Mist: "Infinite Peer Search" for Ethereum wallet

[underterri]

Today I downloaded the wallet exe from ethereum.org main site.

Upon launching it it always hangs up on "Seeking peers". No progress is shown.

I disabled anti virus, I even uninstalled it. Then I disabled Firewall.

The Bitcoin wallet works fine.

Windows version: Windows 7 Ultimate N, Service Pack 1
Ethereum wallet: 0.5.1

[frozeman]

Can you try running the node inside the wallet/resources/node/geth folder with:

geth.exe --nat=none

And see if it starts downloading blocks?

You can the start the wallet after and it will connect to the running node.

[aerohorn]

Same problem

How i can start with geth.exe --nat=none, what should i do?

[frozeman]

Use the cmd.exe of windows. Please google this.

[aerohorn]

I need to install Chocolatey for this?

[aerohorn]

Start geth with geth.exe --nat=none

But nothing happens. Wait about 15 minutes.
Also start wallet with this geth and nothing happens as well

[D-Nice]

More likely than anything it's a firewall issue. Router or AV firewall.

[aerohorn]

i need to open 30303 port?

[aerohorn]

I just opened port 30303 on my router, but still can't sync my wallet. And my firewall is off

[aerohorn]

Solved. It was necessary to synchronize clock with "time.nist.gov" in windows time setting

[aerohorn]

Another question. Where i can change directory for eth "chaindata". I think my SSD can
suffer from this

[D-Nice]

The following link shows all CLI arguments: https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/wiki/Command-Line-Options

The one you're looking for is --datadir

For Windows, to do a different drive, you'd want to run the following for geth:
geth --datadir "d:\Some Folder\Chaindata"

[sebtymo]

Same issue on Mac. I'm a total noob to all of this and don't know any code. Any help would be appreciated.

[underterri]

I tried synchronising times several times, restarting the computer, removing firewall and anti virus and it does not work. I did the .geth.exe command but it did not help. Same thing as user above indicated.

[D-Nice]

Is there 0 synchronization, or have some blocks been downloaded, and now it's no longer syncing. One issue I've noticed is if a block gets corrupted in the chaindata you have, the wallet just won't sync.

Try deleting your chaindata folder, but make a backup first. It's located in C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Ethereum

Then, run the newest geth or run the geth from this wallet, located in the subdirectory Ethereum-Wallet-win64-0-5-1\resources\node\geth

with the following command line

geth.exe --fast --cache 512 --maxpeers 100 --verbosity 5 console

if you get any errors there let us know

[aerohorn]

underterri try open 30303 port in setting of your router

[underterri]

How do I do that? I don't want to make my network vulnerable.

[frozeman]

Note: when you have already created accounts and you want to remove the Ethereum folder, make sure you backup the keystore inside first!

[D-Nice]

@underterri you will need to find a manual, online or elsewhere for your router, it is out of the scope of this discussion. However, you can access most routers by typing http://192.168.1.1 or http://192.168.2.1 into your browser, but you will need to know login credentials of it. Look up port forwarding, and it should not make your network vulnerable, as long as you only open 30303, it is not a vulnerable port afaik.

[underterri]

I don't have to go through all of this hassle to start Bitcoin core client. I think it is up to devs to fix this issue.

[cayblood]

@underterri You need to understand more about the underlying technology if you want to participate in ethereum at this relatively early stage of the game. There are still sharp edges. Firewall traversal is a difficult problem, especially in a serverless protocol. In many instances the configuration of your local network can make it impossible to do certain things, through no fault of the software. I would recommend finding someone who is more tech-savvy to help you troubleshoot the issue.

[underterri]

I disabled the firewall, but the issue remains.

[cayblood]

There is probably still a misconfiguration somewhere on your local network. I would recommend connecting your computer to other networks and seeing if the problem remains.

[cayblood]

Just to clarify, there is a firewall configuration on your own computer, but your internet router most likely has one also. There are many other things that could be wrong with your network besides just the firewall also.

[underterri]

Alright, guys. Here is what I did. I deleted the chaindata folder as instructed above.

Then I opened cmd, went to the geth folder, run this command:
geth.exe --fast --cache 512 --maxpeers 100 --verbosity 5 console

Once I did that, numbers started flying (lots of text moving fast).

Then I launched Ethereum.exe while this was running in background.

Numbers stopped running in cmd so fast and instead it says:
[some numbers table.go:336] no seed nodes found

[alexvandesande]

@underterri has your issue been solved? If so, please close this one. We are going to put an bug fix to the time mist thing later.

