Win7 XP Networking, partially shared

I give up. I've been searching for hours and none of the answers I've found are working.
Laptop - XP - ZoneAlarm firewall
has the ability to see worktop and desktop shared folders
Worktop - Win7 - Windows firewall
has the ability to see laptop and desktop shared folders
Desktop - XP - ZoneAlarm firewall with same settings as the Laptop
can see the Laptops shared files
however....HERE'S THE PROBLEM
the desktop keep asking for a user id and password. The default id/password of Administrator/admin
Settings on the XP desktop are the same as the laptop. One can see the worktop, one cannot.

Worktop:
Current profile = Home network
folder of User/Tracy is shared with Everyone - read/write
Network discovery IS on
File sharings IS on
Public folder shariing IS on
Password protected sharing is OFF
Allow windows to manage homegroup connections is set
User account does NOT have a password

All three computers are on the workgroup called MSHOME
All three computers are showing in the all three computers of the network
All three computers only have one user: Tracy, Guest turned off


WHY would the desktop need to put in the password and not the laptop to see the worktop computer?

I'm stumped !!

Thanks,
Tracy