So I've been looking to get into sailing and have just recently started putting in some effort into learning everything I think I should to feel comfortable enough to not wreck my PC and I just wanted to double check a couple things before I really get started. This is gonna be a long one btw...sorry in advance, I'll try my best to keep this coherent but there's a lot I wanted to ask and don't want to forget and I'm kind of a troglodyte when it comes to technology, so again I apologize if these are dumb or obvious questions

1. Looking through the megathread, with the "start with this" section, for Ublock optimized settings, it just brings up a screenshot of someone's settings and doesn't explain where to go or how to implement those settings in the Ublock setting menu.

2. I know that free VPNs aren't really a thing and if they are, they don't really work. I'm ok with paying, but like most people I'm sure, I don't feel like paying an arm and a leg. I see proton and mullvad recommend most (proton more so because mullvad doesn't do port forwarding? Another question later) I understand things change and what's recommended one month might not be the same next month, are there any other recommended VPNs to use or long standing names that have been around awhile?

3. What is p2p and port forwarding? And how do they relate to direct downloads and torrenting?

4. Again, from the start of the megathread it talks about changing DNS settings. I've spent a few hours just quickly scanning through different posts but my eyes are kinda tired by this point, so I'm sure there's something I missed, it says it bypasses site limitations, but is it something that's absolutely necessary? And if so, why?

5. I also see things like Prowlarr, Lidarr and Sonarr mentioned kinda frequently. I've seen they're indexers, but that doesn't mean a lot to me off the top of my head. What are their actual functions in the grand scheme of things?

6. I've downloaded qbittorrent, and I know I'm supposed to bind it to whatever VPN I choose, but again, the settings are mostly a lot of technical speak and words that have no real meaning to me. What settings do I look under to bind a VPN when I've got one?

7. Besides qbittorrent and the VPN, what other programs are absolutely necessary and what extra programs are recommended. I'd like to keep everything as simple as possible but if I really have to buckle down and read up, I'll do my best to try.

8. And finally, this one is mostly a personal question, but when I'm on established sites like internet archive, do I also need a VPN to download things from those sites?

I'm sorry if this was a little sporadic, I tried to keep everything as concise as possible but I wanted to make absolutely sure I got everything I could remember to ask into this post, which obviously there was a lot. And if there's anything I missed that you think is important, please tack it on anywhere. Thanks so much 🙏🏼