It's just one after the other, isn't it?
CGNAT, finally defeated
With my Pagekite credits running out, I've decided to go ahead and rent out a VPS to finally figure out how to deal with CGNAT in a more reliable way. I got a very cheap server from one of the VPS hosts mentioned in a fedi post that made the rounds last month. First two-three days was all about learning the vps hosting platform, securing the vps (UFW, Fail2Ban, SSH hardening, etc), and actually learning how to follow the notes I've gathered about the CGNAT bypass.
Then the weekend came and allowed me to spend the necessary time to actually get stuff done and get the reverse SSH tunnel running. It was quite satisfying to see how a relatively "low-tech" (for a given value of low-tech) piece of technology can do so much. how damn flexible SSH is as a network and account management tool.
rsync issue wasn't an rsync issue.
Always close your file ports after using them, hahahahah
I was starting to worry that I'd fallen into an edge case that almost no one else has discovered. I've written about how I figured this out in my wiki post about rsync.
Prepaid Card declines and KYC rears their ugly heads
It's quite fortunate that I've bypassed CGNAT as above because I've run into trouble with the prepaid card i was using to pay for my fees at Nearlyfreespeech.net. It's getting declined even though its got a lot of money on the card. It's always been hit-and-miss with this particular card, and I may have to find a different prepaid card or resort to gasps cryptocurrencies in the future to make payments, especially for the VPS i'm using as an SSH tunnel.
I gotta learn metalwork, lathes, etc
A few posts on the fediverse have confirmed what I've already been thinking of, that in the impending collapse, my computer skills would be put on the wayside in the face of fulfilling more immediate needs. I've always liked making stuff with my hands, whether it be code or physical tools, and I think I'd enjoy using a lathe, operating a CNC machine, and all kinds of metalwork. Just gotta go find places where there's the tools and experience to learn from.