Honestly sounds like you're overthinking it, dont think a little branch is gonna take out the power grid or anything.

i mean idk if it's really that deep, you find old gear that still runs all the time if nobody messed with it. i've seen 80s stuff that looked like a bomb went off inside it and still did the job. that hand drawn schematic thing is kinda neat though, shows someone actually cared enough to document it back then. maybe it's just me but most of that old stuff just runs until something fails and then it's a pain to find parts for.

Did your friend mention that some ISPs actually provide free routers now? I switched to a modem-only setup last year and it was way smoother than I expected, no more chasing firmware updates on my own. Just make sure whatever you get supports the latest Wi-Fi standard, my old one was stuck on Wi-Fi 5 and it caused all kinds of weird dropouts.

...and then I found out the fund I picked only pays dividends once a year. Yeah I bought into some international REIT ETF thinking it would be a steady income stream. Turns out they pay out in December only. So I sat there for eleven months getting nothing. Now I check the fact sheet before I buy anything.

Season four without the rest is like skipping half the ingredients in a cake recipe.