How to set up VNC?

[Andrew Borland]

Danielle,

If YOU have a static IP, it will be much easier all round to have your 
mother initiate a "reverse" connection to you.  This way all the 
firewall setup and so forth is done at your end, just forward incoming 
port 5500 to your PC.

All you need to do on your Mother's PC is to set up a "Show Danielle" 
Icon on her desktop which executes the command:
 <path-to-vnc>\realvnc\winvnc4.exe -connect YOUR-IP-ADDRESS

I use this approach to provide support with a number of people.

If your own IP is dynamic, you might consider one of the various "dns 
alias" services, as mentioned elsewhere in this thread.

Regards,  Andrew Borland (UK)