Windows 7: Remote Start of a Computer

Is it possible to remotely power up a computer from another computer that is off site? What I would like to do is be able to access my home desktop computer (not built yet but will probably use Windows 7 Home Premium) from my notebook (Windows 7 Home Premium) when I'm away from home. I could leave the computer running (something I'm not not comfortable doing when I'm gone for more than a day) but we get occasional power outages that could shut down the computer. A UPS that could safely shut down the computer and, maybe restart it when power is restored (if they can do that) is not in my plans right now due to a lack of space and $$$ but I won't rule it out eventually.

I haven't tried it, but see this:
How To Remotely Turn On Computer from LAN and WAN

or this:
How to Turn on Another Computer Remotely | eHow.com

Make sure your firewall(s) work with wake on lan (WOL) XP tutorial
Shutdown/Wake Up Lan - Turn your PC On/Off

I was totally NOT able to understand any of that. The directions would say things like open this port, do something else, etc. but not say how to do it, what the heck something else was, etc. I need complete simple directions in simple non-techy English.

remotewakeup.com - Start your computer over the internet

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/net...-commands/2209

http://download.cnet.com/FugueUp-WOL...-75415389.html

Who the heck moved this thread? I looked all over the forum I initially posted it in and didn't find anything: no link showing where it went, nothing. If you feel something absolutely has to be moved, at least post a link in the original forum; it took me forever to find it had been moved here!

@ AddRam. Thanks for the links. I'll check them later when I wake up a little more and I've cooled down a bit.

The first link takes me to a website that asks for information about the computer I want to wake up. It says nothing about what the site is. I have no way of knowing if it is safe.

The second one talks about Magic Packets (whatever they are) but the link to the utility is dead.

The third link doesn't really tell me anything either. It says there is a PDF that does but where the heck is it? I also got the feeling it would work only over a LAN. This quote from the site is what really scares me off: " It is up to the user to properly configure their computer with the proper hardware to be WOL enabled." That's the very information I would need.

Again, I need simple, non-techy, step by step, instructions on how to do what I want, assuming it's even possible.

Try these to correctly figure out WOL (you might have to read up on the BIOS of the computer to be woken):
Devices - Allow or Prevent to Wake Up Computer
Devices - See Devices that are able to Wake Up the Computer

Thank you, Golden. The first tutorial is exactly what I needed to determine how I can wake up my desktop computer (I may need new hardware but that won't be a huge concern since I'll be replacing my current desktop early next year). It's well written in english I can understand. I'm still concerned if it can do so after a power outage. My desktop isn't in use right now so it will have to wait until later to check it out (I had to replace the HDD a while back and I want to get an image of it before I start installing programs, etc. but I need to swap some cables to get the audio driver configured first and I can't right now because my knees are giving me trouble--old age sucks!).

Now, all I need to know is how to get my notebook to tell my desktop to wake up over the internet then how to get to data stored on the desktop and send data to the desktop.