Topic: Setting up Bitcoin Qt and opening port 8333 (Read 6814 times)

Thanks    23 active connections and counting

Congrats on getting it solved

   Finally running a node.  Thanks to all who helped information was great.  turns out McAfee was blocking the port all along.  so had to make an exception on the McAfee software.  Sometimes the simple things we over look.   

Yeah, I can't even ping you, so something must be blocking you. It might be your ISP is blocking any connection that wasn't initiated by you.

Cheers knightdk  i just sent you it, my node is only showing 8 outbound connections.  i think i'll phone my service provider tomorrw and make sure it not something to do with the router.  thanks for your help

What is your node's ip address? You can PM me it if you don't want it publicly shared. I will try to connect to it with my node.

I Have checked it out on bitnodes and it is saying that it is unreachable.  i checked the ipconfig and put the ip addresses over, i've set up a rule to port forward 8333.  ive checked my firewall and everything there seems in order, obviously im missing something.....

Check if it is reachable. Go to the https://bitnodes.21.co and scroll down to check node. It will automatically full in your public IP address. If your node is reachable, then it will say so and all you can do is wait and hope people connect to you. If it is unreachable (shouldn't be) then you have done something wrong.

You can also give us your IP address and we can try to connect our nodes to yours. If it works then you've done everything correctly and just need to wait for other people to connect to you.

I have followed the instruction above to the letter, and still only 8 connections.  not sure what else i can try. 

Go here: https://www.whatismyip.com/ .  Note the IP adress. Fill it in here: http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/ and set the port to 8333  You'll want to get a green flag.

Some routers you can set a static internal IP (sometimes called something like: set by MAC Adress etc.)

The above should have set you up with a fixed IP for the machine. Now to make sure the router is configured correctly. Since I dont know that particular router, I had to search and found this[1] guide. Looks pretty straight forward. The settings in the last picture for you are:


If you already did this, you should confirm the settings are correct.

[1] http://www.loxone.com/nlnl/service/documentatie/user-interface/remote-access/virgin-media-super-hub.html

I unfortunately didn't at any point specified that you need to put your private or public IP at 21 bitnodes.21.co. If you hadn't realised, they fill in the external IP automatically for you. Hence, when I said scroll down, I meant to just click the "Check node" button and not fill in the IP.

But oh well, I'll try to be more specific.

Edit: if you didn't realise, the reason why I used terms such as "IPV4 address" and not private IP/LAN IP is because that's what it states in Windows. If you're going to give any other term such as those, some people would have problem understanding that. Trust me, I have had this experience before. This will be my last reply and I'll delete them very soon.

Leave it enabled. The static ip addresses are set on the computer, not the router. If you disable DHCP, you will find that it is a pain to connect any other device to your network since they won't be assigned ip addresses.

To setup a static address for your computer, open up the Network and Sharing Center. Then click on the connection and it should open a status thing. Click on the Properties button and it will open another window. Find Internet Protocol Version 4 in the list that appears and double click it. Here you will need to click the radio button for "Use the following IP address:". To set this, you will need your current ip and the DNS server you use.

Open up command prompt by hitting Windows button + R on your keyboard and typing cmd into the box and hit enter. This will open another window. In that window type
This will give you a list of the network adapters. Find the one you are currently using, it should be the one with the most numbers.

Then go back to the earlier box with setting the IP address. In IP address, enter the numbers you see in the command prompt for IPv4 Address. Do the same for Subnet mask and default gateway. For the DNS servers boxes below, enter the address for the DNS server listed in command prompt as the preferred DNS server. You shouldn't need an Alternate, but if you want you can use google's which is 8.8.8.8

That will set your computer to have a static ip address.

Just to be absolutely sure, open up your firewall settings and go to "Allow an app or feature through Windows firewall" and check that Bitcoin Core and Bitcoind are allowed through. They should have the checkboxes next to them checked and they should have Home/Work(private) checked at a minimum. If you want them to work everywhere on every wifi you go to, you should also have the checkboxes in the public column checked.

Thank you for your reply shorena, I am currently on windows 10 and have a virgin media super hub.  i have found a setting within my router to disable DHCP do i need to enable or diasble it?

i have also checked my firewall and it dosnt seem to be blocking anything and is set to low.

Not only do you need forwarding set up on your router, you will need to configure your computer's local firewall to allow connections to and from TCP port 8333. Check that your firewall is not blocking that port.

Lets give it a try and ignore the nagging for a bit shall we?

#1 you need to know the local IP from the machine that is running the node. If you tell us what operation system you use, we can probably tell you how to figure that out.

#2 you need to make sure the IP does not change. This is probably done via your router. A typcial router will use something called DHCP to give out IP addresses for the local network. To set a fixed IP the option might be called "static DHCP lease" or something similar. In order to set it you will need to know the "MAC Adresse" of the machines network device that is running the full node. Again, tell us your OS and we might be able to tell you how to find that information

#3 you need to forward any external traffic on port 8333 TCP to the internal IP that of the machine that is running your the node.
Proto: TCP
Source Address: any
External Ports: 8333
Internal Ports: 8333
Internal Address: -tbn-
Description: Bitcoin core


If you dont get the answer you are looking for, dont start a new thread, it will get removed anyway. Bump the existing thread (once per 24 hours) and be patient.

Is that right, when was the last survey you carried out on the feelings of the bitcoin forum members, i must have missed that one.....   this is great post count is through the roof now......haha   


never mind ill work it out myself......

Not just according to me. Almost everyone feels this way, with good evidence. For example:

You should really not be surprised that his information is wrong. You enter your private IP address when configuring your router to forward the port. You enter your public IP address (which you can find out at sites like whatismyipaddress.com) when using bitnodes.21.co to check if your node is reachable.

Are you really too impatient to wait more than a few hours? Does it occur to you that the people best able to answer your question might be in a different timezone to you and hence might be sleeping while you're posting and won't even see your post for up to half a day? If the shortage of Bitcoin nodes is really related to the shortage of your patience, then I suppose there's no hope for us.

If you're going to categorize a group of people as ignorant, the least you could do is ensure your own post is not erroneous as well.

Port forwarding absolutely requires the machine on your internal network to have a static IP address.  Your publicly facing IP address is completely irrelevant when setting up a port forwarding rule.  Also, the IP address of the machine on your internal network does not necessarily start with 192.168.  Sure, that's common; however, 172.16 - 172.31 and 10.0 - 10.255 are all valid private IP addresses.

Thank you sir, I stand corrected, we usually call it LAN addresses...

calkob, if you didn't yet get your node to be accessible from the Internet check this website: http://portforward.com/

Find your router and follow the instructions.