remote desktop for an idiot

I want to access a PC at work that uses XP from my PC at home which uses Win7 pro.
I have enabled remote desktop on both machines and have tried connecting using the IP address of the works machine but it won't connect. I seems to want to in that it takes a minute or two trying.

The work machine in not on an intranet but it does have what they call a dirty broadband connection.

What i am trying to do is Access a program that controls all our plant at work, sometimes i am asked to either switch on or switch off a particular piece of plant at the weekends

In order for that to work you need to open a port on your companies router/firewall to allow traffic on port 3389 to your work PC. Then from your hope computer you will have to use the public IP address of your company.

depending on how everything is setup on for the company you might not be able to browse the internet but as long as there router/firewall is connected to a wan they should be able to make it work.

Layback Bear said:

Don't forget to contact you workplace Managers and I.T. Department before doing such things.

I knew there was something I forgot about.