Battery charge limit will allow you to set it to stop charging at partial charge. Doing so greatly increases the battery lifespan and can reduce possible fire risk even further while still leaving far more backup time than a UPS would provide.

See if that laptop model allows you to limit the battery charge. If the battery’s still holding a charge, isn’t swollen, and is kept at room temperature you have about a 1 in a million chance of a battery fire.

Parking your car in your garage has hundreds of times more fire risk.

Try testing TLP in battery mode even if you’re not using a laptop. You can configure all kinds of things to your liking with it.

I tried it out a few years ago and none of my server apps showed any noticeable decrease in performance with it running, but my power monitoring plug did show a reduction in power consumption. I ended up leaving it enabled all the time.

I set up KeepassKC with Syncthing temporarily years ago while looking for other options. To my surprise it’s worked so well there’s been no reason to change to anything else.

The database file is always backed up to multiple devices. With Syncthing file versioning turned on older backups are available if that file gets corrupted, but in 8+ years I’ve never had to use one of those older backups.

Initially I was using Syncthing discovery servers which allowed syncing from anywhere, but I’ve since moved away from that. Now everything is run locally and I use Wireguard to connect to my home network when I’m away.

I’d get that old Pi running with a cheap SSD, set up Wireguard (or just use the Syncthing discovery servers), put it on a shelf and forget about it. It’ll probably run for years with minimal attention.

Many of the prominent https VPN protocols are for evading the great firewall of China. OP had that as a requirement

OP said exactly the opposite. Where the fuck do you get this stuff?

Thanks for the link. Will take a look.

Who said anything about China?

OP: “I don’t need strong censorship resistance; it just has to work in offices and hotel WiFis.”

I’ve run Wireguard on 443 (on my router) for exactly that purpose and never had a problem, even when my standard WG port was blocked by some businesses. I’ve since had to move to port 587 due to router conflicts and it’s worked fine so far too.

The battery drain on Android is negligible (at least for my uses) and WG is activated by Tasker whenever my home wifi is out of range. From what I can see WG is configurable via Docker compose.

I’ve been using Linux for years, but on my hardware I’ve never been able to get Ubuntu to work reliably. I now only use it when booting from a USB for backups, but even on a relatively recent Dell laptop with Intel graphics the GUI crashes constantly. IMO it isn’t worth the trouble, but of course someone here will be oh-so offended by that.

After trying dozens of distros I went back to Mint because it just works.

They’re not the only ones. Foscam demanded I fill out and sign an extensive multi-page developer’s agreement before providing 2 HTTP commands to control the siren and light.

There are ~50,000-60,000+ available IP ports. If you had Wireguard configured correctly and running on every single one of them a port scanner would get exactly the same result as if every port was closed. Wireguard is completely silent unless the correct key is provided.

The “script kiddies” could scan every port for months and they’d get the same result. There is no known way to even know there’s an open port much less know that Wireguard is running on it AND have the correct key for access.

I understand being gun shy after your experience (I would be too), but that experience has nothing to do with what happens when you open a port for Wireguard.

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When I looked into this configuration a few years ago the security improvements seemed minimal. Adding yet another provider to the mix plus the additional risk of a server misconfiguration didn’t seem to be worth the trouble unless I was dealing with CGNAT.

Besides hiding endpoints from your ISP and exposing them to the VPS, how much security does this really add?

DDNS (Dynamic DNS), one 3rd party service I do use.

My network is reached by URL, not IP (although IP still works). When my IP changes the router updates the DDNS service in minutes. Lots of providers out there and it’s easy to switch if needed. I like DuckDNS. It’s free or you can choose to donate a bit to cover their expenses.

I think you’re overthinking it. Wireguard is considered the “gold standard” and an excellent solution for what you’re trying to do. Open ports can be a concern, but an open Wireguard port is completely silent when not in use and does not respond unless it receives the correct access keys. That makes it invisible to port scanners.

Wireguard on my OpenWRT router works flawlessly. If the router is working the WG endpoint is too, and there are no 3rd parties involved. Tailscale provides much the same thing, but as I understand it requires the involvement of multiple 3rd party services. I’ve been burned too many times by terms of service changes and security breaches so I wanted to avoid relying on any corporate entities wherever possible.

Tasker brings up the tunnel on my phone automatically whenever I’m not connected to my home wifi and drops it when I get back home, so my home servers are always available. My biggest problem when not at home is Verizon’s crappy mobile network.

IMO it’s worth the effort to properly configure Wireguard and get your servers working. Once you get it set up you probably won’t have to touch it for years.

Pretty sure a decent amount of them are bots.

Could be, but those bots must be programmed to simulate actual Maggots. They don’t know how to spell, capitalize or use punctuation, much less write more than a single barely comprehensible sentence.

I found it useful for some things. We have a pack of coyotes in town that preys on dogs and occasionally is spotted in the neighborhood. It was also useful for business & contractor recommendations, but have to otherwise agree with you.

It goes deeper with Nextdoor. During Covid someone living next to a local evangelical church posted pictures of a packed event where no one was wearing a mask. Some of those pictures included the backs of a few kid’s heads.

The “Good Christian” church members complained that he was a pedophile and Nextdoor deleted his account! This could not be done by moderators and required Nextdoor executive approval.

Nextdoor is a Maggot haven from top to bottom.

Even in my relatively liberal U.S. city, Next Door is overrun by Magats who are cheered on and protected by right-wing Magat moderators. It needs to die and this looks like a great replacement.

So the opposite must be true too right? When taxes go way up companies drop their prices to compensate because, according to you they only charge what consumers can pay. Except that doesn’t happen at all. Instead tariffs just caused prices to go way up without any intervention by corporations.

What complete nonsense.