Number of connections

5 messages BitcoinTalk Martti Malmi, Satoshi Nakamoto, Xunie, NewLibertyStandard February 19, 2010 — March 18, 2010
Martti Malmi (sirius) February 19, 2010 00:12 UTC Source ·

Is there some hard-coded maximum limit for the amount of connections? I see 45 connections atm. It’s been growing nicely in the last months. Just can’t get that many coins anymore…

Satoshi Nakamoto February 21, 2010 03:43 UTC Source ·

Nodes stop trying to initiate connections once they have 15.  If you can accept incoming connections, then you can get well above that from nodes connecting to you, otherwise you max out at 15.

I don’t know if there’s any reason to have 15 connections.  Maybe it should be 10.

Since nodes that can only connect out are probably at or near 15 most of the time now, you should level off to an equilibrium.  45 suggests a ratio of 3 out-only nodes to every 1 in-accepting node.

The number of connections won’t be a good gauge of the size of the network any more.  Someone should periodically IRC to the bitcoin channel on chat.freenode.net and count the number of users.  That gives you the total count of network nodes (except TOR nodes).

Block generation is again running ahead of pace.  We’re in for another big step up in difficulty at the next adjustment in about 5 days.

Xunie March 1, 2010 01:06 UTC Source ·
Quote from: satoshi on February 21, 2010, 3:43:48 AM UTC

Nodes stop trying to initiate connections once they have 15.

Are you sure about that? I get 30+ connections easily! I have port 8333 open, but I can’t exactly believe everynode of the network connects to me. (I’m running version 0.2, downloaded from the website.)

NewLibertyStandard March 1, 2010 02:55 UTC Source ·
Quote from: Xunie on March 01, 2010, 1:06:07 AM UTC
Quote from: satoshi on February 21, 2010, 3:43:48 AM UTC

Nodes stop trying to initiate connections once they have 15.

Are you sure about that? I get 30+ connections easily! I have port 8333 open, but I can’t exactly believe everynode of the network connects to me. (I’m running version 0.2, downloaded from the website.)

The client stops making outgoing connections once it has 15 connections but if your port is open it continues accepting incoming connections from other clients which haven’t yet connected to 15 clients. If the port isn’t open, it can’t accept incoming connections so it will never connect to more than 15 clients.

Xunie March 18, 2010 16:32 UTC Source ·
Quote from: NewLibertyStandard on March 01, 2010, 2:55:12 AM UTC
Quote from: Xunie on March 01, 2010, 1:06:07 AM UTC
Quote from: satoshi on February 21, 2010, 3:43:48 AM UTC

Nodes stop trying to initiate connections once they have 15.

Are you sure about that? I get 30+ connections easily! I have port 8333 open, but I can’t exactly believe everynode of the network connects to me. (I’m running version 0.2, downloaded from the website.)

The client stops making outgoing connections once it has 15 connections but if your port is open it continues accepting incoming connections from other clients which haven’t yet connected to 15 clients. If the port isn’t open, it can’t accept incoming connections so it will never connect to more than 15 clients.

It does however seem unreal, if some people only get 8 and I can get 40+. We should make a user-pickable connection limit, for both incoming and outgoing connections.