I am using a DLink DI-524 wireless router, Windows XP Pro. Can anyone help me how to setup WinVNC to control my home computer from work or anywhere with my laptop; also running Windows XP Pro.
How to setup the router to allow traffic? and so on. Any input is very much appreciated.

Firstly, do you have WinVNC installed on your laptop and have you installed the WinVNC Server service to start automatically whenever you boot up your PC?

Secondly, do you have the latest version (currently 4.1)? This is significantly better than the 3.x versions.

Once you've got that running (with a secure password!), you'll need to configure your router/firewall to support an incoming Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection. This is also typically secured via a username and password - otherwise, you'll be letting anyone in! If your router supports a VPN, then you should see the options in the configuration utility. Don't forget that you may also be running a firewall on the router and a software firewall, such as Norton Internet Security or the built-in Windows XP firewall.

Once the VPN is configured, you can connect to it from elsewhere by setting up an outgoing VPN connection - this is a network connection that you can setup from the Windows XP Network Setup Wizard (NSW).

The NSW will ask you for the external IP address of your router. Now this is where most home VPNs don't work too well. For most people, their ISP gives them a dynamic IP address. This means that, every time your router connects to the Internet, it will be given a slightly different address, within a large range that's used by the ISP for all of their customers. If, however, you've been allocated a static/fixed IP address, then this makes life much easier for you as the outgoing VPN connection from the external PCs will always have the correct address. If you don't have a static IP, then you may be able to obtain one from your ISP for a small additional charge.

So, once you've connected into your VPN from outside, you'll need to run the WinVNC Client, which will have to be installed on the external PC. If you're going to be connecting from your PC at work, you'll need to get the permission of your IT/IS/MIS department. The WinVNC client will ask you for the host name or IP address of the PC that you want to connect to. You're already connected to your home network (via the VPN), so the host name or IP is for your home computer, not for your router.

That's it! Well, in principle at least. In reality, it's not the easiest thing to do as you'll probably come up against various issues such as VPN authentication, changing IP addresses, firewalls blocking your connection, etc, etc. But, if you can get through each of the steps that I've outlined above, then it should work.

Let us know how you get on