Help setting up a VPN connection

MrXpert

I figure it is about time I tried something a bit different.
I want to be able to setup a VPN connection from my laptop back to my network. At first I thought of going to one of those wireless hot spots to try it but then figured could it also be done from my friend's house many miles away? i.e. I take my laptop to his house and then plug in my laptop into his router via an ethernet cable?
can this be done ? if so how? I have looked on youtube for help. Found this How to make VPN server and connect to it! (Please annotations on) - YouTube
But i'm not 100% sure if it works or can be trusted. It mentions creating a VPN server and to use private addresses and to tell the VPN client to use the private address of the server. but i thought RFC1918 addresses are non routable?

My laptop runs Vista Premium and my home PC is running XP Pro. Also have another PC...my gaming one running 7 premium. DOn't know if this makes a difference but thought i should be forthcoming with the info.

As you probably can tell i'm a VPNV=VPN Virgin.

vanquish23

What is your budget for what you want to accomplish? There are two types of VPN's. Hardware and Software. After reading what you have at home, I am guessing your looking at software type VPN's. Hardware, for example would be Cisco's ASA security appliance which is a firewall and a VPN in one. You can also go open source if your into Linux and use OpenVPN and OpenSSL. There are also a few businesses that will host a VPN service to you. A quick google search about hosted VPN's should get you were you want to be.

I am not a security professional, the above is just want I have used at home or have researched. There are others that can provide more information.