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Topic: 12 computers in one home, how to mine? (Read 1174 times)

hero member
Activity: 784
Merit: 1004
Glow Stick Dance!
June 27, 2014, 05:29:45 AM
#10
Why are pointing people to pools instead of helping them for what they ask. I don't see the point
Because sometimes the exact answer to a person's question is not the appropriate answer, especially when there's evidence that the question itself may be based on a flawed premise.

In this case, all the information we have to go on is that there are 12 computers (no information about GPUs, but we can get back to that), and the question being how to get them all to mine - with the assumption being mining Bitcoin, given the forum section it's posted in - as one.

A naive solution would be to simply install the client on each of the computers.  Run it on 1, copy the wallet.dat to the other 11, run them all, use 'setgenerate true' or the -gen command line flag, and bob's your uncle.
The down side of that approach is that each of those machines is running as a full node, which is wasteful in space and bandwidth.

So another option is to set up a pool.
You can go for one of the solutions in the thread rapsaodan84 mentioned, or any commonly used pooling software as long as you can set up the environment to run them (which is often a LAMP stack).  The down side to that is setting that all up, still having to run at least 1 full node, and managing it.  You'll also have to find a CPU(/GPU)-capable miner - the more commonly used these days no longer support CPUs and GPUs; bfgminer still supports it if compiled with support in, but you'd more likely have to check out cpuminer/guiminer or something like that.

A much simpler alternative is to run the mining software of choice and point it to a third party pool or P2Pool.  There's plenty to choose from, and the only configuration you typically need is the pool's IP address, port, and a Bitcoin address to which payouts should be sent.  Some require additional login information, but even that's relatively simple to set up.  Given that there are 0%-fee pools, there isn't any particular reason why you wouldn't use that solution.

But then we get to the part where there's no reason to believe there's anything more than GPUs at play here at best, and only CPUs at worst.  In which case, even that last option just means you're going to throw marginal hashing power at it with 12 computers running hot CPUs/GPUs, etc.  Now if that's not a problem, that's fine - but then you might as well expend the same energy trying to mine an altcoin and possibly get some returns from it - or fold proteins (FOR SCIENCE!).. or do both.  In the case of altcoins, there would be more specific instructions on what miner to use, how to pool together computers on a local network, how to connect to third party pools, etc. often included in instructions for that specific coin.

And so that loops it back around to your question.  To answer the question exactly means to give hydrogone an answer that is ill-advised and ill-fated.  By giving the answer we have, they have an answer to the question they most likely meant to be asking.  In the rare case that the person asking really did want a straight-up answer to their exact question, there's always the option of saying as much in a reply Smiley

tl;dr: If somebody asked me what resistors to choose to drop 12V to 3.3V for an unspecified load, I'd be silly to actually answer their question with resistor figures, or even mentioning zeners, rather than nudging them toward (switch mode) voltage regulators. Unless they needed the answer for homework, in which case it would be even more damaging Wink

Amazing, awesome, detailed post! But I have a suspicion that you wasted your effort and you will never hear back from the idiot who made the original post, lol.
hero member
Activity: 519
Merit: 500
June 27, 2014, 04:58:53 AM
#9
How can I have all 12 of my computers (several different models) to all essentially pool into one and mine?
Is there any step by step guide to setting this up? Or better yet, is there any way I can do it from my main pc and install a program via usb flashdrive or shared networks?

Thanks Smiley

Just curious, why do you have 12 computers at home. Are you trying to do something with office's computer? Smiley

Well it wouldn't be the first time people came on here asking how to misuse other people's machines.

Every now and then somebody asks how to run a cmd prompt miner and hide it so his brother/sister/dog won't accidentally close the miner.
legendary
Activity: 2464
Merit: 1102
June 27, 2014, 02:06:47 AM
#8
How can I have all 12 of my computers (several different models) to all essentially pool into one and mine?
Is there any step by step guide to setting this up? Or better yet, is there any way I can do it from my main pc and install a program via usb flashdrive or shared networks?

Thanks Smiley

Just curious, why do you have 12 computers at home. Are you trying to do something with office's computer? Smiley
hero member
Activity: 519
Merit: 500
June 26, 2014, 03:39:21 PM
#7
When you say 12 computers....are you using the CPUs or GPUs on the computers to try and mine?  They won't even generate 1 penny per month doing that.

