I'm hopeful that you (and me) won't have to educate our elders on VPN. My gut tells me that this issue is now "yesterday's news".

But, if push comes to shove, I will simply migrate to a different platform instead of attempting to walk mom through the VPN drill. Even if we were to get it set up properly (probably with the assistance of someone local to her), she lacks the patience to deal with customer support when things go bad.