[funtek]

Logmein Remote Desktop is cool and all, but the free version is pretty limited and as others mentioned, it has a background process that's kinda sketchy. BUT Logmein also has a free VPN tool called Hamachi.

Hamachi lets you create virtual private networks in a MSN Messenger style interface. There are clients for pretty much every OS. What this lets you do is treat all the computers that you have Hamachi loaded on as if they are all on the same private network. This is accomplished by assigning (automatically) each computer on the network a 5.x.x.x IP. So, things like Remote Desktop are super easy to do. The bonus of all of this is that *everything* that is IP based works, not just remote desktop. You can map network drives, you can do remote administration, and remote desktop.