From 3bfc4fbf99b333efff0d4a9f76e3175620c8951d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Sarah Jamie Lewis <sarah@openprivacy.ca>
Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2018 09:46:35 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Fix for #109 - Do basic connectivity checks for starting a
 server

---
 app/cli/main.go    |  2 +-
 peer/cwtch_peer.go | 17 ++++++++++++++++-
 2 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/app/cli/main.go b/app/cli/main.go
index ce070c1..108679f 100644
--- a/app/cli/main.go
+++ b/app/cli/main.go
@@ -354,7 +354,7 @@ func main() {
 						app.Peer.JoinServer(group.GroupServer)
 					}
 				} else {
-					fmt.Printf("Error creating new group: %v", err)
+					fmt.Printf("Error creating new group: %v\n", err)
 				}
 			} else {
 				fmt.Printf("Error creating a new group, usage: %s\n", usages["new-group"])
diff --git a/peer/cwtch_peer.go b/peer/cwtch_peer.go
index 5aaab02..c02c5ff 100644
--- a/peer/cwtch_peer.go
+++ b/peer/cwtch_peer.go
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import (
 	"log"
 	"strings"
 	"sync"
+	"time"
 )
 
 // cwtchPeer manages incoming and outgoing connections and all processing for a Cwtch Peer
@@ -235,7 +236,21 @@ func (cp *cwtchPeer) ExportGroup(groupID string) (string, error) {
 
 // StartGroup create a new group linked to the given server and returns the group ID, an invite or an error.
 func (cp *cwtchPeer) StartGroup(server string) (string, []byte, error) {
-	return cp.Profile.StartGroup(server)
+	if len(server) == 16 {
+		servers := cp.GetServers()
+		_, ok := servers[server]
+		if !ok {
+			cp.JoinServer(server)
+			time.Sleep(5 * time.Second)
+			servers = cp.GetServers()
+		}
+		status, ok := servers[server]
+		if status != connections.AUTHENTICATED {
+			return "", nil, errors.New("server could not be connected, please check to see if this server is a cwtch server")
+		}
+		return cp.Profile.StartGroup(server)
+	}
+	return "", nil, errors.New("server is not an onion address")
 }
 
 // GetGroups returns an unordered list of all group IDs.