Tesla Coil Remote Control

I am not new to VisualBasic, however i am new to this networking area of VisualBasic.

The plan that i have come up with, is that i am currently in the process of building a Tesla coil, and would like it to be 100% USB controlled, however, in case i mess up ( =p ) i don't want to be anywhere near the controlling computer, so here is the setup:

I Have An Old Dell Computer 800mhz processor - 256mb Ram running tinyxp, which will soon be wireless networked. . . that is going to have a "USBThingie" USB DI/O control board which will switch my relays, and then at my main control station will be my laptop with a wireless router on an ad-hoc network with the other computer. . .

What i want to be able to do is have some host software that i make be running on the Dell, which will be the main code to control my USBThingie, and then on my laptop have a remote control code to control the code on the Dell, however, i am not sure how i would go about doing this. . .

Any Help Would Be Greatly Appreciated. . .
Thanks
~Matt

Welcome to VBForums.
What version of VB will you be using for this project?
So basically the project consists of two applications if I understand this correctly; One running on the laptop, taking input from your remote control and sending it to the other application on the Dell, which would be controlling the USB DI/O board?