VPN Q

Firstly I'm a complete novice, that has taken 12 months asking questions
about how to connect to my companies network over a DSL and finally this
week I've cracked it. I wanted to connect via PcAnywhere and Telenet, it was
fine over a Dial-up, just seeminly needed a username and password. Checked
out http://portforward.com/routers.htm and it told me what I wanted to know.
I have a couple more questions now which someone maybe able to assist me on

1) If I want to "browse the Company Network", just like in Explorer if I was
on the LAN, what do I do? Is it Port Forwarding of PPTP? If so what IP
address do I forward it to?

2)If I had a Mail server on the LAN, say IP 125.124.123.122. To make a
successful POP connection to it would I first have to be on a VPN to make a
connection or coud I do it all through Port Forwarding? Currently if your
not on the LAN, you must make a VPN connection first, then you make the POP
connection. If you only have to Port Forward, how would you incorporate that
if my mail client was Outlook?

Thanks