New Laptop w/Win7 - can't network XP

Hi everyone~

Y'all have been so very helpful to me in the past with networking between two XP computers - I'm sure you can help me with my newest computer addition.

I had two computers networked, each with XP SP3 (one a laptop running Media Center, the other a desktop running Home Edition). Sharing a printer using the desktop as the 'brain'; everything is fine, this until I bought a third computer/laptop, this one running Windows 7. Never mind the conversion to the new OS; I'm getting really frustrated trying to network everything together. About 50% of the time, the new Win7 laptop can see the other Laptop, but can not see the desktop. Not really a problem, 'cause I really only want to share files between the two laptops. However, 50% is the max the Win7 sees the other laptop; 0% for the first laptop to see the Win7 laptop. I have changed all the network settings on the Win7 laptop to give shared access to all computers/no password required/etc. No luck. Changed the Work Group name on all three to "Workgroup" (the two older computers were "MSHome" by default). Then the desktop and the Win7 (new) laptop see each other, but not the XP laptop. Changed all three computers to workgroup name "Workgroup" - the (new) Win7 laptop sees the (old) XP laptop (and vice versa), but the desktop does not recognize the new Win7 laptop. :cry

I am so frustrated with Win7 that I am ready to reformat the (new) laptop with XP Pro (I have an extra copy) but am not sure if the new computer will work be compatible?? :confused

BTW - the computers are:

Desktop - built from scratch, so no brand name here
Laptop #1 (older, but only about 3 years) - Gateway MX6453
Laptop #2 (new with Win7) - eMachines E627

Can someone help me with the networking, or is converting the 3rd computer to XP the simple solution??

Thanks!
Nancy

 

There are some more options in this article - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/...nning-different-versions-of-Windows#section_3
In the section dealing with ports in the firewall, I would disable the firewall first before opening ports to see if that is the problem.