Sure, but what happens if the population explodes? Primarily server costs will go through the roof, and then you’re still relying on volunteer moderation. It works now because the fediverse is reasonably small, but a true user exodus for any major platform could overload existing instance resources. I think the saving grace here is that there is a bit of a learning curve with Lemmy that fends away the less tech savvy, but that could change in future updates

Changing DNS is a good idea, but leave the netmask and gateway alone.

I would hardwire that Beryl unit to your ISP’s router (Beryl WAN to ISP Lan, or even just skip the ISP’s router entirely and plug the Beryl into the modem) and pretend their wifi doesn’t exist. Do you have physical access to the network gear and/or roommates that might be weirdos about it?

No worries. Be warned, their customer support is absolutely non-existent. For VPNs, Mullvad.

Tl;Dr: screw ISP modems. If cash is tight, go with a 3rd party router you can slap ddwrt/openwrt. If you’ve got some money and time, go with something a little more robust.

Modems aren’t really a big deal, all they really are is an interface to the cable system’s RF signaling, as well as subscription enforcement (speeds, if you paid your bill, etc). Any thing leaving your router is going to be seen by the ISP either there or at the headend, so it doesn’t really matter. They make 3rd party modems, but performance increases may be minimal.

Routers on the other hand, I wouldn’t trust their gear as far as I could throw it. Perhaps I have a tinfoil hat on, but I wouldn’t put it past them to log all traffic before it hits my VPN and phone home, let alone hold and handle my configuration correctly (looking directly at you, Spectrum). I recently got Frontier fiber and they provided an Eero router, and I don’t care for that thing (primarily because they’re owned by Amazon, and I don’t trust Amazon even more than my ISP). For my networks, I pass all traffic through a VPN on the router level so that all my ISP sees is a big blob of encrypted blah (with the exception of streaming apps, whom are isolated on their own network with very strict firewall rules and are not allowed anywhere near my trusted network, only because some get cranky when used over a VPN and they’re data vacuums). Additionally, ISP-provided routers have a tendency to lack configuration options, even port-forwarding (useful for gaming, servers, etc). Not entirely sure where your networking skills are at, but I’m guessing you might have some basic familiarity given that you’re here and asking.

Most 3rd party routers will give you better performance and configuration options than your ISPs nonsense, and maybe a better degree of privacy (though maybe not). If privacy is your concern, all your traffic needs to be encrypted out of your router through a trustworthy VPN, and steps on your local network need to be taken to ensure that traffic is handled appropriately. Do your research on the brand and company of any gear you’re looking to buy, and make sure they line up with what you’re looking for.

I haven’t messed with dd-wrt/openwrt in probably 10+ years, but they were a great option for consumer-grade hardware back in the day, and I’d hope they still are. The software simply did it’s job of routing packets and that was it, no shenanigans. There is a bit of technical knowhow involved, but their guides were great and very thorough. As long as you understand basic networking concepts, it should be reasonably straightforward to set up a basic network.

If you have the money and time to learn, I’m personally a fan of Ubiquiti (when I’m paying for it) and Ruckus (when a client/someone else is paying for it). These are much more involved networking hardware companies and there is a good sized learning curve (and cost), but if you want something to play with and a streamlined network, they’re awesome. Ubiquiti has a pretty decent wizard to get a basic network going, and from there you can mess with it at your leisure. Their Dream Machine (UDM) is a great all-in-one router/wifi AP, but it’s also almost $300, depending on your money situation.

It’s important to remember that POCOs are highly regulated, and they’re not allowed to frivolously charge whatever they feel like, even in high demand conditions (probably state-dependent, but that’s at least the case here in CA).

ML applications
What do you mean by that?

And I see where you’re coming from. At this point in the world, where just about every data point about a person/household is tabulated and used in ways to coerce you to spend more money, I just feel like this is low on the priority scale. The utilities’ motivation for smart meters is mostly labor cost reduction (meter readers). The remainder is real time grid load monitoring and statistics that better enables them to manage surge generation to keep costs down. This comes from a family friend that’s a higher up in SoCal Edison. They legit don’t care if someone is using an industrial grade sex machine or growing weed (though the municipality might). The biggest issue I can see with this, like anything else and as you alluded to, is data security/privacy.

