Up until about two weeks ago, my laptop was seeing my desktop and vice versa.  I could print to my desktop printer and get files off one from another.  Then, Wham! When I clicked on my "workgroup" in my laptop, I couldn't see the desktop icon.  Now 2 weeks later my desktop can see my laptop and I can get things from my laptop to my desktop.  But, I can't get things from my desktop to my laptop or print to my desktop printer.  On my laptop the "desktop" icon is there in my workgroup, but says I don't have permission from the administrator of the server.  Help?  I have XP Pro on both computers.  No other firewalls, but windows. 

Is its firewall preventing it being being visible?

 

You should give as much detail as possible when posting your issues.

That's just my signature - I got fed up with people posting questions in private messages a while back - so you can ignore that.

 

You mean you are using Windows Firewall?  Have you configured it for File and Printer Sharing?

 

 

 

Also, can you ping one computer from the other, and vice versa?

yes, it's windows firewall.  I already have the  file and print sharing boxchecked.   I haven't recently tried to ping.  I did try that two weeks ago when it first went out.  Okay, I tried to find the IP address on my desktop, but the "obtain automatically" box is checked and there are no numbers.  I pinged what I thought I remember it to be and got a reply back.  I tried to go into my workgroup and now I can't even get into that.  It's telling me that the workgroup is not accessible.