u/Grim_Fandango92

Hi folks!

I'm not mentally seeing a perfect option for me here, so hoping I can get some inventive technical ideas I haven't thought of.

I've been using Pi-Hole for several years now. Setup just how I want it, I've been loving it, and don't really want to lose it.

Recent developments and necessary changes have put me in a situation where I'm having a hard time thinking how I can retain Pi-Hole with it fitting neatly into my new setup.

My current setup:

Just me unless guests are visiting. Old laptop at home running 24/7, Ubuntu Server on it, with Pi-Hole installed. Same laptop also runs OpenVPN CE, with my phone connected to it 24/7 with kill-switch for remote access/ad-blocking on the go, and securing my connection while out and about. Works great.

What's changing:

I live in the UK, I really don't like the direction of travel and the attack on internet neutrality, and I'm fed up with it, so I'm needing to insert an additional (or replacement) VPN into the mix. I am simultaneously in the process of de-Googling, and this context is important.

I plan to move Google Drive + Gmail to Proton equivalents, and this will already entail using a plan that includes ProtonVPN, so it seems a no-brainer.

My conundrum and thoughts:

I could install site-to-site Proton VPN on my router (Draytek - maybe UniFi router next to match my AP's when update support expires next year) on the WAN side for Proton, which would allow me to keep Pi-Hole both at home and on the go, but I'm very hesitant as it will add even more points of failure, likely introduce issues with banking apps and various other sites, and I'm not sure if I'll have an easy means to bypass VPN for specific sites, switch servers, or easily turn off temporarily at will.

I could go Proton on individual devices, but this then kills pi-hole from the equation. Proton's paid offerings do offer an ad-blocker for day-to-day (presumably DNS-based too), and I could switch VPN ad-hoc if needing remote access (or utilise a different means for remote access)

I'm also aware that doing 24x7 per-device Proton would cause a head-ache for future prospects of i.e. Home Assistant, at home phone backups etc. unless going split tunnel for LAN, which (annoyingly) I believe from reading up, disables the potential of enabling the kill-switch option.

Questions:

Am I missing some obvious way to keep my Pi-Hole integrated into the stack that isn't going to cause huge headaches, doesn't have humongous complexity (beyond what it is already) or entail constantly hopping back and forth between VPNs?

Does anyone know how Proton's ad-blocking offerings compare to Pi-Hole's? I can't imagine it'd be as thorough or customisable, as a heavily "consumer-oriented" offering.

Hi folks!

I'm not mentally seeing a perfect option for me here, so hoping I can get some inventive ideas I haven't thought of.

I've been using pi-hole for several years now. Setup just how I want it, I've been loving it, and don't really want to lose it.

Recent developments and necessary changes have put me in a situation where I'm having a hard time thinking how I can retain pi-hole with it fitting neatly into my new setup.

My current setup:

Just me unless guests are visiting. Old laptop at home running 24/7, Ubuntu Server on it, with Pi-Hole installed. Same laptop also runs OpenVPN CE, with my phone connected to it 24/7 with kill-switch for remote access/ad-blocking on the go, and securing my connection while out and about. Works great.

What's changing:

I live in the UK, I really don't like the direction of travel and the attack on internet neutrality, and I'm fed up with it, so I'm needing to insert an additional (or replacement) VPN into the mix. I am simultaneously in the process of de-Googling, and this context is important.

I plan to move Google Drive + Gmail to Proton equivalents, and this will already entail using a plan that includes ProtonVPN, so it seems a no-brainer.

My conundrum and thoughts:

I could install site-to-site Proton VPN on my router (Draytek - maybe UniFi router next to match my AP's when update support expires next year) on the WAN side for Proton, which would allow me to keep Pi-Hole both at home and on the go, but I'm very hesitant as it will add even more points of failure, likely introduce issues with banking apps and various other sites, and I'm not sure if I'll have an easy means to bypass VPN for specific sites, switch servers, or easily turn off temporarily at will.

I could go Proton on individual devices, but this then kills pi-hole from the equation. Proton's paid offerings do offer an ad-blocker for day-to-day (presumably DNS-based too), and I could switch VPN ad-hoc if needing remote access (or utilise a different means for remote access)

I'm also aware that doing 24x7 per-device Proton would cause a head-ache for future prospects of i.e. Home Assistant, at home phone backups etc. unless going split tunnel for LAN, which (annoyingly) I believe from reading up, disables the potential of enabling the kill-switch option.

Questions:

Am I missing some obvious way to keep my Pi-Hole integrated into the stack that isn't going to cause huge headaches, doesn't have humongous complexity (beyond what it is already) or entail constantly hopping back and forth between VPNs?

Does anyone know how Proton's ad-blocking offerings compare to Pi-Hole's? I can't imagine it'd be as thorough or customisable, as a heavily "consumer-oriented" offering.

