Setting Up a Bitcoin Node

[Wave]

Does anyone have any references on how to setup a full bitcoin node?


-Wave

[gweedo]

Just download the bitcoin-qt or bitcoind and you will be a full node

[01BTC10]

Make sure to open TCP port 8333.

[niko]

Are you done yet, and how is it going?  Port forwarding can be done automatically if your router supports uPnP. It might take many hours to download the whole blockchain, but once this is done, it's done.   You will be running a full node.

[Graet]

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Running_Bitcoin
is what I used as a refernece
has way more than I use or you need

you can also addnodes to increase performance (find fast ones)

[Akka]

If you really want to support the network make sure you forward port 8333. If you don't know how, look here: http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=216489

[AfricanHunter]

Is there any other benefit to running a full node beyond increasing the diversity/stability of the network?

[SebastianJu]

Is there any other benefit to running a full node beyond increasing the diversity/stability of the network?

Im not sure but having more connections would mean that blocks are loaded faster if you have to download blocks for some days. With standard client it can be hard to wait to download the blocks of last days.
Its hard to wait until to get confirmations but even harder when you cant use bitcoins because you miss the last blocks. With more connections this should be faster.

[Infinity1]

If I have metered bandwidth should I not run a full node to prevent massive data usage? I get 8 connections at max so I'm assuming I should disable uPnP for faster blockchain download?

[niko]

Are you done yet, and how is it going?  Port forwarding can be done automatically if your router supports uPnP. It might take many hours to download the whole blockchain, but once this is done, it's done.   You will be running a full node.

Don't use uPnP you will mostly only get 8 connections if you want to be a full node, make sure the port is forward so you can allow incoming connections.

UPnP allows your client to configure the router to open port 8333, so you can have more than eight connections. Of course, this only works if your router is uPnP-ready.

[Wave]

Will it work even if I do not have a static IP?  I know how to do port forwarding and I want to do this to support the bitcoin network.  Thanks for the links folks, I should have time to read up tomorrow!

-Wave

[Wave]

Hell, that was easy.  I already had the full client running.  I can see the traffic flowing now in my logs via 8333 port forwarding.  However, client still only shows 8 connections.  Will keep my eye on it.

[gweedo]

Hell, that was easy.  I already had the full client running.  I can see the traffic flowing now in my logs via 8333 port forwarding.  However, client still only shows 8 connections.  Will keep my eye on it.

It is cause your router isn't port forward, and your connecting thru uPnP, you need to forward port 8333. Otherwise your not really getting incoming connections.

[niko]

Will it work even if I do not have a static IP?  I know how to do port forwarding and I want to do this to support the bitcoin network.  Thanks for the links folks, I should have time to read up tomorrow!

-Wave

Yes, it will work regardless of your WAN IP.  Note, however, that your LAN IP (the one assigned by your router to devices within your home network) needs to be static if you want to manually set the router to forward port 8333 to the device that runs your client. This is usually easy to set up through you router settings.

[Akka]

If it doesn't increase it numbers of connections try:

bitcoin-qt.exe -maxconnections=x , while x is the number of connections you would like to have at max.

[Wave]

Niko - Thanks, server has static IP.

Akka - Will give it a shot!

[Wave]

I got it, up to 10 connections now and slowly climbing.

The short of it...

Install bitcoinqt client and sync with block chain
Be sure the computer running the bitcoin client gets a static IP address assigned by your router
Forward port TCP port 8333 from internet to the IP you assigned in the step above
Done ;-)


-Wave

[SebastianJu]

Is there any other benefit to running a full node beyond increasing the diversity/stability of the network?

Im not sure but having more connections would mean that blocks are loaded faster if you have to download blocks for some days. With standard client it can be hard to wait to download the blocks of last days.
Its hard to wait until to get confirmations but even harder when you cant use bitcoins because you miss the last blocks. With more connections this should be faster.

That is false, downloading of blocks are depended on I/O speeds, CPU, and network, this will not make blocks download faster.

The benefits are that your helping the network and protecting it.

Strange. I never had much traffic or cpu and blocks were loading painful slow with 8 connections. So my guess was that, like with every other p2p-network you only need more partners to get blocks faster. Ok, then the border is somewhere else...

[Wave]

Alright Gents, I have 25 connections now and have relayed a couple of transactions first on blockchain.info.  How do I become a better node?  Static IP?  Forced connections to other fast nodes?  I have 30MBPS down and 6 up...


-Wave

[AfricanHunter]

Is there any other benefit to running a full node beyond increasing the diversity/stability of the network?

Im not sure but having more connections would mean that blocks are loaded faster if you have to download blocks for some days. With standard client it can be hard to wait to download the blocks of last days.
Its hard to wait until to get confirmations but even harder when you cant use bitcoins because you miss the last blocks. With more connections this should be faster.

That is false, downloading of blocks are depended on I/O speeds, CPU, and network, this will not make blocks download faster.

The benefits are that your helping the network and protecting it.

Thanks guys, appreciate the information