I have some services on my network is getting hard to memorize all IPs, so I'm trying to use mDNS with .local domain, which works well, except the .local doesn't work over VPNs (at least Wireguard and OpenVPN that I tested).
Than I see OpenWrt has a .lan domain, which I can use to ping on terminal and my device gets the exactly address, however I can't access any browser service using .lan, and I don't even know how I could use it to save new address.
So, I'd like to know how to use the .lan or .home with browser. Is it possible? Or I need to use .local only?
mDNS is used for Discovery of services, services advertise their existence on the local net e.g. a printer or Google Chormec cast
To work between subnets you have to setup a reflector to reflect the mDNS between subnets e.g. Avahi or umDNS:
If you haven't already done so, explicitly specify http:// in front of the domain. Otherwise, my browser starts a web search.
If that doesn't work, try disabling DNS-over-HTTPS in the browser. Since I don't want to configure all browser, I'm using an IP blocklist (banip) on the router to force all clients to use the OpenWrt DNS server. This also forces the usage of adblock on the router that would be bypassed if the browser used DoH.
I'm using domain names only and do not rely on mDNS for the very same reason you posted. Using ".lan" works on all my devices, including IoT devices - across subnets and VPNs.