You would need to be running an http server (web server) or an ssh server.
I normally using linux on my home system, so there is an ssh server automatically started. I don't know what is available for windows. I use putty as an ssh client on windows, but that's not a server. -- AT&T dsl; Westell 327w modem/router; openSuSE 11.0; firefox 3.0.10
Recent Macs are using unix beneath the hood (apparently based on BSD unix). Both openssh and apache should be available.
Note that I am not a Mac user, and I do not have any experience setting these up. -- AT&T dsl; Speedstream 5100b modem; Zyxel NBG334W router; openSuSE 11.0; firefox 3.0.11