Setting up a staging server workflow (for a relative beginner)
If I understand what you are asking for, that being your production server being remote, you might want to consider installing a devdesktop from acquia.com if you're using a Windoze or mac development system.  Then you can use features and/or deploy to move you changes to the production system via ftp.

If you're using a *nix development box I'd install Drupal directly and still use features and/or deploy to move things.

Worth a try -