Yes, because their ads are served on the same server (googlevideo.com iirc) as the actual videos. Blocking that domain would block the videos too.

https://esc.sh/projects/devops-from-scratch/ is a good resource. Most questions you have (that are more specific) are easily searchable on the internet.

ways to safely connect to home servers over the internet while away

A couple methods include :

• Installing Wireguard on the host machine
• Reverse-proxying with a VPS
• Cloudflare zero-trust tunnel

when it may be better to spin up services on a VPS instead

Most services you probably won’t need a VPS to do, but off the top of my head a couple services which would be better hosted (not saying self-hosting them on your own hardware is bad) would be services which proxy a service. Example SearxNG, Invidious, Proxitok, etc. This is so that traffic can be shared among multiple users, and not linked back to your home IP.

totally forgot that they shutdown. thanks man, really sad indeed.

Check the megathread man!! Has all the info you need. But here’s a quick summary

There’s generally 2 routes of pirating video games (on windows), and those are either Torrenting or Direct Downloading

1. Torrenting

• Torrenting uses the bittorrent protocol to share files p2p, meaning it is direct IP connections. Torrenting a copyrighted file (such as a movie, cracked game, etc) can be illegal depending on your country. Usually, in first-world countries it is illegal, while in 3rd world/developing countries they could care less. This all depends on your country, research it first. To avoid any legal issues (in countries where this applies) people use VPNs (virtual private networks) to mask their IP from people who want to report you to your ISP.
• The torrent indexer I recommend for games would be 1337x.to since they are heavily moderated and have a low chance of having malware inside the file.
• A torrent client I recommend : qBittorrent
• VPNs are to be taken with a grain of salt. Many VPNs pay for reviews and have horrible software and/or privacy policies. I would recommend you stay clear of any popular VPN which is recommended on youtube videos, podcasts or billboards; they have the scummiest advertising methods, lack essential features and sometimes are owned by ex-adware companies (such as NordVPN, Surfshark VPN, ExpressVPN, Atlas VPN, Private Internet Access, Cyberghost, etc).

2. Direct Downloading (Commonly referred to as DDL for short, which I will be using.)

• DDL consists of downloading files from file hosting websites, such as mega, zippyshare, google drive, 1fichier, etc. You will want to use this method if you either cannot torrent in your country (meaning it’s illegal) and do not want to invest into a VPN to hide your torrenting business.
• The easiest way to download games through DDL would be with fitgirl (fitgirl-repacks.site). Simply download the files through the DDL mirrors, extract together, run setup, wait, and there you go. Takes a long time to install with a bad CPU, but it is very easy.
• If you cannot find the game you’re looking for on fitgirl’s website, the next best option for DDL would have to be https://cs.rin.ru. It has a learning curve if you have no experience with cracking/pirating, but easily learnable.