<p>Some Internet service providers have different pricing at different hours. Is it possible to limit some functions of <code>bitcoind</code> to specific time ranges? ...especially initial block download (IBD) and/or transmission of historical blocks to other peers who are synchronizing?</p>
<p>The <code>bitcoin-cli</code> command <code>setnetworkactive</code> would seem to allow this to be done through external scripting, and I did find <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/108085/is-there-a-bitcoin-conf-option-to-disable-the-node-from-getting-blocks/108086#108086">this question</a> which seemed to confirm that this setting should serve the purpose, but experimentation reveals that blocks continue to flow even after setting it to <code>false</code>. Apparently it does not work in quite the right way for this purpose (and unfortunately the documentation is extremely brief about what this setting exactly does and what its purpose is).</p>
<p>Any insight into that command or other methods of scheduling bandwidth would be appreciated. Something that might be related: sometimes there are messages from <code>bitcoind</code> during IBD like <code>Peer=X is stalling block download, disconnecting</code>. What exactly does this message mean, and does it imply anything that would relate to a traffic scheduling regime of either the node performing IBD or a peer from which it is downloading?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-21T08:23:21.063Z
Cron job to stop and restart specifying different config?
RedGrittyBrick
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-22T13:03:09.760Z
Stopping and restarting is probably an acceptable workaround for nodes that are synchronizing for the first time, but I don't think it would be suitable for nodes sending out the historical blocks.
Robert Dickinson
<bitcoind><synchronization><bitcoin-cli><bandwidth>
Is there a way to schedule bandwidth-intensive functions of bitcoind?
Robert Dickinson
# Is there a way to schedule bandwidth-intensive functions of bitcoind?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-06-20)

Some Internet service providers have different pricing at different hours. Is it possible to limit some functions of `bitcoind` to specific time ranges? ...especially initial block download (IBD) and/or transmission of historical blocks to other peers who are synchronizing?

The `bitcoin-cli` command `setnetworkactive` would seem to allow this to be done through external scripting, and I did find [this question](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/108085/is-there-a-bitcoin-conf-option-to-disable-the-node-from-getting-blocks/108086#108086) which seemed to confirm that this setting should serve the purpose, but experimentation reveals that blocks continue to flow even after setting it to `false`. Apparently it does not work in quite the right way for this purpose (and unfortunately the documentation is extremely brief about what this setting exactly does and what its purpose is).

Any insight into that command or other methods of scheduling bandwidth would be appreciated. Something that might be related: sometimes there are messages from `bitcoind` during IBD like `Peer=X is stalling block download, disconnecting`. What exactly does this message mean, and does it imply anything that would relate to a traffic scheduling regime of either the node performing IBD or a peer from which it is downloading?

**Tags:** bitcoind, synchronization, bitcoin-cli, bandwidth

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Cron job to stop and restart specifying different config?  
> **username_0**: Stopping and restarting is probably an acceptable workaround for nodes that are synchronizing for the first time, but I don't think it would be suitable for nodes sending out the historical blocks.  

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## 0 answers

