Update bootstrap list to run node behind corporate proxy

I would like to run an IPFS node on the public network, but I am behind a corporate firewall which is preventing my node from connecting to any peers. I have tried changing the default port from 4001 to another port, but it doesn’t make any difference.

It could be that the IP addresses in the bootstrap list are blocked. If this is the case, can I change those addresses to other public nodes that aren’t blocked in order to achieve connectivity?

You can try to add any known node to your bootstrap list in your config file. But your firewall will likely block these connection too.

@Akita : what if I setup a node outside of the network, and then simply placed this node in my bootstrap list - would that work?

If your corporate firewall lets you connect to

  1. your outside node and to
  2. the outside nodes it will introduce you to,

then yes, it’s expected to work.

Ok, I think I see where the issue probably is: the inbound connection from the outside node to my local node, if my local node can’t receive inbound requests from an external node, then I can’t make a connection, is that right?

That is right.

If you can tweak (or ask to tweak) the firewall, you can ask to open the relevant ports:

Ok, I think I see. If I configure my “~/ipfs/config” to use a certain port other than 4001 (say 9876 for example), than I simply need to open 9876 for public incoming connections and it should work.

Yes I think so. I never had to do it myself.

Cool, I’ll give it a go and report back - thanks for your help Akita!

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For reference, a recent thread on the same problem:

@simbro Where you able to solve your problem? :slight_smile: