Can I connect my family's and my LAN using a VPN?

VPN
1

Hey fellow Redditors,

Ssoon, me and my family will be parting ways.
They will be moving to a new place, and I’ll be going to my uni apartment.

Is there ways to set up a sort of VPN tunnel connecting the two LANs?

From my online research, I understand that a VPN essentially serves that purpose: getting you access to a network as if you’re directly connected to that network. So from that I understand that if I were to use a VPN on my computer to connect to their LAN, it would be as if my computer where directly in that LAN. But can a VPN connect two LANs? As if the devices on the two LANs were all on the same one?

Both places will have fast (read ~ 50 Mbit/s), cable internet (huge compared to what we currently have)

Until now, I have been the most tech-savvy person in the household
[What that means to me: i can basic troubleshoot, set up media servers, and do cli stuff with cheat sheets, /help, and stackexchange.
What that means for the rest of the family: If internet or tech down, he should fix.]

I have attempted to teach the basics to my younger sibling, but to no avail.

What I am looking for:
- Remote basic network troubleshooting
- Acess to NASs on both ends, both ways
- Remotely accessing their Jellyfin (home media) server, and their PiHole
- Them using potential services that I hope to install on my own future server as if on the LAN

I have experimented with OpenVPN using RPi, but never actually suceeded due to lack of public IP adress. (This will be the first time we will have access to proper cable internet)

Ideally I would do this with Raspberry Pis, as I would trust my family to ‘fix’ them:
"swap out the SD card for one of the ones I left you with"
"pull all the plugs, put the backup RPi there, and plug everything in again".

Is this possible with a VPN?
Would you suggest OpenVPN or another option?
What are issues/limitations this could have?

Thanks!

2

Yes, VPN’s are quite versatile. You can create hub and spoke IPSec VPN networks so that a single network (think Data Center or Head Office) is connected to many single networks (thing branches or individual sites)

IPSec VPNs can also be configured in a mesh like system where the spokes have direct connectivity to each other as well as to the hub/DC.

Edit: You can also use Wireguard instead of traditional IPSec as well.

3

VPNs between sites are generally layer-3 constructs which require a network routing device to know how to send traffic through the VPN. If you want devices on either we’ve to be able to broadcast-locate devices on the other end you’ll need something additional. For some services, like DHCP, you can easily configure an IP helper on a router. But, how you might do that for random local services is a bit more difficult

4

There are routers with the ability to support point to point VPN. As the other reply’s indicate, there’s options for how to accomplish this. It will be helpful for both sites to have the same model router to simplify the setup. For instance if you purchase two unifi UDM routers there are you tube video to walk through setting up the ptp vpn.

5

Look into Tailscale, might help. https://tailscale.com/

6

OpenVPN is an option i believe