Newbie sharing computers question

I'm new to the forum and to Win7. I know so little about networking I don't even know what to scan this forum for, so I'll just ask, even though I think the answer to my question is no.

I've got an HP desktop running Win7 HP64 with a satellite modem hard wired into the puter. I also have a Toshiba laptop, older but I may upgrade, which we take with us when we go out in our RV on long trips.

I do not have any sort of network installed inside our home, and I don't need one. My wife and I take turns using the desktop puter and the laptop mostly collects dust.

But is there any way I could set up the laptop so that when we take it out on the road I could use it to connect back to the desktop at home, so we'd have total access on the road to all the files on the desktop at home?

I'm just asking...I realize I can easily just do what I'm doing now: copy all the files I think we'd need on the road (it'd mostly be xls, doc, favorites, etc.) onto a flash drive and fuggedabout my silly question. But I'm curious anyway...

Thx

hi tomseeley and welcome to sevenforums,

it is possible to do as you suggest, and have access to your home pc whilst on the road.

you could use some free software such as windows live mesh or teamviewer.

if you're going to give either of them a go, i would suggest that you try it out and test it at home first. i assume you can connect your laptop to your router (maybe wirelessly) at the same time as your pc?