remote desktop connection and zonealarm

[Unique]

i've setup windows RDP and i'm able to use it with a number of devices connected on my local network, via LAN or wifi, but i can't get it to work outwith the local LAN, such as via a usb mobile dongle or edge on my iphone, so at the moment i can do what i want in the house, but i can't take my netbook away with me and access away from my home network

reading up about it, it seems the issue is down to zonealarm blocking access. it seems i can either lower the defenses, which opens me up to a less secure network, which i don't want to do, or i can give access to a specific IP address, but that's no use as i won't be using the same IP address, or even a choice of a few addresses, so i wouldn't know the IP addy until i was online

i read something about opening a port, but i can't see how to do that with the latest version of zonealarm

does anyone know how to resolve this?

also, does anyone know if there is a web based way of accessing my network via RDP without having to put more software on the home pc first? so if i can't install RDP or VLC on my work computer or an internet cafe computer, i could access via a website instead?

one last thing, my parents aren't too pc savvy, and it would be handy to be able to log on and sort problems remotely, but the "ask for help" option seems to require outlook express to be configured to allow help requests. is there a simple way around this? not only for my parents, but for other people who i could help, as it seems so many people use webmail instead of outlook, and it's easy to explain how to get so far in the process, but not how to setup outlook express, particularly as each ISP has different settings

[Behemoth]

Opening a port for remote desktop I would imagine is handled by your router, had a similar issue when I was trying to run my PC as a web server when I was working on a website with a friend.

[spoon_]

Its on the router, forward port 3389 to internal IP.

[Unique]

Its on the router, forward port 3389 to internal IP.

thanks. strange thing was that for some reason i was entering the router ip number, ie. 168.121.2.1 or whatever, and it wasn't working, even with zonealarm turned off. trying in both firefox and IE7. i noticed other people had the same problem too. i presume if i reset the router i'll have to faff about setting everything up again

at least i know where to start trying, thanks

[Unique]

i managed to get it to work, thanks. i just took the power cable out the router for a few seconds before i turned on the pc and i got into the settings. zonealarm then prevented me accessing the pc, so i allowed the ip address. the problem i presume i will have in future is that the ip address on something like mobile internet dongle or iphone is going to change each time, so does anyone have any suggestions on how to avoid that problem, without reducing my security too much?