-to]
sendmany <fromaccount> {address:amount,...} [minconf=1] [comment]
sendtoaddress <bitcoinaddress> <amount> [comment] [comment-to]
setaccount <bitcoinaddress> <account>
setgenerate <generate> [genproclimit]
settxfee <amount>
signmessage <bitcoinaddress> <message>
stop
validateaddress <bitcoinaddress>
verifymessage <bitcoinaddress> <signature> <message>
walletlock
walletpassphrase <passphrase> <timeout>
walletpassphrasechange <oldpassphrase> <newpassphrase>

What other info do pools need access to?

[RoloTonyBrownTown]

Yep, bit wonky at the mo.   Diff is currently shown as 623.38695987...

http://blockexplorer.com/q/getdifficulty

[payb.tc]

Everyone already has a copy of the blockchain.  All we need is a GUI or CGI to read it.

bitcoin has lots of commands that can be issued to a running bitcoin instance:

Code:

backupwallet <destination>
getaccount <bitcoinaddress>
getaccountaddress <account>
getaddressesbyaccount <account>
getbalance [account] [minconf=1]
getblockcount
getconnectioncount
getdifficulty
getgenerate
gethashespersec
getinfo
getmemorypool [data]
getnewaddress [account]
getreceivedbyaccount <account> [minconf=1]
getreceivedbyaddress <bitcoinaddress> [minconf=1]
gettransaction <txid>
getwork [data]
help [command]
keypoolrefill
listaccounts [minconf=1]
listreceivedbyaccount [minconf=1] [includeempty=false]
listreceivedbyaddress [minconf=1] [includeempty=false]
listsinceblock [blockid] [target-confirmations]
listtransactions [account] [count=10] [from=0]
move <fromaccount> <toaccount> <amount> [minconf=1] [comment]
sendfrom <fromaccount> <tobitcoinaddress> <amount> [minconf=1] [comment] [comment-to]
sendmany <fromaccount> {address:amount,...} [minconf=1] [comment]
sendtoaddress <bitcoinaddress> <amount> [comment] [comment-to]
setaccount <bitcoinaddress> <account>
setgenerate <generate> [genproclimit]
settxfee <amount>
signmessage <bitcoinaddress> <message>
stop
validateaddress <bitcoinaddress>
verifymessage <bitcoinaddress> <signature> <message>
walletlock
walletpassphrase <passphrase> <timeout>
walletpassphrasechange <oldpassphrase> <newpassphrase>

What other info do pools need access to?

how is the next difficulty estimated/calculated?

[theymos]

Yep, bit wonky at the mo.   Diff is currently shown as 623.38695987...

http://blockexplorer.com/q/getdifficulty

My bitcoind is downloading the chain. You can see the progress at /q/getblockcount.

[kjlimo]

Looks like blockexplorer is down again?

I like the idea of the gui for reading the blockchain.

That sounds awesome, but unfortunately, we'd have to rely on donations to fund the project.  I'm no programmer, but if the price is right, I could try to get my buddy to start developing for bitcoins.

Unless of course, someone else is already working on it or willing to do it.

[theymos]

OK, I think I was finally able to improve BBE's efficiency enough to make it work well despite the increased traffic. Most interestingly, I now have Bitcoin's block database stored entirely in memory.

[Cryptoman]

Blockexplorer is still down for me.  Does anyone know where I can find the exact time of the latest difficulty change?

[deepceleron]

Blockexplorer is still down for me.  Does anyone know where I can find the exact time of the latest difficulty change?

The difficulty is updated every 2016 blocks, here are the most recent blocks where the difficulty changed/will change

163296 - 2012-01-22 03:55:08 - 1,307,728.36
165312 - 2012-02-04 10:28:28 - 1,379,647.44
167328 - 2012-02-18 11:24:53 - 1,376,302.27
169344
171360
173376

I just put the block number into this URL for info: http://blockchain.info/block-height/167532

[Cryptoman]

The difficulty is updated every 2016 blocks, here are the most recent blocks where the difficulty changed/will change

163296 - 2012-01-22 03:55:08 - 1,307,728.36
165312 - 2012-02-04 10:28:28 - 1,379,647.44
167328 - 2012-02-18 11:24:53 - 1,376,302.27
169344
171360
173376

I just put the block number into this URL for info: http://blockchain.info/block-height/167532

Great, thanks!

[Ente]

Time to come up some ideas for a decentralized block data tool?

Everyone already has a copy of the blockchain.  All we need is a GUI or CGI to read it.

I would donate to that cause.
For me (as a programming novice) it sounds like not-too-complicated to program a blockexplorer/blockchaininfo clone which works with the local blockchain copy?
Someone make a bounty thread?

Ente

[John Tobey]

Everyone already has a copy of the blockchain.  All we need is a GUI or CGI to read it.

I would donate to that cause.
For me (as a programming novice) it sounds like not-too-complicated to program a blockexplorer/blockchaininfo clone which works with the local blockchain copy?
Someone make a bounty thread?

Tried Abe?  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=22785.0

[slush]

theymos, any update? BE is still overloaded ("Database connection timeout (likely due to overload). Try again later."). Is that regular traffic or it is some kind of attack? I don't believe that traffic increased so suddenly in last few days...

[Ente]

Everyone already has a copy of the blockchain.  All we need is a GUI or CGI to read it.

I would donate to that cause.
For me (as a programming novice) it sounds like not-too-complicated to program a blockexplorer/blockchaininfo clone which works with the local blockchain copy?
Someone make a bounty thread?

Tried Abe?  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=22785.0

I love it! :-)

Ente

[theymos]

theymos, any update? BE is still overloaded ("Database connection timeout (likely due to overload). Try again later."). Is that regular traffic or it is some kind of attack? I don't believe that traffic increased so suddenly in last few days...

Something does seem to have changed to make things slower, but I'm not sure what. I'm getting 6.6 hits per second right now, but I don't normally keep logs, so I don't know if this is much higher than normal. It's also possible the disk is broken somehow.

Anyway, I've made lots of changes to improve efficiency and I'll continue to do so. I introduced that error recently so that slow database connections wouldn't stop /q/getblockcount and other non-database pages from working.

[slush]

Maybe you should cache requests and avoid database lookup entirely? For example /block/, /rawblock/ will be the same forever, no need to ask database at all (don't forget to drop cache on blockchain reorg.

[theymos]

Maybe you should cache requests and avoid database lookup entirely? For example /block/, /rawblock/ will be the same forever, no need to ask database at all (don't forget to drop cache on blockchain reorg.

There's already a lot of caching.

[slush]

Then there must be something seriously broken (if you're right and average load is ~6 requests/second).

[ancow]

The blockcount is stuck on blockexplorer (at 169217) - is that known and/or is there a reason for this?

[slush]

I reported it to theymos few minutes ago...

[theymos]

It'll be fixed in a few minutes.

Putting the bitcoind block database in memory makes things much faster, but I think the data somehow gets easily corrupted in a way which causes bitcoind to reject all additional blocks. I'll try putting the database on the SSD instead.

[slush]

SSD is really solid solution, I'm running a lot of instances on SSD disk without any issue...