Option to specify external IP address

[gavinandresen]

It'd be nice if there was a -externalip=123.45.6.7 option in case your ISP is doing something wonky with requests to whatismyip.com

[j16sdiz]

Does bitcoin use whatismyip.com ?
I have read some code, it seems to be using the external address reported by IRC, which should be quite reliable.

[dooglus]

net.cpp uses:
addrConnect = CAddress("91.198.22.70:80"); // checkip.dyndns.org
and
addrConnect = CAddress("74.208.43.192:80"); // www.showmyip.com
if it wasn't able to get the external IP address from IRC within 2 minutes.

Note it hard-codes the IP addresses of those 2 sites too, which is probably not ideal.

I think that option to specify external port is needed too. For NAT users for examle!

[zellfaze-zz]

I agree. What happens if those sites go down or change their addresses? Or what happens if you are behind a restrictive firewall or ACL?

[sipa]

I've added this functionality to my multilocal branch (#829)

[jgarzik]

Implemented, as -externalip