I understood the comment as “leave the port open to ssh, to easily allow fail2ban to hit the ip’s before they get through your full port range.” But thanks for the elaborate answer :)

I agree, what you described is much more work ;)

By all means, I am no expert, but isn’t it “just” the fail2ban?

There’s literally nothing funny to laugh about here… No wonder you’re depressed ;)

In finding it difficult to figure out what I can do as a European… Staying away from American products and saying that I’m never going to the states seems kinda lackluster… I’ve considered learning French or German though :D