Agreed. I remember my mom tripping out about these a while back, and so I did some digging. Precursor: I am but a humble resi/commercial/industrial electrician, not a lineman or POCO employee.

There are a couple different configurations of these meters, typically one way broadcast RF and bidirectional RF. These use the same (or similar) frequencies as cellular networks. The bidirectional meter connects to a neighborhood gateway, which then transmits back to the POCO, while the broadcast meters (like my local utility) transmit a low range signal that’s picked up a truck with a receiver driving through a neighborhood to collect usage information (and doesn’t require the meter reader to walk up to each and every meter and physically read them). These are primarily used for efficiency and labor cost reduction. Obviously, the one way broadcast meters are not being read in real time, only the meters that are connected to the POCO through a network connection.

These meters only read the overall usage in your home or business, not individual loads. They are situated in line on both phases (or all 3 in a commercial environment) between the utility feeders and your main breaker (or through a current transformer for mains that are too large for a regular meter, but it effectively does the same thing), measuring the current flowing through them, and, through Ohm’s law math (Watts=Volts*Current, Watts/1000=kW), reports usage. The only way to determine individual loads without extra equipment/monitors is through inference (which is actually pretty easy to due to the trained eye; for instance, when sizing generators, I’ll run a power monitor for a few days to a week to gather load data, and it’s fairly easy to surmise what spikes are what based on typical patterns and time of day). Some (read: very few) meters could do what’s called load shedding (aka turn things off) to reduce demand on the grid, but even the few meters that have this capability are only able to disconnect your home/business entirely. Some utilities are offering incentives to allow high-demand appliances (ie air conditioners) to be managed by the utility, but outside of using utility-connected thermostats, they would rely on a separate load management module that is directly connected to the appliances they wish to control (and only then, it would be a simple on/off; this is where thermostats are preferable, because the POCO can stop Suzie from cranking the AC down to 60 and running like a stockcar when its 115F out, and set it to 78 to bring overall demand lower while not cooking her like a holiday roast). It’s important to remember here that every single electrical appliance is physically connected to the grid via hardwire. There is no wireless electricity (for anything useful or practical pertaining to this conversation). It is possible to use powerline networking to control appliances, but that would require these appliances to be equipped with a communications module to respond. Electricity is pretty dumb; it flows wherever there’s a free path of travel.

Also, there is no benefit to the POCO for turning any of your stuff on and off aside from load management for the wider grid. If anything, they’d prefer you using electricity that they can then charge you for.

The only real concern I could see with these is a nefarious actor having access to your real-time usage to determine your habits. I guess the argument can be made that the POCO is spying on you, but I really don’t see a benefit to them knowing your usage aside from network/grid management. Perhaps a locality can use this data to determine if you’re growing weed, but other than that, in a world where all of our information is harvested anyway, it seems pretty inconsequential to me. if you’re that concerned, get a solar/battery system and turn off your main breaker.

Any idea if Posteo allows their service with your own domain?

Shit I ain’t a saint, we all can better about it. My point is that if you wanna go in the offensive online, be sure it can’t bite you in the ass, at least in this regard.

I don’t mean to be a dick, but if a troll is able to pass your information out, you need to adhere to better personal information security practices.

Oddly enough, these are smaller independent studios instead of the Hollywood behemoths.

That said, the major studios will probably reignite their antipiracy fervor against individual users if they begin losing more money in the streaming market. But it’s important to remember that a very small segment of the population is privy to the torrenting world, while the masses will just keep watching the studios’ ad-infested crap because they see no other options.

Mullvad’s DNS has been pretty decent, and they’re free

https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls

Vader’s right hand only has 4

I may need this for next year’s Christmas cards

I’ll take all 5 marijuanas

*Beavis

That said, the animation style here (be it computer generated) is oddly well done and a bit unnerving

Somehow AI can do boobs just fine, but struggles like hell when it comes to fingers.

From Role Models