Some Questions About What to Put in GUI Miner

[Tardis218]

I recently joined Prohashing and read up on how to mine coins. I decided to use GUI Miner, so I found what to put in the "Host" and "Port" box but I have three questions:

What do I put for my username? Is it just the name I signed up with Prohashing with?

This probably sounds stupid (all of these probably do) but those Prohashing use stratum or not? The Port is a stratum number but I don't see stratum in the host thing you provided.

If I were to add a Password Argument, do I also include my password? If so do I make a space between the two, or not?

Thanks in advanced.

[Chris Sokolowski]

I'm happy to help. Don't worry about the questions seeming "stupid," we all start with the same questions.

We exclusively support the stratum protocol. Some mining software requires you to prefacing the host with "stratum+" but since stratum is the de-facto standard for pools, all mining software I know doesn't require this extra information. Most software only supports the stratum protocol anyway and will not connect to pools with the older, less efficient getwork protocol.

For your miner configuration, the username is the name you signed up on the website. You do not need to specify any password to connect to the pool, but if the software requires one to be entered (and you don't want to use any password arguments), just put something random in the box. You should never enter your password you use to login to the website because the our stratum connections are not encrypted. Besides, there's no need to secure the connection; after all, who would complain if someone else was mining for your account and giving you free money? If you do want to use multiple password arguments, then enter them separated by a space. For example "d=512 c=Litecoin"

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

[Tardis218]

I'm happy to help. Don't worry about the questions seeming "stupid," we all start with the same questions.

We exclusively support the stratum protocol. Some mining software requires you to prefacing the host with "stratum+" but since stratum is the de-facto standard for pools, all mining software I know doesn't require this extra information. Most software only supports the stratum protocol anyway and will not connect to pools with the older, less efficient getwork protocol.

For your miner configuration, the username is the name you signed up on the website. You do not need to specify any password to connect to the pool, but if the software requires one to be entered (and you don't want to use any password arguments), just put something random in the box. You should never enter your password you use to login to the website because the our stratum connections are not encrypted. Besides, there's no need to secure the connection; after all, who would complain if someone else was mining for your account and giving you free money? If you do want to use multiple password arguments, then enter them separated by a space. For example "d=512 c=Litecoin"

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

Thanks for the reply! But even after I put in all the correct thing (Username: Tardis218 Hosting: prohashing.com Port: 3333, Password: Empty) adn waiting 5 minutes, on the Earning page it still says that no mining has occurred. What did I do wrong?

[Chris Sokolowski]

What hardware are you using? That would help me diagnose the issue.

[Tardis218]

What hardware are you using? That would help me diagnose the issue.

Um, Inter Core i5...I think that's what you're asking for? (Yeah, I don't have the best hardware. )

[Chris Sokolowski]

Ah, I see - the behavior your are experiencing is because you have a very low hashrate. A CPU like a Core i5 can only get about 40 kH/s. At our initial difficulty of 1024, you will average over 10 minutes per share. Our site assumes that if you don't submit any shares for 5 minutes, then your hashrate is zero. Look at the shares table on your earnings to make sure that you see shares in it, and if you do, then your miner is working, albeit very slowly.

Honestly, it's not worth mining scrypt with a CPU; you will spend more for electricity than you will earn. Even graphics cards (GPUs) have been superseded by dedicated scrypt mining boxes (ASICs). I suggest that you use your CPU to mine other CPU-only algorithms like Quark, where you can make money, or, if you would like to get into mining scrypt, then buy a scrypt ASIC.

[Tardis218]

Ah, I see - the behavior your are experiencing is because you have a very low hashrate. A CPU like a Core i5 can only get about 40 kH/s. At our initial difficulty of 1024, you will average over 10 minutes per share. Our site assumes that if you don't submit any shares for 5 minutes, then your hashrate is zero. Look at the shares table on your earnings to make sure that you see shares in it, and if you do, then your miner is working, albeit very slowly.

Honestly, it's not worth mining scrypt with a CPU; you will spend more for electricity than you will earn. Even graphics cards (GPUs) have been superseded by dedicated scrypt mining boxes (ASICs). I suggest that you use your CPU to mine other CPU-only algorithms like Quark, where you can make money, or, if you would like to get into mining scrypt, then buy a scrypt ASIC.

Hmm...thanks for the response. I checked the shares table..nothing seems to be there...weird. Anyways, does Prohashing accept mining Quark?

[Some1notu]

If I were you I'd mine vanity addresses instead. Google around and you'll find people and companies making offers for their vanity address, such as

1Walmart1eVFBaJJ5Z91KobpsQZcJowB4

There are several vanity miners, but vanitygen is the simplest.