First let's outline one of the major barriers.

Problem: Trying to access a desktop/notebook behind a router with a DHCP assigned public IP address can be tricky if the end user doesn't know there IP or if you don't.

Solution: I've found the simplest way to to achieve this is by enabling remote management and setting up DDNS (Dynamic DNS). It's simple and most routers today support this. For Linksys routers the config is pretty straight forward.

1. Login to your router and enable remote management setting the port to something other than 8080 2. Under "Setup" be sure there is a an option to use DynDNS.org 3. Go to www.dyndns.org setup an account and pick a domain 5. Back in the router configuration add your account details from dyndns.org and save.

What we've done here is added the ability to remotely manage a router by using a domain name:port, as an example enter http://abc123.domain.com:8282 into your browser 8282 is what ever your set your remote access port to be. Be sure the routers default password has been changed.

Next issue, how to access your desktop

We'll start with the popular Free VNC! Did I mention it was free?

You can get vnc here: http://www.realvnc.com Lightweight, lean and mean. Good over a dialup connection.

1.Install the server portion on your home PC and set a password. 2.If your running a firewall be sure to open port 5900 and of course leave the PC on. 3.Now while your at work for example, access your router remotely and forward port number 5900 to the internal IP address of your home PC. You can often get the internal address by viewing the DHCP clients table, an option available in almost every router. 4.Download the VNC viewer from www.realvnc.com 5.Enter the dyndns domain we setup earlier 6.Enter the password that was setup when VNC was installed on the home machine 7.Bingo! Your in, there's not much that can go wrong in this scenario, the most common interference is a port misconfiguration or firewall. 8.Don't forget you can also access your PC through a browser with java support simply enter the domain previously chosen, http://abc123.domain.com:5900 and you're in.

Next Client is the Windows XP RDP

This is installed by default on XP pro and can easily be setup. A bit more robust with features this client works great.

Supports remote printing File Transfer Local Scourer.

1.This service can be enable on any Windows XP machine by right clicking on My Computer 2.Click the remote tab 3.Check off Allow users to connect remotely 4.You may have to setup a user or select a user with sufficient privileges 5.In the router configuration forward port number 3389 to your local machine. 6.Back in the office if your using windows XP Pro the RDP Client can be found under: Start, Accessories, Communications Remote Desktop Connection. Enter the domain we setup earlier and login to your desktop remotely.

I can be contacted for more details on this.