For those who don't know, TRAMP allows you to open a remote file on a local emacs. I use this fairly extensively, since I may have a newer version of emacs or may be working on a server that doesn't have my .emacs files, etc. Another advantage is if the connection is laggy, that is only noticed on save, since otherwise it is all local.
It can use several different protocols to connect remotely, but I typically use ssh. I also use dired in that case, which is the Emacs directory editor to browse the remote directory structure and open other files. TRAMP can even launch remote compilation now, which is pretty great.
I use TRAMP + EMACS for all server side development I do and love it. The only annoyance is the slight delay between hitting Ctrl-X-S and the time it takes to save. Then when I use EMACS on a local machine I'm just amazed at how fast it can save a file :)
