How access network, laptop>to>office?

[George]

Is there a simple way to take a WinXP laptop on the road, plug in at a
hotel, dial up, and access the office PC's back home.

When Windows XP first came out, a big selling point was "access your PC via
the Internet" and "set up remote desktop", etc.

I'd like to 1) get my files from office PC's while traveling, and even
better 2) operate an application remotely on a back-home PC like QuickBooks
from a hotel laptop, which would allow let's say keying in some
expenses...one less thing to do after coming home a few days later.

Current office setup is straightforward and typical:
INTERNET-----DSLMODEM----ROUTER----[SEVERAL PC's]

The PC's are WinXP-pro, there's also a print server. The router is a VPN
one, with firewall. Do I 'have' to buy something like PCAnywhere, do I
'have' to pay monthly for GoToMyPC...can some or all of this be done within
WinXP...without a lot of effort?

I saw something in Win that looked like a tunneling arrangement you set up
either on laptop or back-home PC's, or both. Is this necessary to do on all
PC's? Is there any way to just go to anybody's PC while in another city,
click in a static IP address, go through a password thing, then appears my
back-home desktop...or at least some folders so I can copy my files...or put
some new ones back onto the drive?

Would appreciate suggestions, options for various arrangements, and what can
and can't be done.

Thanks,
George

 

[Jetro]

You would permanently keep the modem/router up and running, know its public
IP address, configure the router to accept VPN connection, create VPN
connector on the laptop, redirect/forward incoming router connections on the
port 3389 to the particular desktop (or any other port if you would change
it), create the rule in the router firewall to accept incoming connections
from the laptop only (if possible), and read XP built-in Help about Remote
Desktop.
You shouldn't drop off the VPN and port 3389 changing parts of setup .