[underterri]

It has not been solved, the issue remains.

[Joter271]

Same issue here. Firewall ports are open, I have tried it with:
geth --nat extip:xx:xx:xx:xx --maxpeers "100"
geth --nat=none --maxpeers "100"

Tried to manually add peers. Didn't help either.

When I run with verbosity 5 I only see 10788 table.go:336] no seed nodes found

Edit: issue was timeserver (time didn't synchronize for some reason). Now that time is synchronized it connects to peers.

[swt83]

Same issue. Mac running 0.5.2.

[D-Nice]

I'm wondering if this has to do with ISPs and throttling, and them blocking P2P activity? Do you guys have issues with torrents as well or no?

[underterri]

No issues with ISP throttling, works fine on another computer (Mac), so it is clearly problem with the client running on windows.

[D-Nice]

I'll do more testing on this, because to be honest, my PC syncs perfectly, but my GF's PC keeps getting corrupted blocks and is unable to sync. Everything is the exact same, except that she has Avast AV on hers and her Windows 7 has no updates.

Windows 7 basically runs in handicap mode if you don't, with constant crashes etc... And I've also disabled the AV on hers, and it still wouldn't sync, so I will try updating her Windows fully and see if that fixes it.

What Windows are you on and is it fully up to date?

[ruhigesPferd]

Thanks for your help with the "use command box to start the wallet".

Before it wasn't synchronising though it hat 2-5 peers when starting it over the .exe button.

After using the geth.exe --nat=none

and starting via dos-box, it was done after seconds and updated the wallet value <3

[swt83]

I can confirm that simply rebooting your computer solves this problem.

[richardsj]

Rebooting your computer is a hint at what is causing the problem but is not actually a solution. This seems to be an extremely common problem

[luclu]

We just released version 0.7.5 which includes geth 1.4.7 with several minor improvements to the peer discovery. Please check if your situation got improved by this: https://github.com/ethereum/mist/releases

[myalcin81]

I have to same problem with mist 0.7.5.
But I solved following this solution: https://github.com/ethereum/mist/issues/94#issuecomment-188112488

[luclu]

Issues of affected 0.7.5 users: https://github.com/ethereum/mist/issues/876

Current workaround:
change --nat flag to:
--nat none or --nat extip:(YOUR_PUBLIC_IP) as @myalcin81 suggested.

From https://github.com/ethereum/mist/issues/876#issuecomment-227993784

You might need to start the wallet on the commandline with Ethereum-Wallet.exe -- --nat=none (Everything after the -- gets parsed to geth)

[MarinAngelo]

Same issue here. The cli comand geth.exe --nat=none doesn't do anything, the screen just remains the same for hours. As all worked fine last week and I did not change anything on my system I don't think it is a local problem.

[punit167]

Here is what fixed my problem.
I'm running windows 7, 64 bit.
Do you see the annoying little popup when windows says "do you want to allow this NEW SOFTWARE access to network"? Well since Mist is run as an exe, and is not officially installed, it never got access to the network as you never got that popup.
From firewall settings, find "Allow programs through windows firewall". Go to Change Settings, and click "Allow another program". On the next popup, click Browse, and navigate to and select Mist.exe. The program got added as Electron in my system.

I ran Mist again.. and things were different immediately, I saw TEST-NET appearing on top and it started downloading blocks soon after.

Hope this helps.

[PatchRanger]

I confirm the issue. The restart helps to workaround it - though it is not a solution.
OS: Ubuntu 14.04
Ethereum Wallet: 0.8.1

[Nammalvar]

Same problem too with Mac OS X and eth wallets 7.6 to 8.1 . Solved briefly at approx. 01:00 CEST by disabling my router FW, despite its UPnP configuration OK. Running geth with either --nat flag did not help.
Edit : this morning (08:00 CEST) it doesnt work anymore. Same freezing, no peers, with router FW disabled. I'm completely confused.
UPDATE 19:02 CEST : My FW is not involved I have the same behavior with my smartphone as access point. Recap : Ethereum-Wallet completely frozen, no peers appearing, quitting the app very long to perform, no way to move anything in the HCI... monitoring shows Ethereum-wallet Helper at 101% processor use.

[Nammalvar]

OK here is an update with my issue. It's not an "infinite search" but a very very looooooong sync. And it's slowly getting better along the days. At launch (of wallet) nothing happens at first, can be so during 20 minutes. Then it randomly syncs, the HCI is responding for a while, and after some time again it freezes for a long time: "24 minutes since last block", can be "an hour since last block" (still working on my computer meanwhile). It seems the phenomenon is disappearing gradually (or its depending on the traffic ?). Still no idea of the root cause.

