I am also new to this stuff, but I found it rather easy to set up a RAT. There is a great tutorial on hack forums if you have an account there: http://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=2698687
Doesn't take long to set up and port forwarding was rather easy as well.
Just need to crypt it which can cost some $.
Had someone from runegear add me on skype and they tested mine out, worked first try. =p