Yes, you need an Internet connection at some point. This can be a cafe, a library, an office, your house, friend’s house, etc. As for controlled by the government, well, that depends on your country.

Worst case, if possible, you can move countries. I understand that might not be feasible, but my point is, you can move countries to escape the government and Internet restrictions. But the government locks your account/bank? Moving countries doesn’t fix that, and you’re locked out of any money you had there.

But even if I have a server, I’ll have to have my own separate Internet if I really want to be able to pay unrestrictedly.

Separate Internet? I mean, yes, you do need Internet. Not sure what you mean by “separate.” And you don’t need a server (node), though they are handy for privacy. You could choose one that is reputable.

Otherwise the government would just shut down my internet connection, right?

If they knew where it/your Internet was. All you really need is your phone or PC. You could use a cafe or library or cell tower or etc.

Nobody is doing that now, with regular money, either.

I think it’s more for ACH between banks as well as some banks have limits. Also, a government literally stepped in to actively block people’s accounts. Just because you can swipe your card and buy a soda, doesn’t mean there aren’t restrictions or people being blocked.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Thursday financial institutions have moved quickly to freeze the accounts of people linked to the demonstrations in Ottawa, leaving an unknown number of protesters in financial limbo

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ottawa-protests-frozen-bank-accounts-1.6355396

You don’t need a video camera pointed out towards the public 24/7.

Depends on where you live. Being notified of packages at your door is handy before they get stolen.

And being able to see who knocks on your door is also handy without exposing your eye to the tiny (and glass) peephole.

As well as being able to see who approaches when you’re not even there.

If you want to start small, I’d go with one supported by Asuswrt-Merlin, “a third party alternative firmware for Asus routers, with a special emphasis on tweaks and fixes rather than radical changes or collecting as many features as possible.” Keeps it close to stock with minor upgrades, and a faster release cycle for fixes. The RT-AX88U_PRO is one of the higher end routers that is supported by Merlin.

I guess people just started to realise that mini x86s exist too

People always knew x86s existed. I think the main culprit is the price gap between them and Pis is decreasing. Pis used to be around $35, which has skyrocketed to 3-5x MSRP, plus they were unavailable for a long time. Now the Pi’s performance to price ratio isn’t justifiable to most, so people pay a little more for the x86 but get so much more capability.

It’s just hardware. Almost any device can act as your router if you put the proper OS and/or software on it.

If you don’t use a VPN on the router, you won’t need it.

But what if you decide to set one up so you can VPN in while on the road? Personally, I’d rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it…as well as “buy once, cry once” rather than need to upgrade down the line.

Something to keep in mind:

Avoid using mirrored consolidated lists, if possible; it deprives the original list maintainer of visits (meaning they may be less inclined to keep it up to date!) https://firebog.net/

Basically the maintained ones from: https://firebog.net/

Netgate / pfSense acts in bad faith / WIPO decides in favour of OPNsense: https://opnsense.org/opnsense-com/

Supply and demand, pandemic, chip shortage, scalpers. That pretty much covers it.

setup adguard as my DHCP server

To be fair, Pihole can also be setup as your DHCP server, and it’s not exactly complicated either.

https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/how-do-i-use-pi-holes-built-in-dhcp-server-and-why-would-i-want-to/

What I want are basically containers for a browser. So I hit the button for the ‘program’ which really just launches a browser that goes to the specific address, and ideally, can retain login information, and appears as a distinct item in the task bar, with it’s own icon, and cannot simply be merged with my browser.

Sounds like you want a Progressive Web App (PWA). Really handy things, and is actually how I use Lemmy via Voyager: https://vger.app/

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_web_app

this is exactly why i posted this. I learned some new tool

Me, too. I’ve never tried Ventoy. I usually use Rufus or some other app.

And NUCs are usually 4x4. That’s literally half the footprint.

Edit: a quarter of the size. This is why I don’t do math before coffee.

They’re also a lot bigger and don’t really fall under the same miniPC classification.

equal quality products

Except they don’t fill this niche. Sure, Beelinks and minisforum are neat and cheap, but they tend to have QC problems and don’t stack up well against Intel NUCs.

Migrate from pihole to unbound? Why not just do pihole with unbound to start?

https://docs.pi-hole.net/guides/dns/unbound/