This is a quick response to @RDCowan query here:
https://paulscode.com/t/about-the-bitcoin-category/394/2?u=greg
Robert. To check and see if Knots is seeing the outside world you should be able to go to Knots>Properties and check the Blockchain Sync Summary: Currently at the time of this post it’s at 902533 / 902533 (100.00%)
Paul, this is Robert Cowan (again…). Do you know what ports need to be open on my ISP and router for Knots to operate correctly on StartOS? Matthew Kratter mentioned port 8333 on one of his videos but didn’t really go into detail about his configuration, etc. Also, how can I check to see if Knots is actually communicating in/out to the fullest extent? - Thanks!
Thanks, @Greg I missed that one. I went ahead and moved the post here.
@RDCowan, StartOS is connected to from the outside over Tor, so no inbound ports are needed (traffic is all outbound from the router’s perspective). Matt was mistaken in his video about inbound port 8333. That doesn’t apply to StartOS (or Umbrel, MyNode with the Tor option toggled on, or Raspiblitz). Setting up port forwarding in your router is only needed if you are running the standalone bitcoin-qt or bitcoind application on Windows, Mac, or Linux, and only if you haven’t configured Tor (as I demonstrated in my recent video)
Now if you have your router super locked down for non-standard outbound traffic (not typical, but possible), then yes port 8333 outbound TCP would need to be opened for StartOS to connect to clearnet peers. That said, StartOS would still be able to connect to Tor peers, though, since that happens over the standard https port 443 (which is almost certainly not blocked by your router, unless you don’t use the internet). If you are having problems with your node not syncing, the problem is most likely not related to blocked ports on your router.
Thanks Greg, It looks like I’m up to date at this point. I’m honored to be part of the Bitcoin community!
And a BIG welcome sir!