"Something broke and I'm 500 km away"
You built the network during a two-week visit. Now you're back home, 500 km away, and Zabbix just sent you an alert: a router needs reconfiguring.
How do you reach it? You can't SSH into a device behind a NAT from the outside — not without a VPN (Virtual Private Network).
A VPN creates a secure tunnel between you and the community network, no matter where you are. It's like being physically there, except you're on your couch.
Work in Progress
This section will explain why remote access is critical for community networks and introduce VPN as the solution.
Guide reference
For step-by-step VPN setup, see Guide — VPN.