office network access from home?

i need a way to access the network share at my office from home over the internet. the office network is your standard 100 mb ethernet all plugged into a linksys switch. all the machines are running windows xp pro. all of the computers in the office have internet access through a linksys router that is also plugged into the switch.

is there a way to access the office network from home through the internet? the data needs to be somewhat protected from outside users, (i.e. password required to access the network, nothing fancy)

Depending on your firewall you can use something like netmeeting, pcanywhere, or windows terminal services to take over your work computer from another computer. you may have to set up a 'pin hole' at work for you to get past the firewall.

i'm actually not trying to take ofer the computer. i just need network access.

Do you connect to the internet with a static IP at your workstation? Or do you have a DHCP Server? DHCP Router?

Depending on your server capabilities you could VPN and connect to use shared network resources. You'd ahve to setup your computer or the server to accept incoming connections and make a pinhole in the firewall.

do you know where i can find more info on setting up vpn?

i can switch the service to static ip, and my home computer needs access to the network, not a specific computer. do i still need to route incomming requests on a specific port to a specific computer in the office?

If you need to access the network not a specific computer then you will need your account on the server to be able to accept dialup connections (and probably a few other things). What kind of server is it that runs the network? You will also need to be able to reach the server from across the web (by Domain name or ip).

Then you can make sure you add or have the VPN adapter on the remote computer and you should be able to 'dial' in via your internet connection to the server via its ip. It will make you login and then you should have access to the network resources. You may have trouble browsing about, but if so then you should be able to still connect to things via mapping a network drive to them.

Whatever you do, all traffic between the two routers that goes in the clear *must* be encrypted.