Hi folks,

In the planning/deliberation phase and have been doing a ton of prep work, so looking for some first-hand experiences on a couple points on a few Proton products in the stack.

I've currently got a very messy e-mail setup both technically and logistically, and Gmail is screwing me over big time, so I'm taking it as my excuse to begin the painful process of de-Googling and de-Big-Teching. Two custom domains, and family shares one of them, so this may a broader mail migration over time depending how things go. Suppose I'll be the guinea-pig.

Simultaneously, my government (UK) is continuing down the hellscape that is internet "moderation" (in the laziest possible sense of the word and approach), so I'm increasingly being forced to seriously consider a third-party VPN, even though I don't want to. I already VPN from my phone into home (self-hosted and managed) 24/7 for pi-hole, remote access, and encryption on public wi-fi, so if I go ahead, it'd be VPN on the WAN side from my router to Proton (i.e. OpenVPN/Wireguard - site-to-site style), keeping my existing user VPN in place intact, and unchanged.

I also utilise (Google Drive) and on occasion, Sheets/Docs etc. sharing files. The biggest use of Drive currently is backups of Desktop/Documents on main PC (I have separate full backups onsite). I could move this elsewhere, but keeping under one roof would be ideal for less headache.

I want to stick to Europe for my own reasons, so Proton and Tuta are probably the main solutions I'm considering, although I gather Proton is a lot more mature of a product (I believe Tuta Drive for instance is still in development), so although I have some concerns over some Proton links (as a company) I've casually read, it's probably nevertheless the best of the bunch.

My questions:

*VPN - how often have you encountered problems with day-to-day run of the mill websites blocking access for detecting VPN usage, and what are the worst/most annoying offenders you've found? Especially interested in those using it in from router on the WAN side. I would probably have to exclude sites at the router level via split tunnelling, if I even can, so I understand going in this could be a nightmare and may be a complete non-starter.

*Drive - it looks like Proton supports folder backup... How reliable and robust have you found the sync engine to be? Does it work under an "online, cache on demand" model (New Google Drive, OneDrive for Business etc.) or a "all cached offline" model (Old Google Drive)? How good are Sheets/Docs equivalents? I don't really have complex requirements on that front.

*Email - reliability? Any major feature holes? Gather pooled storage across all tools, but any quirks? Sadly, I don't think it offers a "POP from another mail-server" function, which Gmail is sunsetting, so I have a lot of changes ahead of me.

*Any other major "gotchas" I may not have considered, as someone familiar with Gmail consumer, Google Workspace, 365 and other suites?

Background: I have been playing WOS for I'd estimate 2.5 years, with ~2 of those being R5 in a busy NAP alliance.

I wanted to get others' take on this, given WOS devs seem to have cracked down hard on healing bots, and I genuinely think their approach is deeply flawed both for them as well as players.

There's been increasing disquiet about the abuse of accounts for SvS points, and to draw a line in the sand, I'm very much opposed to that and in support of crackdowns there as imho it degrades the experience for everyone.

That said, I gather there's been a recent wave of bans of healing bots that have never contributed to SvS points, including on accounts with med-high furnace levels, across several states and that's where my grievances begin. For the longest time healing bots seem to have seemed a "don't ask don't tell" situation, but since the devs have poked that bear, I think it's time for this discussion.

Healing is dogshit, annoying a waste of time and unfit for purpose, and the paid auto-heal packs are not enough to fix it, and I'd prefer to see the devs fix it to prevent the NEED for bots and tackle the cause rather than aggressively treating the symptoms.

They need to make money and are profit motivated, but I'd wager a bet that cracking down bluntly on heal bots will cause them to lose a lot more money from players leaving the game, especially on old states, than they will gain from "motivating" to buy the auto-heal pack.

With their crackdown, they've also created an artificial situation where multiple Google Play/Facebook accounts are needed to continue using them, which then puts you at risk of breaching TOC's with those providers and putting real accounts at risk.

Where does this war of attrition end?

If you agree, especially if you have the concierge service, I implore you to please express your feelings to the devs. The more that do, the more likely they are to listen. The whole situation is silly.

What are your thoughts?

Hey folks!

Following recent changes in my status, I'm a little confused on my odds of issues.

South African born and raised, and lived there from birth untiI I was 21.

Had South African and Swiss citizenship (and passports) from birth.

I've been living in the UK for the past 12 years, and have naturalised as a British Citizen last week (hello 3 passports)

Both the Swiss and UK side don't care about multiple nationalities, but I gather the SA side is contentious, and there have been court cases about loss of SA citizenship if you don't notify the Home Office first before acquiring a new nationality, and that things have changed, but seen conflicting accounts what the case is now.

Where do I stand? My SA passport l expired last year and procrastinating going through the faff of heading to the embassy in London for renewal, but provided I shut my mouth, how likely am I to have issues, come renewal?