Remotely connecting XP laptop to XP home desktop

[Rod]

I am having exteme difficulty. Cannot ping either host
or remote pc. Home pc (host) is DSL with dynamic ip.
I'm trying DYNIP to make the ip static, however this too
does not seem to work. I just want to connect from my
laptop from a remote location with dialup or wireless to
my home pc which is on dsl. Error: the client could not
connect to the remote computer. Remote connections might
not be enabled or the computer might be too busy........
Are there any other alternatives? I've tried pcanywhere,
winvnc, etc.........none work.

PLEASE HELP, I NEED TO BE UP AND RUNNING THIS
WEEKEND!!!!!!!!

 

[Rod]

I am now able to ping both pc's successfully by reducing
my settings in Zone Alarm. However still cannot get
remote desktop to connect with either machine.