Hey folks,
I'm running Bitcoin Core v25 as a full node, but I can only connect out and have zero inbound connections. I've got a few questions:
Is there something wrong with my config file?
Should I stick with the default configuration?
Do I need to tweak any network or firewall settings?
Here’s what I'm working with:
Bitcoin Core version: v25
Operating System: Windows 11
I’d really appreciate any advice or pointers on this issue.
Thanks a bunch!
You forget to share your configuration file, so nobody can give answer.
How long have you run Bitcoin Core? If it's just recently (after completing sync/IBD), that may be reason you don't see any inbound/incoming connection. Some member don't like this approach, but you could verify whether you node can accept inbound/incoming connection by visiting https://bitnodes.io/#join-the-network and click "check node".
The default (no "bitcoin.conf" file) is already set to enable inbound connections.
Most of the time, it's just the user's network that's prohibiting it.
For that, read the port-forwarding guide linked in Loyce's reply.
Or alternatively, you can connect through Tor proxy which will enable your node to get inbound connections even without port-forwarding.
Bitcoin Core Tor set-up Doc: github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/tor.md
LoyceV and nc50lc must have covered your question, but I 'd like to ask why it's necessary for you to accept incoming connections? Since you have outbound connections, your node is fully functional.
To help the network, of course Which reminds me, my bitcoind wasn't running so I just restarted it. I'm kinda curious to see how much it would upload per month now.
The thing is, as long as the connection is established, it doesn't matter who initiated it and the network gets helped anyways. Obviously if nobody accepts inbound connections, there can't be a network (I think, but never actually thought about it).
Despite the name, you can perform both upload and download. But node which accept incoming connection is more likely to receive block from other node first before your node, since it have more connected node.
That's also my take on this subject, but wanted to verify it, so thanks.
The thing is, there must be nodes that accept inbound connections for the network to work. So, indeed accepting incoming connections helps the network, but, personally, I run two nodes, one Tor only and one with "default networking". For the latter, I didn't really bother messing with port forwarding, because I need ISP permission and I am also not very good with network configs.