Hi everyone,
I would like to ask all of you related to the chia port 8444. If the port is closed, does it have any effect on not winning the blocks in the mainnet? The node is synced and status is farming but when checking port 8444 it is showing “closed”.
If the port is closed and your node does not have access to get peers, then yes. Your node will not be able to sync its database and without a synced database the node will not farm. No farming no winning.
If you see some peers in the Connection section in the Full Node panel, and that panel also says that you are synced, then you are good, regardless whether port 8444 is open or not.
I can confirm that you don’t need to open port 8444, I have 2 full nodes on the same internet connection so I can only forward the external 8444 port to one of the 2 nodes. Both nodes are winning blocks.
It has an effect on the number of connected peers though (I have more peers on the node that is open to 8444), but that’s maybe that’s not a bad thing…
Bandwidth usage may be worth noting when a node has port 8444 open. My node’s UL bandwidth usage is a lot higher than DL. Should not be a concern for most people, but perhaps someone has strict monthly limits from their ISP.
I guess this is due to many nodes not having 8444 open for incoming connections. Reminds me of old bittorrenting times, when nodes that limited their UL bandwidth were affectionately called leeches.
I guess this is indeed the case and the cause of the slow syncing of the blockchain/wallet.
Forwarding a port on a router is not that simple for the more general novice PC user.