Its still a full node and its still fully operational. Sounds like the port is block by a firewall.
It's at McD ( again
![Smiley](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/smiley.gif)
), 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. ).