What often is the case is that your hosting provider will open up Remote Desktop for you to your server (in hardware/software firewall, whatever you have). The

What often is the case is that your hosting provider will open up Remote Desktop for you to your server (in hardware/software firewall, whatever you have). Then you install the remote administration application of your choice, and if you'd like - close up the RDP port (I do). Some hosting providers like SoftLayer give you a Private Net, so you can VPN into the Private Net and RDP from there (without opening up the port to the public facing IP). This makes sense if you have an office, or a # of employees. A cheap and easy solution is Hamachi (which creates a VPN between machines). You install Hamachi on your server and your trusted machines (your desktop, whatever else) and now you can RDP using the Hamachi IP. You can allow allow file & printer services in Windows Firewall for your Hamachi or hosting provider supplied network, and get to your files that way (easier than FTP). LogMeIn is nice too, but you lose all the other things you can do with a real virtual network. I used to use Radmin (radmin.com), which was nice - but I prefer the virtual networks approach.