I've heard people say that server outages aren't a problem if you make your own server, but that only works sometimes for me. Can anyone tell me why this is or whether I can fix it?
There is no reason to make your own server. If you can host a server, you can host games without using the proxy server. If you are in a regular non-proxy game, the server going down does not affect your game in any way. This is one of the many reasons enabling your computer to host sans proxy server is the best idea. I am also working on making the server more stable. Ideally, the server should never be down.