Remote Access to Desktop through Internet

I need to access my home computer (ADSL connection) from my laptop using a Clearwire connection. I’m assuming I’ll need Wake up on LAN settings on the desktop unit and I’ll be using a laptop with onboard NIC. WIN XP2 on both machines. What additional software am I going to need? Additional security measures? I use Zone Alarm, AVG Anti-Virus, and SpyBot on both machines.