Why does my node show only a few peers or none at all?

Peer count is the most useful diagnostic for a node. Zero peers usually means a connectivity or discovery problem: confirm the machine itself can reach the internet, and check that a restrictive firewall is not blocking the outbound connections a node needs. A few peers but no sync progress points elsewhere, such as a full disk or a wrong system clock. After a fresh start it is normal to begin with no peers and watch the count climb over a minute or two as discovery snowballs. If it stays at zero, work through connectivity, firewall, and outbound access in that order.