Hey everyone.
I just downloaded the whole blockchain, which is about 600 gigs, and I finished that. I went with a pruned node since I was running low on hard drive space. So, I think I'm set up as a node now.
Here are some screenshots of my Bitcoin Core status:
I have a few questions and would really appreciate your help:
1- Is my port supposed to be 8333? I’m not sure what my current port is. Since I'm running a pruned node, do I need to be on port 8333?
2- If I decide to switch to a full node later, do I need to be on port 8333 then?
3- What’s the real difference between being on port 8333 and not being on that port?
4- What’s the difference between a full node and a pruned node? Is being a full node better for the network? Is a pruned node basically useless?
5- I read on bitcoin.org that full nodes with fast connections can use over 200 gigabytes of upload data a month, while download usage is about 20 gigabytes monthly. Is this just for full nodes that are on port 8333, or does it apply to all full nodes? And how much data do pruned nodes use?
I went to this website and after clicking the check node option, I got an error saying my IP:8333 is unreachable.
I followed all the steps in these links:
Sorry for the long post.
Thanks a ton ❤️
1, 2, 3. Port 8333 is correct regardless of pruned or not. 8333 is the default port, but in some cases (such as multiple nodes on the same local network), you might want to change it.
4. A pruned node stores only block information relevant to your wallet.
5. A full node provides block and transaction data to other nodes. I don't know specifically how being a pruned node affects the amount of outgoing data, but I imagine it reduces the amount significantly because you don't store the entire block chain.
For bitnodes, did you enter your node's local IP address, 192,168.x.x or 10.x.x.x, or did you enter the address for your local network?
If you are going to change the default port to non 8333 then you are not accepting connections from other nodes however, you can still connect to other nodes without accepting incoming data from other nodes.
The issue of IP is unreachable even if you use the default port 8333. It might be a firewall rule in your router or anything that blocks your node from accepting incoming connections from other nodes.
Try to follow the guide from the link below to set up your router.
- https://bitcoin.org/en/full-node#enabling-connections