Stephen, you say ssh is a secure way... but is that another computer on the same network or over the internet? Does the other computer have to be running Linux and ssh? In short, I don't think I need it.
The windows client for ssh is PuTTY. SSH allows you to connect to your computer securely from anywhere in the world, you can be sitting on the beach in Tahiti with a wireless device listening to your favorite tunes steaming over the internet if you wanted too.