I’ve been trying to get my LND synced to graph for days now. I’ve just now tried to bootstrap it to multiple peers. However am getting this error message. I have added a lot of peers and a couple minutes later RTL is showing I have 0 peers. I don’t know if the below log is happening for every peer, but it happened for the last one I added…
2025-10-02T13:34:38+00:00 2025-10-02 13:34:38.243 [ERR] SRVR: Unable to connect to 03037e8d29a12587c1ee3bce09cec069b19543de8a76bb3764f794ae45c78757bc@172.31.10.200:9736: dial proxy failed: dial tcp 172.31.10.200:9736: i/o timeout
2025-10-02T13:34:38+00:00 2025-10-02 13:34:38.243 [ERR] RPCS: [connectpeer]: error connecting to peer: dial proxy failed: dial tcp 172.31.10.200:9736: i/o timeout
2025-10-02T13:34:38+00:00 2025-10-02 13:34:38.243 [ERR] RPCS: [/lnrpc.Lightning/ConnectPeer]: dial proxy failed: dial tcp 172.31.10.200:9736: i/o timeout
2025-10-02T13:34:45+00:00 2025-10-02 13:34:45.418 [INF] GRPH: Processed channels=293 updates=450 nodes=94 in last 1m0.009397888s
2025-10-02T13:35:10+00:00 2025-10-02 13:35:04.865 [WRN] PEER: Peer(034ea80f8b148c750463546bd999bf7321a0e6dfc60aaf84bd0400a2e8d376c0d5): pong response failure for 034ea80f8b148c750463546bd999bf7321a0e6dfc60aaf84bd0400a2e8d376c0d5@213.174.156.79:9735: timeout while waiting for pong response. Time waited for this pong: 30.003769812s. Last successful RTT: 24.033982317s. -- disconnecting
2025-10-02T13:35:10+00:00 2025-10-02 13:35:04.866 [INF] PEER: Peer(034ea80f8b148c750463546bd999bf7321a0e6dfc60aaf84bd0400a2e8d376c0d5): disconnecting 034ea80f8b148c750463546bd999bf7321a0e6dfc60aaf84bd0400a2e8d376c0d5@213.174.156.79:9735, reason: pong failure: timeout while waiting for pong response
2025-10-02T13:35:10+00:00 2025-10-02 13:35:04.866 [INF] MSGX: Stopping Router
2025-10-02T13:35:10+00:00 2025-10-02 13:35:04.966 [INF] DISC: Removing GossipSyncer for peer=034ea80f8b148c750463546bd999bf7321a0e6dfc60aaf84bd0400a2e8d376c0d5
I was under the impression that all you had to do was add a peer, no need to open a channel. Is this wrong? I keep adding peers and they keep getting removed.
I’ve just tried to open a channel with the Start9 node. It is showing error message that the peer is not online. I believe this error and the log means there is some sort of network issue. Any ideas?
This depends on what you are trying to do. Most people run a lightning node so they can use lightning. In which case, you need channels. If all you need it for, is so the mempool service can observe lightning data, then yes you are correct. You don’t need to open a channel.
Correct, stuck at step 20. I have added a lot of different addresses including official Start9 one, ACINQ, Binance… a lot more. Tor and clearnet. They all add and then eventually they time out for some reason and they are removed. I cannot open a channel with anyone. Some sort of connection problem I believe.
Everything I understand you’re doing, looks right to me. I can only conclude that you’re not having a server or LND issue, but a network issue. Start by power cycling all of your network equipment, and attempt to connect to the peer you posted again. If it still fails, I’d spend some time looking at firewall, or other network configuration. Something is blocking your connection to peers.
There is nothing wrong with your setup. In Lightning, nodes without any channels are considered “useless” and your peers will disconnect from nodes without any open channel after a timeout. This is the expected behaviour. Afterall, since you do not have any channels, there is no point in peering with you, as there won’t be any routing or payments to/from you.
This is contrary to Bitcoin, where running a node is supporting the network and you are contributing (by validating and forwarding transactions/blocks). In Lightning, you are not supporting anyone when you have no payment channels open. You are a burden to the network, hence the disconnects.
My understanding is, he’s not able to connect to a peer at all. Not even long enough to open a channel. Perhaps @chigga can clarify, if I’ve misunderstood.
Cycled my modem and tried again. Was able to connect to Start9 as peer and make a channel to the node successfully. However, I have checked after some time and the channel has gone inactive.
RTL is saying I have no peers and no channels, but when I click on ‘Channels’ in Lightning it says there is a channel open with Start9 but it is ‘inactive’.
OKAY, LND has synced to chain and graph and is ready for use. It has gone from inactive to active and I have connected it to a external Lightning Wallet. Everything is O.K.
It seems that cycling the modem was what helped the situation - despite after turning on and off it still not working, it seems that with time it was able to connect. Turning off the modem seems to be the answer to this.
