Why is my bitcoin core not downloading any blocks?

Question

I am using Centos 7 and I installed the newest version of bitcoin core. I just want to run a full node to download all the blocks. According to their documentation, the first time we start bitcoin core, it will start automatically to download the blocks.

This is my /.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf file:

datadir=/.../blocks
server=1
txindex=1
rpcport=8332
rpcuser=<something>
rpcpassword=<something>

After I run bitcoind -daemon, bitcoin-cli getblockcount gives me 0.

Is there anything wrong with the ports?

I tried netstat -na | grep 8333, and it gives me this:

tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:8333            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      1 <***>:40706     <***>:8333     SYN_SENT
tcp6       0      0 :::8333                 :::*                    LISTEN

And netstat -na | grep 8332 gives me:

tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:8332          0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp6       0      0 ::1:8332                :::*                    LISTEN

Output of bitcoin-cli getblockchaininfo:

{
  "chain": "main",
  "blocks": 0,
  "headers": 0,
  "bestblockhash": "000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f",
  "difficulty": 1,
  "mediantime": 1231006505,
  "verificationprogress": 1.835803992430469e-09,
  "initialblockdownload": true,
  "chainwork": "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000100010001",
  "size_on_disk": 293,
  "pruned": false,
  "softforks": {
    "bip34": {
      "type": "buried",
      "active": false,
      "height": 227931
    },
    "bip66": {
      "type": "buried",
      "active": false,
      "height": 363725
    },
    "bip65": {
      "type": "buried",
      "active": false,
      "height": 388381
    },
    "csv": {
      "type": "buried",
      "active": false,
      "height": 419328
    },
    "segwit": {
      "type": "buried",
      "active": false,
      "height": 481824
    }
  },
  "warnings": ""
}

Result of bitcoin-cli getnetworkinfo:

{
  "version": 200000,
  "subversion": "/Satoshi:0.20.0/",
  "protocolversion": 70015,
  "localservices": "0000000000000409",
  "localservicesnames": [
    "NETWORK",
    "WITNESS",
    "NETWORK_LIMITED"
  ],
  "localrelay": true,
  "timeoffset": 0,
  "networkactive": true,
  "connections": 0,
  "networks": [
    {
      "name": "ipv4",
      "limited": false,
      "reachable": true,
      "proxy": "",
      "proxy_randomize_credentials": false
    },
    {
      "name": "ipv6",
      "limited": false,
      "reachable": true,
      "proxy": "",
      "proxy_randomize_credentials": false
    },
    {
      "name": "onion",
      "limited": true,
      "reachable": false,
      "proxy": "",
      "proxy_randomize_credentials": false
    }
  ],
  "relayfee": 0.00001000,
  "incrementalfee": 0.00001000,
  "localaddresses": [
    {
      "address": "<***>",
      "port": 8333,
      "score": 1
    }
  ],
  "warnings": ""
}

I know the question is kind of dumb but please help me figure out what's wrong.

Edit:

bitcoind always freezes at this:

Loading addresses from DNS seed seed.bitcoin.sipa.be
2020-07-07T04:16:00Z Loading addresses from DNS seed seed.btc.petertodd.org
2020-07-07T04:16:00Z Loading addresses from DNS seed seed.bitcoin.sprovoost.nl
2020-07-07T04:16:11Z Loading addresses from DNS seed dnsseed.bluematt.me
2020-07-07T04:16:12Z Loading addresses from DNS seed dnsseed.emzy.de
2020-07-07T04:16:12Z Loading addresses from DNS seed dnsseed.bitcoin.dashjr.org
2020-07-07T04:16:23Z Loading addresses from DNS seed seed.bitcoinstats.com
2020-07-07T04:16:23Z Loading addresses from DNS seed seed.bitcoin.jonasschnelli.ch
2020-07-07T04:16:23Z 202 addresses found from DNS seeds
2020-07-07T04:16:23Z dnsseed thread exit

Is there anything wrong?

Answer 1

The problem is that you have 0 connections. Your node isn't connecting to other nodes on the network. It is able to connect to the DNS seeders and get node IPs to connect to, but something is preventing it from making the actual connection itself.

Make sure there isn't something preventing your node from making outbound connections to port 8333. This could be a firewall, an antivirus software, or even your Internet service provider.