[tbrannt]

I have the same problem as decribed by Nammalvar with ubuntu and 0.8.1

[zzzman20]

So, I was having this same problem too, wallet stuck looking for peers on startup. I deleted everything from the C:\Users\XXXX\AppData\RoamingEthereum folder except for keystore, started Mist again, and it immediately started syncing. Hope this helps...

[SmarticusRex]

I can confirm that deleting the contents of the aforementioned folder by zzzman20 (except the keystore) fixed the problem for me.

[Piste]

zzzman20 unlocked me too. I was stuck in infinite peer search until I did the equivalent of this delete on Mac: I erased all things in ~/Library/Ethereum except for the keystore folder and the blockchain is downloading now.

[AMTQ]

unfortunately the workaround by @zzzman20 did not work for me. other suggestions?

[evertonfraga]

@AMTQ can you open a new issue describing exactly your problem? thanks!

[AMTQ]

@evertonfraga Nevermind, it had certainly something to do with the local network configuration. Now I'm on another network and it works fine. And myetherwallet works fine in the meantime ;)

[ProgrammingLife]

Same problem here. Nothing works.

[ProgrammingLife]

In my case --nat=none says:

←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:07.813] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - ←[39mChecking for new client binaries config from: https://raw.g
.json
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:08.496] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - ←[39mNo "skippedNodeVersion.json" found.
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:08.498] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - ←[39mInitializing...
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:08.498] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - ←[39mResolving platform...
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:08.499] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - ←[39mCalculating possible clients...
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:08.500] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - ←[39m1 possible clients.
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:08.501] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - ←[39mVerifying status of all 1 possible clients...
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:08.502] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - ←[39mVerify Geth status ...
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:08.599] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - ←[39mChecking for Geth sanity check ...
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:08.600] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - ←[39mChecking sanity for Geth ...
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:08.685] [INFO] Sockets/node-ipc - ←[39mConnect to {"path":"\\\\.\\pipe\\geth.ipc"}
←[33m[2017-07-17 04:22:08.687] [WARN] Sockets/node-ipc - ←[39mConnection failed, retrying after 1000ms...
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:09.669] [INFO] updateChecker - ←[39mApp is up-to-date.
←[33m[2017-07-17 04:22:09.686] [WARN] Sockets/node-ipc - ←[39mConnection failed, retrying after 1000ms...
←[33m[2017-07-17 04:22:10.687] [WARN] Sockets/node-ipc - ←[39mConnection failed, retrying after 1000ms...
←[31m[2017-07-17 04:22:11.685] [ERROR] Sockets/node-ipc - ←[39mConnection failed (3000ms elapsed)
←[33m[2017-07-17 04:22:11.686] [WARN] EthereumNode - ←[39mFailed to connect to node. Maybe it's not running so let's start o
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:11.686] [INFO] EthereumNode - ←[39mNode type: geth
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:11.688] [INFO] EthereumNode - ←[39mNetwork: main
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:11.689] [INFO] EthereumNode - ←[39mStart node: geth main
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:11.690] [INFO] EthereumNode - ←[39mStart node using C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Ethereum Wall
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:14.771] [INFO] EthereumNode - ←[39m3000ms elapsed, assuming node started up successfully
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:14.772] [INFO] EthereumNode - ←[39mStarted node successfully: geth main
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:14.774] [INFO] Sockets/node-ipc - ←[39mConnect to {"path":"\\\\.\\pipe\\geth.ipc"}
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:14.775] [INFO] Sockets/node-ipc - ←[39mConnected!
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:14.776] [INFO] NodeSync - ←[39mEthereum node connected, re-start sync
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:14.777] [INFO] NodeSync - ←[39mStarting sync loop
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:14.778] [INFO] Sockets/3 - ←[39mConnect to {"path":"\\\\.\\pipe\\geth.ipc"}
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:14.779] [INFO] main - ←[39mConnected via IPC to node.
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:14.792] [INFO] Sockets/3 - ←[39mConnected!
←[32m[2017-07-17 04:22:14.807] [INFO] (ui: splashscreen) - ←[39mNetwork is mainnet

what to do?

"Looking for pears..." stays forever on windows 8.1

[sandeep47k]

Its a timing issue.......
Update your system time according to time.nist.gov

To update time
click on clock > click on change date and time > click on internet time tab > Chage Setting > select time.nist.gov from dropdown list of server tab > then click on update now......

It will start downloading nodes....

