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Right AC. Was a typo, corrected now.

As for running nominally 12V stuff directly of a battery… you got lucky with your router then. I had the same idea with various mini PCs and ARM SBCs, and the majority absolutely should not be run directly off a battery where the voltage fluctuates so much. And it gets even worse when you try to solar charge the batteries.

Probably best to use NUT to shut down the servers gracefully if the power outage is too long.

When charging, 12V lead acid batteries have significant higher voltages (>14V), so you basically need a DC to DC converter to make sure you get a stable 12V supply. Some (typically industrial/automotive grade) systems have that built into their internal power supply and can work directly off a 12V battery, but with consumer routers I would assume that not to be the case.

While there is DC power the battery in a UPS isn’t used. It’s not a constant AC-DC-AC conversion, that conversion only happens when there is a power outage.

The problem is that lead-acid batteries are a really shitty technology with high self discharge rates and short overall life span (their only advantage is high burst capacity that’s good for starting motors).

I would look for 12V LiFePO4 batteries in a standard lead-acid form factor that are meant as drop in replacements. Those are somewhat more expensive (like 2-3x the price) but will likely last a quarter century or more.

I am currently using an interim solution where my solar inverter has an seperate emergeny power outlet that works even when power is cut. Sadly it doesn’t switch to battery fast enough (like half a second delay 😓) for it to work as a UPS directly. But in combination with some old regular UPS that have spend batteries that only last a few minutes it works ok. But yeah, not the most efficient option conversion wise, but solar power is free 🤷

https://snikket.org/ specifically for a small family server. Much lower maintenance and breakages than Matrix and thus less issues with the family.

A water cooling block will fit 1U, but you will need to attach the other side of the water cooler outside of the rack most likely. Furthermore, it is unlikely that other people using the same rack space will appreciate you adding water cooling due to spillage risks.

I believe raised beds for kids have a lot of space beneath them for putting servers. Just make sure they can’t pull the plugs 😜

Like literally all mobile (4/5G) internet connections are behind CGNAT, as is Starlink for example.

For landline internet connections it is indeed uncommon.

If it is really only a private server for your friends, and they are not completely computer illiterate, then a Wireguard VPN or similar seems like the safest option.

But generally speaking it isn’t that big of a deal to temporarily open a port and forward it to a game server if you want to play a round online.

A VPS is not really cost effective for that kind of usage. Maybe one with hourly billing like this: https://tierhive.com/

The exact issue that was finally fixed in the above release caused Conduwuinity to fail federation all the time. Synapse never had that issue. Yes, Synapse sucks in other ways, but be careful to think the grass is greener on the other side.

I have bad news for you if you drive a non-electric car 😏

That article is highly misleading.

A good response can be found here: https://www.moparisthebest.com/against-silos-signal/