In order to use Remote Desktop to connect to your home computer remotely, it must first be enabled. Right click on 'my computer' then select the 'remote' tab, and check the box entitled 'allow computers to connect remotely to this computer.'

Note: please ensure that all of your user accounts are using proper passwords before you enable this option, otherwise anyone with internet access and a Windows system can theoretically access and control your computer.

Now you can install Remote Desktop Web Connection if you wish. This allows client computers to access the remote desktop through Internet explorer, eliminating the need to download and install the (freely available from Microsoft) Remote desktop client program.

Insert the Windows XP Professional CD and select 'install additional windows components. Highlight 'internet information services (IIS)' and click 'details.' Highlight 'world wide web services' and click 'details.'

Now put a check beside 'Remote desktop web connection,' hit 'ok' twice and then 'next' to install.

Now to connect to the remote desktop from any client computer with Internet Explorer 4 or better installed, simply type 'https://(ip address of your home computer)/tsweb' to bring up the web connect dialog screen.

The main advantage of using the remote desktop web connect feature, besides not having to download extra software to access your machine, is that Copy and Paste functions (only within files, not for copying and pasting files themselves) between the remote computer and the client are enabled for any OS.

This means that you can transfer word documents, etc. between the two computers by copying the contents and then pasting it into a new document on the client computer. Other advanced functions listed above, such as file copying and printing which are enabled by using a Windows XP client are not available using the web connection, even if the client machine is running Windows XP. You need to use the remote desktop connection software included in Windows XP to access these features, not the web connection.

To sum up, using the Remote Desktop web connect feature is the best way to go unless the client computer(s) you plan to use are Windows XP systems, in which case using the built in client is a better option. Again, as in VNC, you can substitute local computer names or URLs for the IP address when attempting to connect to the remote desktop service.