For remote desktop (full remote control with no one at the remote end) or
remote assistance (remote control - but someone is at the remote end to
accept you connection and interact with you) you do not *need* a VPN.  It is
a little more secure and definitely better if you have more than a couple of
machines behind a firewall - but by no means necessary.

You have a netgear router - so their instructions aren't all that bad for
"port forwarding".  You will want to forward port 3389 (using the router) to
the IP address the machine has behind the router.  Also - with most netgears
you should be able to configure a Dynamic DNS service so you do not have to
figure out what the IP is everytime.

Example...
Your machine almost always gets 192.168.1.2 from the netgear router.  The
netgear gets its IP address from the cable/dsl modem (ISP) and it is usually
something unique every time you reboot it - and for whatever reason - this
happens more than not.

You should go to something like www.dyndns.org and obtain a free dynamic
dns.  Create an account and then create a host under their Dynamic DNS
services.  You get up to 5 free!  You can create the other end's dynamic DNS
as well - if you do not mind giving them your username/password to this
site.

Once you have your Dynamic DNS addresses setup you can access the netgear
router and set up its Dynamic DNS - usually a menu option on the left side
menu - most of the way down - Dynamic DNS.  You will enter the hostname,
username, password - what service you signed up with and to do all that the
checkbox to use a dynamic DNS has to be checked.  Click on the "Show Status"
button to verify it is updating properly.

While you are in your Netgear router menus - go to the "port forwarding/port
triggering" section and add a custom service.  Give it a name that you
understand and forward TCP/UDP port 3389-3389 through to the IP address your
machine likely gets every time it is booted (especially if it is never
shutdown and/or is the only machine) - a private IP - likely something like
192.168.1.2 ot 1.100 or - well - whatever it is.

Now the netgear is setup.  As long as whatever firewall you have on your PC
(software) is setup to allow Port 3389 through and Remote Desktop/Remote
Assistance is enabled (and for remote desktop  you have a username in the
right group with a password - for remote assistance - someone will be there
to accept the connection when you attempt to make it) - then you are ready
to go on that end.

The biggest thing is if you are doing remote assistance and the remote end
sends you the request - you may have to edit it.  It might have their
internal (private) IP.  You will need to edit the file and change it to
their public IP - which you should be able to get now by pinging (although
it likely won't actually answer - probably request time out) the dynamic DNS
name.  Then you can run the remote assistance file they send you to connect.

For remote desktop, you simply run the Remote Desktop Client and enter the
dynamic dns address and away you go.