Topic: Stupid question: Am I running a full node? (can send output from 'netstat') (Read 713 times)

If you want to accept incoming connections, you need to open port 8333. That helps the network more but simply running bitcoin core and having connections to the network also helps.

Wow, I had no idea I was running a full node!

I thought I had to do some extra steps like unblock port 8333.

It's kinda cool to know I've been running a full node this whole time, without actually realizing it.

You are running a full node. Bitcoind is a full node software. As long as it has connections you are helping the network and running a full node.

Hi -

I have Armory / bitcoind running on an online Debian machine, and another Windows machine using the same internet connection.

Today the Windows machine couldn't connect to the net (pinging was giving a time-out), so I ran 'netstat -plan' on the Debian machine, and it showed about 250 lines of tcp connections apparently involving bitcoind and python starting with:

... 250 more lines

I can send the rest of the lines of output - mostly involving listening at foreign address at port 8333 or listening on localhost at port 8332.

(Would I need to obfuscate any of the foreign IP addresses or ports first before uploading the rest of my 'netstat' output, in order to protect my or anybody else's privacy? I'm not running Armory/bitcoin behind Tor yet, but I would like to do so in the future.)

I've never really understood what any of this output means, in the case of Armory and bitcoind.

In particular, I've never known if hat I'm running is a "full node" or not. I've heard you had to "open port 8333" for that - I'm not sure if that would involve some software-based firewall on my Debian machine, or maybe messing with something in the Internet router.

I've set up iptables on remote Linux servers before, but this local Debian machine only has a minimal install (bitcoin, armory, a browser) and I didn't set up iptables on it so I guess there's no firewall on it yet?

Can any of you guys here tell me based on my 'netstat' output whether I'm running a full node? (Again I can send all 250 lines of the netstat output if needed, also with IP addresses obfuscated if that's recommended, I have no idea.)

Note re: the router: I previously was using a really configurable Internet router which ran that opensource router firmware OpenWRT - I totally suck at Internet routing despite having read some big-ass O'Reilly book about TCP/IP once which I still have somewhere here - much to my embarrassment I had to hire some geek kid to set up that fancy router for me a few years ago, just for a Windows and Linux machine, no Bitcoin at the time, but I think the main reason I got that fancy router was because I wanted to do a nice setup later with it to run Bitcoin behind Tor - anyway this kid hemmed and hawed and made a bunch of diagrams for half an hour and finally configured the router for the Windows and Linux computers and charged me 100 bucks and then a few months later that whole fancy router setup stopped working so I went back to using the ancient crappy standard modem-router from the phone company here. I want to re-install the nice high-end router with OpenWRT again soon, by myself hopefully this time, once I have to patience to read up on it all again.

Note re: my internet speed: I live in a really under-served area where I have to watch Youtube at 144 or 240 or it freezes up and sometimes my Skype freezes up, so I don't think I should probably be running a full node - and I actually have never known if I am or not, but my Armory always says it's up-to-date, although it can take a couple hours to catch up again if it's been off for a few days.

Thanks!