Parity Noob Questions

Question

I hope this is the right place to ask this stuff. I haven't been able to find any answers to the few questions I have. Thanks in advance!

I'm new to using Parity, as I'd like to take advantage of my Nano S. I understand that I could use a site like Radar Relay (that doesn't natively support the Nano) with Parity and be able to use the Nano.

So, first, here's what I'd like to achieve:

1. Run a local Parity node in one spot on my LAN. I don't want a Parity instance on every computer I use.
2. Connect to that node from multiple "clients" on my LAN (a few different laptops / desktops).
3. Connect my Nano S to the box I'm using at the time (whether it be a laptop, desktop, etc...), NOT the server that Parity is actually running on.

I've read little parts here and there that seem to elude that it is, but I haven't been able to get it working. One main issue I'm having is that Parity keeps crashing during synchronization.

I'm running the latest Stable Release downloaded from their GitHub (1.7.11). I've read somewhere that if I want to be able to connect to a Parity instance from any other computer other than the one I'm running on, I should start it up with --public-node switch. The current instance I'm running I started like this:

parity.exe --public-node --warp

I'm running it on Win10x64 with all updates. Currently waiting on this instance to finish syncing. I still cannot connect to the Parity instance from another machine on my LAN, when I go to :8180 I get a "refused to connect error".

I've also installed the Parity Chrome extension, because I've read this is what allows websites to interact with the Parity instance. I haven't been able to get this working. It always says, "You are not connected to a local Parity node" even when I run it on the same machine as where Parity is running, and the address in options is pointing to 127.0.0.1:8180 I was thinking that maybe Parity has to be fully sync'd before the extension will work? (I have not been able yet to get fully sync'd... hopefully this time)

So, a few questions:

1. Is my desired setup possible?
2. Can the Parity Chrome extension connect to a "Public Node" instance of Parity running on a different box on my LAN? If so, will this allow me to "tunnel" my locally connected Nano to the Parity instance running on the server?
3. Where are the "account" files stored when you connect to a Public node / make an account? I don't want to have to go through the whole, "make a new ethereum address / backup phrase" part every time I connect to my Public node.
4. Is there a way to 'cancel out of' that "make a new ethereum address / backup phrase" part and just go to the Parity home screen and import your own account?
5. Warp sync finished in under 5 min, but now I have from blocks 4,480,109 to the current block to fully sync. Is this normal?
6. Am I only able to connect to a Public node from a different machine once that node fully syncs? I don't have a firewall running on the server, and still I cannot connect.

I think that's my questions for now. Thanks again everyone.

Answer 1

You might need to allow RPC to run in your LAN, as it might be set to only listen to localhost. Below you can see my node listens to all (*):30303 but the RPC interface is only on 127.0.0.1 (localhost). You might need to listen on 192.168.0.0 or 10.0.0.1 etc whatever your private subnet is. Worst case you could try 0.0.0.0 but your firewall is then your last defence because your listening to the world, which would be a bad idea.

~ ❯❯❯ snitch | grep parity | grep LISTEN
parity    2954      501   43u  IPv4 0xe6b89bba08c7d4f7       0t0       TCP *:8008 (LISTEN)
parity    2954      501   47u  IPv4 0xe6b89bba02cb0fdf       0t0       TCP *:30303 (LISTEN)
parity    2954      501   59u  IPv4 0xe6b89bba0b02fac7       0t0       TCP 127.0.0.1:8546 (LISTEN)
parity    2954      501   61u  IPv4 0xe6b89bba09ac91cf       0t0       TCP 127.0.0.1:8545 (LISTEN)
parity    2954      501   62u  IPv4 0xe6b89bba09a4fac7       0t0       TCP 127.0.0.1:8180 (LISTEN)
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