So I use Wide Open West as my ISP and the cable modem doesn't have a static IP. I use a D-link 524 as an internal router / Wireless access point. I have a few desktops and one laptop in this environment. All clients inside the network are XP Pro or XP MCE2005. Wireless network uses 128bit WEP and SSID is not broadcast. Clients getting DHCP address from D-link router

Say I want to remote into one of these machines from my corporate office network. Obviously I have access to the internet at the office (even an IP on the outside of the firewall). Will I absolutely need a static IP for my cable modem for this to work? I never power cycle it as it's been extremely steady. I know the external IP my D-link router is getting from the modem itself, but had some issues trying to VNC into a desktop. I opened ports 5800 & 5900 on the router (using virtual server) and allowed those ports to the IP address of my main desktop. Now when I launched VNC at my office and tried to connect to the IP address I obtained off of my router, it failed to connect. Is that because my cable modem has another different IP? or is it possible my cable modem doesn't allow certain types of traffic through..

Whole reason I am doing this is I would like to MAC disable my son's Xbox during the day since he's in trouble at the moment. Normally he'd game 24/7 and I don't want him to. So if I could remote into my desktop at home I can log into my router and get this done. Just getting connected at the moment is my issue.

Thanks in advance...

Chad

The option that I use: http://www.logmein.com and sign up for a free account (from the home computer) then you can login from anywhere.

Also, there's a free IP monitor available (I believe it's called Gateway IP Monitor) on the web that will let you know when the IP address of your home computer changes - that way you can still access it with other tools such as Remote Desktop and pcAnywhere.

Ditto on that Logmein. I use it all the time for remote administration of client computers.

As for the floating IP installing dymanic ip service can be a solution for that. I use no-ip.com.