My setup involves a lot of hardware, software and interconnectivity which is both off-the-shelf and one-off custom made. I can't really give much information on protection alternatives for something that is very unique to my needs and circumstances that others would be able to duplicate in a cost effective manner. My setup evolved over decades so it's hard to replicate again given the scarcity of some hardware bits. I'd help you out if I could provide you with something you could use from my setup, but alas it is both a long-time hobby/career and necessity that led me to this ever evolving and probably overkill solution.
Sounds impressive. You spin a good yarn if you made all that up! Lol!
Regardless, VPN is not guaranteed, your "dream" set up would seem to be a challenge to replicate. There are no fantastic off the shelf solutions, or to easily finagle a solution with off the shelf and a custom circuit or circuit design available somewhere - with proof of efficacy. Essentially nothing available. Using my kindle to peruse the web works fine for me. It is about as "safe" as anything else these days. My personal stuff stays on a desktop that I use for email, MSoffice, pictures, business, etc. I seldom use the desktop browser. They haven't come to take me away yet.
I've made a 4 decade's long career out of electronics and software so this is something right up my alley. It's my hobby as well as my career which makes this fun and challenging rather than simply a necessity. As for off-the-shelf or minor DIY, PiHole running on a Raspberry PI (which are hard to get hold of these days for reasonable prices) will go a long way towards beating most consumer and pro-sumer firewalls/routers/proxies on the market.
On desktop, get something Chromium-based for your browser and run NoScript, uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger at the very least. NoScript will keep you quite safe if you spend the time to train it for JavaScript you need on the sites you visit. Ultimately "security" comes from behavior rather than tech. The better you do at avoiding traps, the better you will stay safe on the net. It's the real world outside of computers where you really have to practice this. That's getting extremely difficult now, but there's still some protections we can give ourselves if we always ask why they need some personal information and what alternatives there are for getting around it. No one needs your email or phone number to buy a paint brush at the hardware store with cash...
On desktop, get something Chromium-based for your browser and run NoScript, uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger at the very least. NoScript will keep you quite safe if you spend the time to train it for JavaScript you need on the sites you visit. Ultimately "security" comes from behavior rather than tech. The better you do at avoiding traps, the better you will stay safe on the net.
That's why I seldom use the browser on my desktop. Mostly business related search to find an address or general information. Most of the time my desktop is off. I only power it up when I use it, shut it down when I'm done. I need to get a new desktop one of these days. Ill check out that software at the same time.
It's the real world outside of computers where you really have to practice this
Agree. I gave up cell phones about 10 years ago.
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