Stillhart

The best way to avoid your ISP spying is to use a VPN. It encrypts all the data before your ISP ever sees the data so they can't spy on you. I use Private Internet Access but I recommend doing some research and finding one that's good in your country.

I'm not sure why you had an issue with just changing your DNS. Did you change it in the DHCP settings or somewhere else?

Regardless, just to be clear, changing your DNS won't prevent your ISP from spying on you. Many of the big DNS providers like Google will absolutely spy on you through your DNS calls so I do think it's a good idea to use a better DNS. I personally use AdGuard DNS, which has a built in ad blocker that works really well.

That's the kind of box I've been using. Just been running linux on it. It's been a few years, I'll look into opnsense, thx.

Wow I never thought of that...

My issue is that the cheapo consumer hardware sucks. Using good software on bad hardware doesn't solve the issue. Unless I can use it on a normal computer... last I looked into it, I don't think you could.

You got a lot of good answers to this. I'll add mine:

A router is a device that bridges multiple physical networks (it will have at least two network interfaces) and directs traffic between them. It inspects every packet of data and decides which port to send it to.

In a typical home here in the US, one network is your ISP (connected to your cable modem, for example) and the other is your home computers, consoles and devices via wifi or direct connection (like a NAS drive, for example).

Generally you want a firewall to go along with your router. Instead of blindly passing all data to the correct network, it will decide whether it is allowed to pass or not based on a configured ruleset. Most consumer home wifi routers have a simple firewall built-in.

They also have other features like "load balancing" to prioritize certain data that is more sensitive to interruptions in the data flow (like gaming) over data that isn't (like video or audio), or "DHCP servers" to hand out IP addressed to devices on the network, or "VPN tunneling" to encrypt data, etc.

A linux-based computer is more than capable of performing all these tasks. If well-configured, it can do it much better than a consumer device, with better hardware and more reliability for less money over time (when taking reliability into account).

I tried using a guide online one time to build a linux router/firewall onto a passively-cooled mini-computer that I could leave on a shelf with no I/O connected... basically a replacement for the garbo off-the-shelf wifi routers that die every year. It worked...mostly. The problem is that the random little things that didn't work right just were insurmountable for a linux noob who was just trying to follow a guide.

I hate that spending money on the best ones you can buy STILL die after a year or two. And now they all require you to login so even more people can inspect all my network traffic.

I'd love to see a guide that's kept up to date for building a simple router/firewall, with sections like you have above for more information so people can unlock ports for unusual stuff or whatever. I mean, in a perfect world, you install a LTS OS and set it up and forget about it for a few years. Mine was like that except it required manual intervention every time it rebooted. If that wasn't the case, it would have been perfect and I would be recommeding it to everyone.

Honestly, I think Idris Elba blows Keanu Reeves out of the water. Clearly we're on very different wavelengths if you think the acting in this is worse than the base game.

Are you fucking kidding? You should put this in your OP so everyone knows to completely disregard your post. You skip all the dialogue in an RPG and then complain that it's too short and the missions are just fetch quests?

This has to be a troll post...

It's funny to see this because I have found it to be the complete opposite.

First, the amount is surprisingly copious for a DLC. The new area they added is deceptively large because it has so much verticality. The main story missions for Phantom Liberty are also much longer than normal missions. The "like 5" you quoted is ridiculous because not only is it WRONG, it discounts the size of the missions.

They also added a ton of side missions and gigs, as well as two completely new side activities in car missions and supply drops. It's a lot of content and just saying "they only added x number of missions" is reductive and frankly deceptive.

And maybe more important than the amount of content they added, the quality of the content is off the charts. The art style and creativity in the new areas is fantastic. It doesn't feel like just more Night City, it really feels like a different area. It's visually distinct from the original game; you know you're in the new area without being told.

And the missions... the main story missions are completely different than anything in the original game. Fighting through the wreckage of a downed airplane to rescue the president and then getting thrown into a spy story complete with James Bond style banter over a roulette table! Idris Elba is amazing. Even the side missions are interesting with different ways to resolve them.

If you liked CP2077, I don't see how you could possibly not like this DLC. They added more of everything that was good about the original game and did it at a higher level than the original game.

When I think of some of the other DLC's I've paid for that are basically just a few extra missions and maybe a new companion or something, it makes this seem even better.

Now just so I don't sound like a complete fan boy, I will say they added in a bunch of new bugs making the game less stable than it was in 1.63, which is really frustrating. But everyone gets those regardless if you paid for the DLC or not. So as much as it sucks that they added those bugs, it has nothing to do with whether you think the DLC is a good value or not.

This was annoying when it happened. Fortunately there are adblockers specifically for Twitch that work fine.

do stuff your own pace

This is the core of all their games. The guy who founded the company wrote his senior thesis on flow in gaming and every game they've made has been about helping you achieve flow while playing. The (very) short version is that the mechanics of the game let you intuitively set your own challenge level, which enables everyone to naturally reach a flow state no matter their skill level.

I am a really big fan of thatgamecompany. I didn't really like Sky though.

I feel like the overlap of people who want to play games, can afford and have a really good Internet connection, but don’t want to just buy a console/computer is really small.

This is a really good point. I wonder if the value proposition changes significantly in places where the internet is really good but the average income is a lot lower than the US.