hey thanks for replies - I am now running on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS - so far so good, blockchain syncing now but its taking quite a while, not sure why, it seemed to sync a hell of a lot faster on Windows

Anyway, my final problem (i hope) is that I cannot open port 8333, have seen suggestions that ISPs may block this port but I think its probably more something on my end

If i use one of those port checking websites it says 8333 is Open but https://bitnodes.earn.com/ says Not Reachable

does anyone know what Im missing here? I am only getting 8 active connections on my Bitcoin Core

thanks