i don't know what the story is, but I have NEVER been able to use a chain-server to help get the blk chn downloaded.
I have tried ALL of them on this wiki page:
http://wiki.bitshares.org/index.php/BitShares/Chain-Server, which was updated in April.
Starting from a fresh install of 0.9.2, started once to create default .BitShares folder. Then edited the chain_servers array in config.json to add a single IP address. Every address in the wiki page was used, no matter, the client still shows multiple connections, contrary to the wiki.
Either every single one of the chain servers is not working or the wiki page is incorrect or there is a bug in the client.
It's v e r y frustrating.
Edit: I think the servers may work initially, then crash or stop b/c if I enter the passphrase to unlock the wallet the GUI seems to ignore it (accounts--> go to my accounts does nothing, and the unlock button in center of window stops with the dots pretty quick but then nothing). I thus can't login to check the console, but I can see plenty of net activity on the router.
This shows a connection to chain-server: lsof -ni:1375 -sTCP:ESTABLISHED
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
bitshares 12457 owner 146u IPv4 539460 0t0 TCP 192.168.2.100:33893->185.25.22.21:1375 (ESTABLISHED)
So it does seem to work for a time. But once the gui responds & I get the wallet unlocked I see the sync is not done and multiple net connections. As of this moment liondani's chain-serve seems to be hanging in there.