Look into https://www.scuttlebutt.nz/

I’ve not looked into it much yet, but https://radicle.xyz/ seems interesting.

It’s kinda a bittorrent-powerd codeberg and it looks like it’s worth playing around with (even though it might not get you rid of much bandwidth… IDK how popular it is, but source usually doesn’t weigh that much).

Getting the router to actually assign an IP address to the server

You would typically want to use static ip addresses for servers (because if you use DHCP the IP is gonna change sooner or later, and it’s gonna be a pain in the butt).

IIRC dnsmasq is configured to assign IPs from .100 upwards (unless you changed that), so you can use any of the IPs up to .99 without issue (you can also assign a DNS name to the IP, of course).

all requests’ IP addresses are set to the router’s IP address (192.168.3.1), so I am unable to use proper rate limiting and especially fail2ban.

Sounds like you are using masquerade and need DNAT instead. No idea how to configure that in openwrt - sorry.

Some game engines are real, others are… unreal

TLDR: Protesting or resisting privately inside your house does not lead to social change and is not the most rational way of protecting yourself if you feel threatened by your government.

Self-hosting is not “resistance”: at most, it’s prepping for nerds, with computers instead of guns.

Self-hosting is not even a rational/efficient way of making a statement. If that’s what you want, it’s far more efficient to follow the established tradition of declaring you are moving to Canada and not following up with actual actions.

Don’t get me wrong: I can relate to the nerdy way of coping with the ugliness around us (I say “us”, but thankfully I don’t live in the US), but - the way I see it - it’s that your society that needs change, and self hosting won’t help with that.

Frankly, the shit you US people are putting up with is unreal.

It has always been (US police forces kill far more people than the overall homicide rate in Europe - read that again and pause a second to think about it this isn’t true - see comments below), and it’s just getting worse.

If you feel threatened you can essentially respond by fighting, fleeing, or cowering.

If you wanna FIGHT (this is what “resistance” is about), try to use whatever power you have and apply your energies to bring actual change. If you don’t feel comfortable acting outdoors, this could include lending your nerd skills to protesters or (nonviolent) resistance groups. Heck, even being a keyboard warrior is more useful to changing society than being a hobbyist sysadmin.

If you wanna FLEE, just leave the country. Honestly, there are better places to live than the US, and (if you have or plan to have any) better places to raise your children.

If you wanna COWER, then be a prepper or a self-hoster or whatever, but be aware that, while misrepresenting your reaction as “resistance” may make you feel more heroic than you are, spreading the misrepresentation can also lead others to cower instead of fighting. Is that what you want?