I’m not smart enough to set it up through command line and I haven’t found a program I can get working yet. Probably a really dumb question but if we all connect to the same vpn sever would that work? Playhide should work but I can’t seem to download it off github. Any advice or should I just put in the work to figure out cmdline?
Try tailscale!
A VLAN is very different from a VPN.
With VLANs, you can separate traffic that goes over the same physical wire.
With a VPN, on the other hand, you can connect devices from anywhere on the planet, as if they were in the same LAN, which bypasses firewalls, NAT and all that crap. Presumably, you want a VPN.Yeah, I have an OpenVPN TAP server running for this purpose. (TAP so that broadcast packets work)
A VPN is what you want, not VLANS that is used to segment parts of the local network. not to get your friends in too your local network.
A simple and easy to use solution is wireguard easy.
I’d rather set up a VPN for yourselves. Many routers can act as a VPN. Maybe you and your friends should check your routers if they are capable of doing that. Could be the easiest option.
If your distro uses NetworkManager (very likely):
nm-connection-editor