Can "see" laptop but not desktop on home network

[Guest]

I setup a home network between my desktop and laptop. Both use XP Media
Edition. Ran network wizard on both without a problem. When I open "Network
Places" or "View Workgroup Computers" the laptop shows up on both computers
and the desktop does NOT show up on either computer.

I tried "pinging". Each computer pings itself but not the other one.
Firewalls have been disabled or File and Printer Sharing has been selected as
an exception. NetBIOS over TCP/IP has been enabled on both. The whole point
of this network was to use the desktop's printer from the laptop so its a bit
frustrating that it will only work the other way around. Thanks for any help.

 

[Chuck]

I setup a home network between my desktop and laptop. Both use XP Media
Edition. Ran network wizard on both without a problem. When I open "Network
Places" or "View Workgroup Computers" the laptop shows up on both computers
and the desktop does NOT show up on either computer.

I tried "pinging". Each computer pings itself but not the other one.
Firewalls have been disabled or File and Printer Sharing has been selected as
an exception. NetBIOS over TCP/IP has been enabled on both. The whole point
of this network was to use the desktop's printer from the laptop so its a bit
frustrating that it will only work the other way around. Thanks for any help.

Be patient. This is a well known scenario.

One of the most common causes of this would be a misconfigured or overlooked
personal firewall, or other security component. There are several other
possibilities too. Read this article with an open mind.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/10/irregularities-in-workgroup-visibility.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/10/irregularities-in-workgroup-visibility.html

You could look at "browstat status", "ipconfig /all", "net config server", and
"net config workstation", from each computer, and diagnose the problem. Read
this article, and linked articles, and follow instructions precisely (download
browstat!):
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/troubleshooting-network-neighborhood.html#AskingForHelp>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/troubleshooting-network-neighborhood.html#AskingForHelp