Home Networking

Unfortunately, there's quite a few things that can stand in the way of file & print sharing. We'll need to gather some extra information, try and answer these questions:
What OS are the computers using?
How are they connected? (wired/wireless)
If you have any wireless systems, are they connected to the right wireless network? what is the signal strength?
Can they still access the internet?
Router info could be useful but not as important as the others.

Also, although with file and print sharing it often just abruptly stops working, was there anything you can think of that happened around the time it stopped? (even overnight- didn't work in the morning)

You can start here http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/setup/default.mspx

A little more info about your setup would be useful including
Version of XP (home or Pro)
Wired or Wireless
Router/hub/switch

Folks can point you to generic web pages that address this.  I'm sure they will.  In the mean time it would be helpful if you were more informative regarding operating systems involved, subnet, workgroup, etc.

First thing: suspect the firewalls.  Turn the intra network firewalls off to see the result.

One computer has WIN XP Media Center and one has WIN XP home edition.....one connects harwired to a router and the other wirelessly to the same router and it worked for about an hour and then it will not recognize it....my desktop recognizes that my laptop is on the same workgroup but i can not access the computer and on the laptop i have no connectivity at all.
I hope this helps

Yes there are two computers and yes you are correct in assuming that the laptop is the wireless one....i have tried disabling the firewall and still nothing. I am not sure what has happened.....i am kind of between a rock and a hard place.
Thanks

try giving both of them a Static IP address instead of automatic in the properties of your network connection
also try running the Network Setup wizard on both of them one by one and then restart both of them to check out the results.

sometimes resetting the router and replugging the cables also help :)

But if DHCP is setup as the way i have to have it for my ISP how would i set up the static ip addresses......through the router??? I am pretty computer savy this is just a new window.....i have set this up before and i did not have to do anything other that be on the same workgroup and share the printer and files i wanted.....i am not sure why this has become so difficult....any ideas???

have you run the network setup wizard yet?

Yeah and that was a nightmare and a half....i have always had better luck manually setting things up....but i thought i would give the network setup wizard a try....and all i have to say is NEVER AGAIN!!!!

shouldn't be;
have you tried resetting the router and cables and reconnecting them back?
when you ping from your laptop to your dekstop or a website ip, is it getting timed out?

You didn't say if the laptop will connect to the internet.
Can it PING the router?
Is there wireless security set up?

Often, wireless computers will show that they are "connected" but this only means that the radios are talking back and forth.  It doesn't mean that the security requirements have been met.  

The laptop won't get a valid IP address via DHCP until the security requirements are met.  Sometimes computers "forget" their wireless security settings.

If you run IPCONFIG, do you get a subnet IP address or an APIPA IP address?  If it's APIPA then there's not a connection to the router.

I ran ipconfig and the laptop can ping the desktop and can ping the router and the desktop can ping the router and but not the laptop.  when i run ipconfig i get a subnet mask...and i can access the internet and my wireless settings are all fine and dandy.  The laptop has a static ip of 192.168.1.100 and the dektop has a static ip of 192.168.1.101 and someone said to me that it sounds to them like either a master browser issue or a permissions issue.....i disabled the master browser on my laptop so the the desktop would be recognized as the master browser....any other suggestions....and the desktop can see the laptop when i go to m y netowork places but i can not access its resources and the laptop does not even see the workgroup and it does not even see itself.  Should i be able to ping myself? neither the laptop or the desktop can ping their own ip addresses.

what's the default gateway and subnetmask given alongwith the IP addresses?
what's the router model? linksys?

The default gateway for the laptop and subnet mask are as follows:
IP addres: 192.168.1.100
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1

For the Desktop the information is as follows:
IP addres: 192.168.1.101
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1

The Linksys Router model is:
Linsys WRT54G

Also just another question? If i run the network setup wizard and one computer is hard wired while the other is wireless will that make a difference....that may have been why i have had so much trouble with the network wizard in the past. I really do appreciate everyones help.
Thanks
Phillips