debugging remote PHP code in eclipse

Hi everybody,

I have big trouble to correctly configure Eclipse/Xdebug to remotely 
debug a PHP website.
When web server is local i have no problem, it works like a charm...but 
in case webserver is not local, that's a real nightmare.

till now everything what i found on internet was about settings for a 
local debugging.
few are about remote debugging... and after reading them i still have 
trouble.... it's like something is missing...an important step...

so i would like to know if someone could help me.
If you already successfully setup  eclipse/xdebug for a remote 
debugging, please let me know.

i feel like a local copy of website root folder must exist on my client 
computer but is it true ? how to configure eclipse to be sure it will 
run code with PHP server ?

so please, contact me if you already did it.

thx a lot