Need Help with Port Forwarding for Bitcoin Node on Starlink Router

I'm operating a full Bitcoin node from my basement on an Ubuntu Server and want to support the Bitcoin network by opening port 8333 for incoming connections. The issue is that I'm on Starlink, and it's been tricky due to their use of CGNAT (Carrier-Grade NAT). Has anyone here managed to open port 8333 on a Starlink connection for a Bitcoin node? If you have, I'd love to hear how you did it or any tips you can give on getting around CGNAT or setting up port forwarding with Starlink. I have a couple of specific questions: Is it possible to obtain a static or public IP with Starlink to facilitate port forwarding? Has anyone tried using a VPN or tunneling methods to bypass this issue with Starlink? If you did, which one worked best for you? I would really appreciate any advice or insights from those who've run a Bitcoin node on Starlink! Thanks a lot!

I can't answer your question, but you may be able to use Tor to accept inbound connections without port forwarding:

Hi OP. Just follow Loyce's suggestion for the following reason: 1. you need permission from your ISP to do port-forwarding. I am sure with Starlink it's the same, or even more difficult. 2. you need permission from your ISP to setup a static IP. I am sure with Starlink it's the same, or even more difficult. 3. it's much easier to set up TOR hidden services than to mess with Router configuration. 4. even if you don't understand it, it's safer to use TOR, than to open a port on your router.

Looking on thread Start9 Node not Reachable by Network. TP-Link AX1500 Router problem?, it seems you need additional router (which have port forwarding feature) and certain Starlink plan which doesn't use CGNAT. No, but these days there aren't many VPN provider that have port forwarding feature.

Would that work if you install a VPN on your own VPS? For $11.29/year you get 2 TB bandwidth and your own IP address.

I have StarLink in one of my properties that doesn't have better options for internet.  They do offer a business service that has a static dedicated IP, but last time I looked into it the cost was not justifiable. There are alternatives.  As LyceV mentioned, there's TOR.  I can confirm that TOR will allow you to connect your Bitcoin Core node to the p2p network, and if the privileges are set correctly, you can even open it up for RPC calls.  The safer thing to do is keep your RPC port closed via firewall, and set up an Electrum SPV server, and connect that through TOR as well.  In fact, you can use it to reach your local mempool.space instance also.  Look into "creating hidden services" in regards to TOR for details on how to set up your torrc (TOR configuration) file to create hidden services. Other alternatives require either fees, significant networking skills, using a centralized service, or a combination of the aforementioned.  For example, you can set up your own VPN server on a cloud VM.  Some hosting services have single click deployment of private VPN.  Those aren't free, but far cheaper than StarLink's fee for a dedicated static IP. One centralized service I've used in the past and can confirm will also work behind StarLink's CGNAT is Tailscale.  They offer a free tier, and it's open source and encrypted.  The bandwidth of their free service is limiting, but plenty fast enough for bitcoin, an SPV server, and mempool.  There are risks and downsides to relying on a centralized service, but Tailscale is super easy to set up and will get you through the learning curve of using TOR. That's a smoking deal!  I've never tried to deploy a VPN with only one core, do you think it'll work? Even $60 a year for their higher end one is a pretty good deal:

I've only tried OpenVPN on a VPS with lower specs. 128 MB was a bit tight, 256 MB worked fine. I don't think it requires much CPU power, it's basically just pushing around a few bits If you want to try, I have a VPS (768 MB) that will expire in 4 months. I can install a fresh OS on it. I've never tried to run Bitcoin Core through my own VPN, so it would be nice to see results. I've used a few of Racknerds offers on Lowendtalk, and so far I'm happy with them. I run this site on one of their servers.

Thanks for the offer, but my servers are currently in a location where I have a dedicated IP accessible to the internet, and my VPN is running locally.  These days I'm only using my VPN to access my local file server, i.e. my own "cloud" storage. I've saved the link, I'll have to keep them in mind next time I want to run a VPS.

Regardless of whether you have limited VPS resource, WireGuard is better choice these days if you use device which support it. WireGuard usually have faster connection, with less CPU and RAM usage (on both server and client side).