<p>It is due to a lot of people not port forwarding from their routers to their Bitcoin machines. Without the forwarding the client can only make outbound connections to those client that have port forwarding enabled. The limited number of such clients is probably due to people not realizing this need and now knowing how to change their router options.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-12T01:23:13.867Z
What are the consequences of the problem, and how will it affect the future of the Bitcoin network? Thanks!
Highly Irregular
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-12T10:01:24.737Z
If nothing changes, Bitcoin will rely on a fraction of the network being the backbone of it. Probably won't be too bad, as the fix is not hard if the person know what they are doing.
ThePiachu
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-12T00:55:35.767Z
2011-12-12T00:55:35.767Z
ThePiachu
<p><a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/302/516">David Schwartz's answer</a> to <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/300/should-i-leave-the-bitcoin-client-open">this question</a> states the following:</p>

<p>"For some reason that isn't well-understood, the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network is consistently short of available inbound connection slots. This makes it more difficult for newly-started clients to establish a resilient connection to the Bitcoin network."</p>

<p>Is that still a problem? If so, could it be because of some sort of attack (or selfish behaviour) on the Bitcoin network?</p>

<client><bitcoin-core><network>
Is there still a shortage of available inbound connection slots?
Highly Irregular
# Is there still a shortage of available inbound connection slots?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2011-12-12)

[David Schwartz's answer](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/302/516) to [this question](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/300/should-i-leave-the-bitcoin-client-open) states the following:

"For some reason that isn't well-understood, the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network is consistently short of available inbound connection slots. This makes it more difficult for newly-started clients to establish a resilient connection to the Bitcoin network."

Is that still a problem? If so, could it be because of some sort of attack (or selfish behaviour) on the Bitcoin network?

**Tags:** client, bitcoin-core, network


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2011-12-12. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

It is due to a lot of people not port forwarding from their routers to their Bitcoin machines. Without the forwarding the client can only make outbound connections to those client that have port forwarding enabled. The limited number of such clients is probably due to people not realizing this need and now knowing how to change their router options.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: What are the consequences of the problem, and how will it affect the future of the Bitcoin network? Thanks!  
> **username_1**: If nothing changes, Bitcoin will rely on a fraction of the network being the backbone of it. Probably won't be too bad, as the fix is not hard if the person know what they are doing.  

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