<p>After After suspecting that my ISP did not block the ports and try to open ports or make port forwarding in common software that serves as a firewall for linux like iptables, ufw (a frontend for iptables), I decided to investigate what is the default firewall solution for my Linux distribution, so after identifying the correct firewall and adding rule to TCP port 8333 it finally worked.</p>
<p>If you running a bitcoin full node on a Linux distro and want to allow incoming connections to contribute to the network:</p>
<p>1 - Search on your Linux distro documentation the default firewall</p>
<p>2 - Add Rule for port 8333, using TCP protocol on the official firewall of your distribution</p>
<p>3 - Watch the information tab or Peers tab of your node, or queries that information from command line, and make sure there are more than 10 connections, the excess are incoming connections</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/QSZXk6Vn.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/QSZXk6Vn.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-06-01T21:37:56.813Z
2024-06-01T21:37:56.813Z
Gilbert Grissom
<p>I'm running full node with Bitcoin Core, but unable for incoming connections due possible block of my ISP, port forwarding on router doesn't take effect.</p>
<p>Then I created a VPN on Proton VPN service and I user OpenVPN for extending capabilities of free plan, Port Forwarding is one of those benefits in make use of Proton VPN Free Plan with OpenVPN.</p>
<p>I have VPN working, so I have another the IP as my public IP. The VPN IP is detected by <a href="https://bitnodes.io/#join-the-network" rel="nofollow noreferrer">bitnodes</a>, and I use iptables to create port forward rules, since I'm using Linux operating system.</p>
<p>I using these commands:</p>
<pre><code>$ sudo iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -i [interface-name] --dport 8333 -j DNAT --to-destination [IP]:8333
$ sudo iptables -A FORWARD -p tcp -d [IP] --dport 8333 -m state --state NEW,ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
</code></pre>
<p>Does anyone have setting up full node for incoming connections in this scenario?</p>
<p>Which IP that I must use in those commands? Must be the VPN IP, am I right?</p>
<p>And about the interface name, I use that NAT adapter.</p>
<p>I think the problem of incoming connections are still blocked is the iptables rules. But I want also confirm if is a valid scenario: make port forwarding using VPN instead in the router.</p>

<bitcoin-core><network><full-node>
How to configure port forwarding to run Full Node with Bitcoin Core using VPN instead setting up port forwarding on router?
Gilbert Grissom
# How to configure port forwarding to run Full Node with Bitcoin Core using VPN instead setting up port forwarding on router?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-05-31)

I'm running full node with Bitcoin Core, but unable for incoming connections due possible block of my ISP, port forwarding on router doesn't take effect.

Then I created a VPN on Proton VPN service and I user OpenVPN for extending capabilities of free plan, Port Forwarding is one of those benefits in make use of Proton VPN Free Plan with OpenVPN.

I have VPN working, so I have another the IP as my public IP. The VPN IP is detected by [bitnodes](https://bitnodes.io/#join-the-network), and I use iptables to create port forward rules, since I'm using Linux operating system.

I using these commands:

```
$ sudo iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -i [interface-name] --dport 8333 -j DNAT --to-destination [IP]:8333
$ sudo iptables -A FORWARD -p tcp -d [IP] --dport 8333 -m state --state NEW,ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT

```

Does anyone have setting up full node for incoming connections in this scenario?

Which IP that I must use in those commands? Must be the VPN IP, am I right?

And about the interface name, I use that NAT adapter.

I think the problem of incoming connections are still blocked is the iptables rules. But I want also confirm if is a valid scenario: make port forwarding using VPN instead in the router.

**Tags:** bitcoin-core, network, full-node


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_0 on 2024-06-01. Score: 1

After After suspecting that my ISP did not block the ports and try to open ports or make port forwarding in common software that serves as a firewall for linux like iptables, ufw (a frontend for iptables), I decided to investigate what is the default firewall solution for my Linux distribution, so after identifying the correct firewall and adding rule to TCP port 8333 it finally worked.

If you running a bitcoin full node on a Linux distro and want to allow incoming connections to contribute to the network:

1 - Search on your Linux distro documentation the default firewall

2 - Add Rule for port 8333, using TCP protocol on the official firewall of your distribution

3 - Watch the information tab or Peers tab of your node, or queries that information from command line, and make sure there are more than 10 connections, the excess are incoming connections

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/QSZXk6Vn.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/QSZXk6Vn.png)


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