@ProgrammingLife @MarinAngelo

[VivinceTH]

should sync on one of below (not just time.nist.gov)
time-a.nist.gov 129.6.15.28
time-b.nist.gov 129.6.15.29
time-c.nist.gov 129.6.15.30
time-d.nist.gov 2610:20:6F15:15::27

[zacheberhart]

I was having this same issue. But then I updated to the latest version of Ethereum Wallet (didn't work after doing just this) and then deleted everything in Ethereum folder except for the keystore (as per @zzzman20 and @Piste's instructions) and restarted the wallet. After about ten minutes it begun to sync.

[ism77]

I'm running Windows 10. zzzman20's Sept 9, 2016 posts solution worked like a charm for me as well. Thanks.

[ism77]

I am also running Kaspersky AV and also had to disable it's built in firewall and use the Windows firewall.

[andkom]

same issue (time is already synced)

[LouisWayne]

This is 2018 and it is still not working (using v0.10.0)

[unmisable]

windows 10 etherium wallet issue here also, if anyone can help?

[neokyol]

Still happening in v0.10.0 on OS X. The workaround is to start the node from the command line using geth.

[Oyshoboy]

Syncronized windows time, but still infinity "looking for peer" state:

[kazoummt]

I have such a condition. And I have not figured out how to solve that problem. :(

[rpr1mera]

I was having this same issue. In my case I didn't try launching the geth node with the --nat option. I did synchronise to time.nist.gov servers, however I was still unable to find any peers, it sayed at 0 peers forever.

What did it finally for me was noticing that the option Develop -> Sync with Light client (beta) was checked by default, so I unchecked it and that fixed the problem in my case.

[LouisWayne]

FIX THIS!

[AndreiD]

like rpr1mera said...

toggling Sync with Light client (beta) back & forth makes it find again peers.

[rushabhmadhu2016]

admin.addPeer("enode://37bdc225f36b9bd53e155c68f266782b15e87a4db62d09bc0ee6a3b9d1bde055b10a19b21d0610c7adf419c5d7e13099bf2e8b8f1458b7c1e6930534b732d73c@74.65.200.57:1201");

admin.addPeer("enode://d9d964be91d7edc2227dfca0291b545a88f8ef4f7f236260735ba800a870b26865365c9d94cc4cd21e5a62dda8662c45cd2929126692f002bac3685ce7a57c30@108.19.163.171:30303");

admin.addPeer("enode://c60610d1700ea2842b5a3b06cc638f9c24cd77313369b04dcc2c8bb0b3b6a6d93d958f69503f76e64ab73e862421f532b7edad2283e698e602f9beb64054e1cb@37.142.103.9:59231");

admin.addPeer("enode://bb92307842ac217752aac185d7a77796a1c22ca2e9817fce65762aa2fe1a299dd805eec86073abe18e4cd0cbf4ba5cca3120a8ba906641dd60a334504e83e61c@54.79.49.179:30303");

admin.addPeer("enode://91787234ee198e612940e147f350652ffc6964956a1e4c4e6c24b2ffc2bb8681719b0762bd3ca100b98668186c9fdb16d6bb2b2438868d22d726d8fb735d5eb6@50.103.99.0:30303");

admin.addPeer("enode://6cfbf1d27fc8c65a5e622f796823cb48ab0e576bff7748de87aac0a2fb42fa388d51c9ef84bbe32ee099d8040e120282b9372f157e506dd69fc99fcfce684611@73.40.58.88:30303");

[Mongrin]

Hi guys, Here is what fixed my problem (OS windows 7, 64 bit).

1) Update your system time according to time.nist.gov
To update time
click on clock > click on change date and time > click on internet time tab > Chage Setting > select time.nist.gov from dropdown list of server tab > then click on update now.

2) I unchecked it Develop -> Sync with Light client (beta).

3) Open the necessary ports in Firewall. In quotes my path to files is specified. You specify your.
Run cmd with administrator rules and paste this commands:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Ethereum Wallet (TCP - исходящий трафик)" dir=Out action=Allow profile=Private,Public program="C:\Users\Admin\DownloadsEthereum-Wallet-win64-0-10-0Ethereum Wallet.exe" protocol=TCP localport=1024-65535 remoteport=443

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Geth (TCP - исходящий трафик)" dir=Out action=Allow profile=Private,Public program="C:\Users\Admin\AppData\RoamingEthereum Wallet\binaries\Geth\unpacked\geth.exe" protocol=TCP localport=1024-65535 remoteport=any

Click Enter.

Try starting synchronization again. Hope this helps...