```{eval-rst}
.. meta::
  :title: Connecting to Peers
  :description: Connecting to a peer is done by sending a version message, which contains your version number, block, and current time to the remote node.
```

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## Connecting to Peers

Connecting to a [peer](../reference/glossary.md#peer) is done by sending a [`version` message](../reference/p2p-network-control-messages.md#version), which contains your version number, block, and current time to the remote node. The remote node responds with its own [`version` message](../reference/p2p-network-control-messages.md#version). Then both nodes send a [`verack` message](../reference/p2p-network-control-messages.md#verack) to the other node to indicate the connection has been established.

Once connected, the client can send to the remote node `getaddr` and [`addr` messages](../reference/p2p-network-control-messages.md#addr) to gather additional peers.

In order to maintain a connection with a peer, nodes by default will send a message to peers before 30 minutes of inactivity. If 90 minutes pass without a message being received by a peer, the client will assume that connection has closed.