Or do you have ASICs hooked up to 12 machines (which I doubt since nobody would spend that much $ and not know how to set them up)?
hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 500
FUN > ROI
June 26, 2014, 03:29:26 PM
#6
Why are pointing people to pools instead of helping them for what they ask. I don't see the point
Because sometimes the exact answer to a person's question is not the appropriate answer, especially when there's evidence that the question itself may be based on a flawed premise.

In this case, all the information we have to go on is that there are 12 computers (no information about GPUs, but we can get back to that), and the question being how to get them all to mine - with the assumption being mining Bitcoin, given the forum section it's posted in - as one.

A naive solution would be to simply install the client on each of the computers.  Run it on 1, copy the wallet.dat to the other 11, run them all, use 'setgenerate true' or the -gen command line flag, and bob's your uncle.
The down side of that approach is that each of those machines is running as a full node, which is wasteful in space and bandwidth.

So another option is to set up a pool.
You can go for one of the solutions in the thread rapsaodan84 mentioned, or any commonly used pooling software as long as you can set up the environment to run them (which is often a LAMP stack).  The down side to that is setting that all up, still having to run at least 1 full node, and managing it.  You'll also have to find a CPU(/GPU)-capable miner - the more commonly used these days no longer support CPUs and GPUs; bfgminer still supports it if compiled with support in, but you'd more likely have to check out cpuminer/guiminer or something like that.

A much simpler alternative is to run the mining software of choice and point it to a third party pool or P2Pool.  There's plenty to choose from, and the only configuration you typically need is the pool's IP address, port, and a Bitcoin address to which payouts should be sent.  Some require additional login information, but even that's relatively simple to set up.  Given that there are 0%-fee pools, there isn't any particular reason why you wouldn't use that solution.

But then we get to the part where there's no reason to believe there's anything more than GPUs at play here at best, and only CPUs at worst.  In which case, even that last option just means you're going to throw marginal hashing power at it with 12 computers running hot CPUs/GPUs, etc.  Now if that's not a problem, that's fine - but then you might as well expend the same energy trying to mine an altcoin and possibly get some returns from it - or fold proteins (FOR SCIENCE!).. or do both.  In the case of altcoins, there would be more specific instructions on what miner to use, how to pool together computers on a local network, how to connect to third party pools, etc. often included in instructions for that specific coin.

And so that loops it back around to your question.  To answer the question exactly means to give hydrogone an answer that is ill-advised and ill-fated.  By giving the answer we have, they have an answer to the question they most likely meant to be asking.  In the rare case that the person asking really did want a straight-up answer to their exact question, there's always the option of saying as much in a reply Smiley

tl;dr: If somebody asked me what resistors to choose to drop 12V to 3.3V for an unspecified load, I'd be silly to actually answer their question with resistor figures, or even mentioning zeners, rather than nudging them toward (switch mode) voltage regulators. Unless they needed the answer for homework, in which case it would be even more damaging Wink
legendary
Activity: 1694
Merit: 1024
June 26, 2014, 02:32:54 PM
#5
You probably wouldn't want to mine bitcoin directly as mentioned, look for some profitable CPU altcoins to mine. Smiley
full member
Activity: 218
Merit: 102
June 26, 2014, 02:32:08 PM
#4
There are a few open source pools you can set up in one of your PCs, for example:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/pushpool-open-source-pool-software-8707
newbie
Activity: 22
Merit: 0
June 26, 2014, 02:27:10 PM
#3
Why are pointing people to pools instead of helping them for what they ask. I don't see the point
hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 500
FUN > ROI
June 26, 2014, 02:12:55 PM
#2
Point them all at the same pool - that effectively gives you the same result without the hassle of running your own node.

( Note that if they're just computers, you probably want to be mining altcoins, rather than Bitcoin.  There's an altcoin section on this forum. )
newbie
Activity: 3
Merit: 0
June 26, 2014, 02:01:23 PM
#1
How can I have all 12 of my computers (several different models) to all essentially pool into one and mine?
Is there any step by step guide to setting this up? Or better yet, is there any way I can do it from my main pc and install a program via usb flashdrive or shared networks?

Thanks Smiley
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