[NETWORK SECURITY]

[PREFACE]

I would like to preface this educational section with a good bit of advice. Buy your own individual router and modem. Stop using whatever your ISP is renting out to you.
Do not use a 2-in-1 router+modem. Get something nice. The 2-in-1's are complete garbage in terms of performance and usability.
They always have missing features that advanced users require. Not only will you notice performance increases and gain more control over your own network
,but you will also no longer be renting out this garbage chineseum equipment from your ISP monthly.
The equipment that comes with your internet activation costs money on a monthly basis. On average this costs about ~150 USD annually.
It is a huge waste of money and a nonsensical waste to keep around.
Additionally, the ISP provided networking equipment has got to be running some extra turbo spyware from hell on it.
ISP provided equipment is slow, costly, riddled with spyware, and generally a horrible product to work with.

FreshTomato is a FOSS router firmware. Why flash something like FreshTomato to your router? Because whatever is currently running on your retail router/AP is spying on you.
Almost all commercially provided routers come with telemetry/"analytic" spyware installed.
Large list of domains to blacklist by means of editing the hosts file or by using a pihole.

Link to the pi-hole project
Get yourself an old laptop, desktop, powerful SBC, or similar device and seriously consider setting up a pihole.
The pihole is capable of filtering out virtually every ad to exist if configured properly. I have over 6 million ad domains within my blocklist.
It's rare for me to experience an ad on my network.
You may be wondering: Why would I want to block ads?
That would be because ads are a parasite on the internet.
Ads are responsible for spreading malware, spying on you (through tracking links, cookie downloads, favicon snooping, and various other means)
,and they congest the global bandwidth by making every single search engine and website bloated with unnecessary traffic.
The pi-hole is also capable of filtering out telemetry from glowfriends, FAANG, MS, and various other trackers.
It is capable of doing much more than simply blocking advertisements.
Every single website you connect to has (up to) hundreds of other domains/subdomains constantly sharing data about you to each other.
It is a wise move to go under the radar of such traffic.

Advertisement agencies are almost solely responsible for the over commercialization, politicization, commodification, and death of the internet.
I refuse to support any entity, agency, corporation, or individual that tramples over my privacy and exists solely to waste my time.
I have also never, not once, in my entire life watched an ad and felt pursuaded to purchase the product/service being advertised.

But what if I want to support my favorite creators?

Look at the amount of money your favorite distraction artist "earns" per 10,000 ad views, and then get back to me.
They would make more money if you gave them 10 cents for the entire year than if you were to sit there and watch their entire channel on loop with ads runnning.
The #1 way your distraction artists make money is by sponsorships and product placements. Ads contribute virtually nothing to your favorite creators.
Not only are ads ethically malicious, they also don't really do any favors for a content creator.
G**gle makes more money from advertisement views than the creator does. It doesn't even come close to a 99/1 split.
Advertisements and advertisement agencies are solely responsible for the over commercialization, politicization, commodification, enshittification and death of the old internet.
I refuse to support any entity, agency, corporation, or individual that tramples over my privacy and exists solely to waste my time.
I have also never, not in my entire life, ever watched an ad and wanted to purchase a product because of said advertisement.
Ads are a useless plague on the internet that has destroyed digital sovereignty.
Susan Wojcicki is responsible for creating G**gle AdSense, which in turn caused this monumental enshittification of the entire internet.