Windows XP Home Networking Problem - Help Needed

I have a puzzling problem that hopefully someone here can help with. I am going to list everything I know at this point, so please forgive me if I am too verbose.

Here is my situation, I have a desktop and a laptop and an Actiontek DSL modem with wireless gateway. My desktop is connected to the router/modem via CAT5 ethernet, and my laptop connects wirelessly. I have run the XP Network setup wizard to create a home network to allow my laptop to use a shared printer on my desktop. Both desktop and computer connect to the internet without a hitch, but that's where the rosy picture ends.

From my desktop, if I go to network connections and view computers on my workgroup, I see my laptop. However, if I double click the laptop or try to access its properties, it times out, tells me it is unavailable or that I do not have the proper rights, and gives me no additional information.

From my laptop, if I try to view computers connected to my workgroup, I get the timeout and this message:

"{Workgroup name} is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions... The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available."

Now the fun part begins... from my laptop I can ping both the router and the desktop (by IP address) but from my desktop I cannot ping my laptop. Below is the ipconfig settings for both (the only difference is that one is currently 192.168.0.4 and one is 192.168.0.2, the desktop and laptop respectively):

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : DESKTOP
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : domain.actdsltmp

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : domain.actdsltmp
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : {omitted}
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.4
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
{omitted}

I have tried disabling the XP firewall on both computers, disabling virus protection and internet security software, checked the router configuration (although the router seems to be working ok since both computers can connect to the internet and are getting the proper IP addresses via DHCP).

Any ideas? If anyone has any pointers, it would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

Successful Sharing involves some general consideration in Network settings, http://www.ezlan.net/sharing.html

As well as specific adjustment of each computer according to what is allowed to be shared.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304040

 

I appreciate the input, but it seems that sharing isn't really the issue, since I can ping the desktop from the laptop, but cannot ping the laptop from the desktop. Additionally, the desktop can see the laptop in the workgroup, but cannot access its properties, while the laptop cannot even access the workgroup.

It seems the desktop is seeing the workgroup partially, but not completely yet the laptop doesn't see it at all, but can still ping the desktop. I am baffled.

 

You have two options.

Option One, read slowly the content of the first link in my post and solve the problem.

Option two, keep complaining and enjoy the secondary gains.