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I'm running bitcoind 7x24 on a linux host on my network so it is always in synch.
Options like:
-rpcuser=<user> Username for JSON-RPC connections
-rpcpassword=<pw> Password for JSON-RPC connections
suggest it is possible to have a wallet client on my Windows PC access that server and operate the wallet.dat on the Linux PC.
But my attempts have not met with success. Can you suggest a solution or at least help me understand why this is not possible.
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I have seen selfmade PHP frontends. May check google, forums, github or other sources. (want to avoid to post links there).
To answer the question properly: You can access the bitcoind instance through the RPC and do all kind of things. This indeed allows to use existing or selfmade frontends.
For reference on bitocin RPC check the popular forums or google up "bitcoin rpc commands"
If you intend a connection between a private server and you home server you could secure the copnnection additionally with a VPN for example.
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There is currently no way to operate a bitcoind wallet by solely connecting to a single peer through RPC calls. You would have to use a separate program on your windows computer. I'm not aware of any user friendly way to do this, but there are open source programs available like https://github.com/jgarzik/python-bitcoinrpc. The -connect option will allow you to specify the peer you connect to, but since you are going to be downloading the entire block chain anyways on your Windows machine, it may or may not be what you want.
If you go that route, by default bitcoind only accepts local RPC calls. To change this, you need to edit the bitcoin.conf file in the .bitcoin folder. There is a parameter rpcallowip where you can define what ip's are allowed to make RPC calls. You do need to be aware that this is a potential vector of attack for hackers.
See details about bitcoin.conf here : https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Running_Bitcoin#Sample_Bitcoin.conf
Since the goal was to minimise the catch-up and synchronise time on the Windows client, I'm now running it with -connect=192.168.1.x and catching up faster. – Hamish MacEwan – 2013-06-25T22:36:18.807