Starlink has supported IPv6 for years. You have to put their router in bypass mode and connect your own to open ports in the firewall though. They delegate a /56 prefix and it’s stable. Mine hasn’t changed in over 3 years. Since my cell carrier also provides IPv6, I can access my SFTP server remotely without dealing with any NAT.

Fortnite intentionally blocks Linux users. It will not run without their windows only rootkit.

To reduce the heat, look for a newer, more energy efficient computer. The i5-6500 is a 10 year old, 65 watt CPU. That’s probably not the best to run in a small closet without ventilation.

All of the Raspberry Pi models have hardware decoding. Even a Pi 1B will play a 30 mbps 1080p bluray rip. I used to run OpenELEC on a 1B. The interface on XBMC was really laggy, but h.264 videos played smoothly.

You need a Pi 4 or newer for h.265 hardware decoding. The Pi 3 has enough power to software decode some h.265 videos.

The video player you use needs to be compiled specifically for a Raspberry Pi for the hardware decoding to work though.

Some ISPs just have a broken IPv6 implementation. If they do it correctly, they should delegate a /56 prefix that doesn’t change unless the DUID on your router changes or your PoP changes.

I have a small piece of acrylic sheet taped over the power and reset buttons on my server for that reason. At least I don’t have to worry about mice.

You’re better off with the LiFePO4 batteries even if you don’t care about weight. A lead acid battery will wear out quickly when you cycle it daily. Lithium also has a higher charging efficiency, so you get more usable power from the solar panel.

The helium slowly leaks out over time. That will increase drag and decrease thermal conductivity. It will run hotter and use more power. There is a SMART attribute that will warn you when the helium is running low.

The CUPS web UI is just for configuration. As long as the printer is shared, it should automatically show up in the printers list for any Linux PC on the same network.

That’s a helium filled drive, so it’s got a limited lifespan whether it’s running or not. I would at least set it up as a NAS and use it to store your backups.

Many routers support more than one SSID per radio.

I’ve got 12 years and 5 months on a Western Digital WD20EARX HDD. It’s starting to get some bad sectors.

I’ve got a similar runtime on a SAMSUNG SpinPoint F2 and it still seems to be healthy. There’s nothing important on either of them, I just want to see how long they will last.

A UPS can keep the modem and phone running for a couple of hours. If you have satellite internet, it will work for as long as you can power it. Cable or DSL will go out when the battery dies in the ISP’s equipment.

Landlines have gotten a lot less reliable in a lot of areas because the phone companies don’t want to maintain them. Mine would go out as soon as the power did when I cancelled it.

Have you tried using a different SATA cable. I had one go bad and the drive started throwing all kinds of errors.

RAID isn’t an alternative to a backup. If a second drive fails while rebuilding the RAID-5 array, all of the data will be lost.

If the computer has a serial port, you can use SLIP to get an internet connection. Then you could host a simple website from it. It will run at dial-up speeds and you may have to write your own software though.

If you’re buying a PC for OPNsense or pfSense, look for one with Intel NICs. Realtek NICs tend to be unreliable.

Cloudflare won’t even allow you to use your own nameserver. Avoid them like the plague.

If the RAM was cheap and performed well, I would buy it. I wouldn’t trust a no name hard drive though.

There is the Wine Application Database.