wallets not syncing.. peers.dat is not helping much
Try the section at the bottom of the Original Post, and check back afterwards.
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Also about the Pools, I just checks, 2 of em have 12 users, and the other has about 20 or so.
Pool 1 and 2 are just two front ends to the same pools. They always have identical stats and users mining the pool.
pool 3 appears to still be up.