I got as far as "I think #synapse is running" and "I can log in to my #matrix homeserver" but attempting to join a public room on matrix.org gives me an underlying 401 error when trying to federate, and trying to join an IRC channel on libera.chat gives me even less.
I'm about ready to give up, honestly. I don't really want to be on a central server but the process of setting up a homeserver of my own is just too damn much for me.
In the process so far, I've been:
* tracing ansible variable assignments from their rendered files back to source data
* reading up on how nginx matches on location blocks
* tracing through 5 reverse proxies to figure out where a request is actually handled (if you're curious, it's #tailscale funnel -> nginx -> the same nginx on a different port -> another nginx -> synapse)
* re-running the same ansible playbook ~50 times
I'm pretty good at computers, and this has defeated me.
@offby1 I've got some vague hopes for this: https://arewep2pyet.com/
I'm thinking 5% chance it will happen, but it would be cool if it did.
@pganssle Thanks for posting. In addition to being potentially promising software, the arewep2pyet site is a great technical summary of the ways in which the protocols used by Matrix good for small servers or not.