No inbound connections

[Jet Cash]

I wondered why I was only getting 8 connections, and all of them are outbound. I ran a port scanner, and this is what I got.

Checked port 8333 on Host/IP 46.233.116.169...

 The checked port (8333, service unknown) is offline/unreachable

Reason: Connection refused (111)

Portscan ran for 0.0152 seconds

So I guess that with no inbound connections, I'm not running a full node. Will this be a problem for me, and what are the ramifications?

[shorena]

Its still a full node and its still fully operational. Sounds like the port is block by a firewall.

[ranochigo]

Inbound connections allow for more peers to connect to your node to get more information and that's it. Your connected peers will still receive blocks and transactions from you, just like how they relay to you.

[subcypher]

Port forward 8333 in your router.

[Jet Cash]

Its still a full node and its still fully operational. Sounds like the port is block by a firewall.

It's at McD ( again ), so it is almost certainly that.

As I see it, the sequence is this.

Start the core
Load the block index
Verify the blockchain on disk
Start looking for peers, and stop when you have found eight.
Synchronise with the public blockchain
Sit there doing its thing.

Looking at the network traffic analyser, there is loads of green, and a very small amount of red. Isn't the green downloaded packets, and the red uploads? That seems to indicate bidirectional traffic. So does the fact that inbound connections are blocked mean that I can go looking for peers, but nobody can try to find me? ( I'm guessing here. ).

[achow101]

Its still a full node and its still fully operational. Sounds like the port is block by a firewall.

It's at McD ( again ), so it is almost certainly that.

As I see it, the sequence is this.

Start the core
Load the block index
Verify the blockchain on disk
Start looking for peers, and stop when you have found eight.
Synchronise with the public blockchain
Sit there doing its thing.

Looking at the network traffic analyser, there is loads of green, and a very small amount of red. Isn't the green downloaded packets, and the red uploads? That seems to indicate bidirectional traffic. So does the fact that inbound connections are blocked mean that I can go looking for peers, but nobody can try to find me? ( I'm guessing here. ).

Yes. An outbound connection means that you initiated the connection and then the downloaded data is all technically replies to your requests. Any connection which is initiated by someone else is not allowed by firewalls unless port forwarding is enabled.

[DannyHamilton]

I suspect if you get yourself a VPN service and set up port forwarding properly, you could probably get through the McD firewall to receive connections