Is the XP firewall configured to allow sharing?

Right click the network adapter and go to the properties settings and then to the advanced tab then to properties for the firewall, or just to the firewall applet in Control Panel.  You will see the settings for your XP firewall in there.  Are you running a second firewall too?

thanks for your help.

the laptop firewall is turned off.  not so sure about the desktop firewall.  how is that checked? 

also, the desktop can ping the laptop, but the laptop can not ping the desktop.  that should be a key clue, but I don't know how to fix that.  maybe the firewall on the desktop is preventing that?

turned off the firewall on the desktop and rebooted the laptop.  can now connect.  isn't there a way to keep my firewall up and still connect?  there should be a setting to allow certain ip addresses to access.  any ideas?

Did you have anohter firewall running?  YOu should be able to add the other amchine to the safe zone or trusted zone for the other machine.

thanks for helping me out on this, I really appreciate it.

would like to add the other pc to a safe list, but don't not sure how to go about it.  as far as I know, there isn't another firewall running.

Is the printer setup to be shared?