In order to be able to produce blocks and process incoming validator deposits from the execution layer, you'll need to run an execution client in together with the beacon node.
Nimbus has been tested all the major execution clients - see the [execution client comparison](https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/nodes-and-clients/#execution-clients) for more information.
By default, Nimbus uses WebSockets to communicate with the execution client, connecting to a server on the same machine using port 8546: http://localhost:8546.
> ⚠ You need to run your own execution client after The Merge - third-party services like Infura, Alchemy and Pocket will no longer be enough.
In parallel to `nimbus-eth2`, we are working hard on the [Nimbus execution client](https://github.com/status-im/nimbus-eth1). While this is very much a project in development (i.e. not yet ready for public consumption), we welcome you to experiment with it.
Geth accepts connections from the loopback interface (`127.0.0.1`), with default WebSocket port `8546`. This means that your default Web3 provider URL should be: `ws://127.0.0.1:8546`
See the [Getting started](https://docs.nethermind.io/nethermind/first-steps-with-nethermind/getting-started) guide to set up Nethermind.
Make sure to enable the [JSON-RPC](https://docs.nethermind.io/nethermind/first-steps-with-nethermind/running-nethermind-post-merge#jsonrpc-configuration-module) interface over WebSockets.
## Besu
See the [Besu documentation](https://besu.hyperledger.org/en/stable/) for instructions on setting up Besu.
