XP and Vista Home Network Issue

I'm running XP Home on a Desktop and Vista Basic on a wireless Laptop, which are connected through a Linksys WRT54G wireless router on a Home Network. I can connected to the Internet from either computer... and I can see, view and print files on my Desktop which are actually located on my Laptop. However, I can NOT see my Desktop from my Laptop under Network... but under Vista's Network and Sharing/View Full Map the Desktop shows up. The Workgroup name is the same on both computers. Can anybody help?

Note: I just recently replaced a 3 year old router because I lost the wireless capabilities. The new router is the same model, and everything worked fine though the old router untill it became defective.

Thanks, hcrawfor

 

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 it is allowed to be shared.

Vista File and Printer Sharing- http://www.microsoft.com/technet/network/evaluate/vista_fp.mspx

Windows XP File Sharing - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304040

Printer Sharing XP - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/honeycutt_july2.mspx

Windows Native Firewall setting for Sharing XP - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875357

Windows XP patch for Sharing with Vista - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922120

 

Problem resolved. Thanks for the help. It turned out to be VERY ELEMENTARY!!! I didn't have the McAfee firewall set to accept File Sharing. The desktop computer was previously my daughter's, and I didn't realize she had McAfee's firewall. I thought she just had the Anti-Virus software and never looked..... until after 6 hours of frustrating trouble shooting <grin>. Naturally, Window's firewall was set to accept File Sharing. After adjusting the settings in McAfee, everything worked fine. Then I TOTALLY DISABLED McAfee's firewall because I didn't want two firewalls active anyway.

hcrawfor

 

is it ok to pickup this thread vs. creating new?

I have a church that unfortunately is stuck using WinXP home on its 'business' machines, with a networking doing rudimentary file/print sharing and they use one of them as the backup for others. Trying to introduce a Vista Laptop and it cannot [apparently] connect to the existing network [main objective is to backup its files to one of the XP desktops].

I am thinking that the first step would be to utilize the fix described in the MS article you suggested here. [ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922120 ].
Am I on the right track?

Failing that, it would seem the next best would be to reverse-course, creating a new network from the VISTA side and then attach the existing Win XP desktops?? [change network name to one specified first under VISTA]
Z