Thanks for the info,but I think I may have a router issue:
1)laptop has win XP ,wireless nic, auto ip, dns enabled with the router ip(192.168.1.1) firewall disabled.
2)desktop has win ME, pci nic,auto ip,dns enabled (router ip)
3)Linksys wireless gateway,infrastructure mode(for wired/wireless network) DHCP server enabled, wan has adsl connection from modem.
Gateway is router ip (192.168.1.1)
All basic network settings are done, workgroup is WORKGROUP,pc names are unique,client logon is "ok" with no passwords.
Here's my problem: Both pc's can browse internet,both pc's can "see" each other in network neighborhoods,win ME pc can access XP laptop but XP laptop can't find win ME pc.Both pc's can ping themselves ie 129.168.1.101 or pinging"laptop" will return that ip.Same with win ME desktop. However when I ping "laptop" from desktop it starts by returning an ip of 10.xxx.xxx.xxx and times out. Same result from pinging to "desktop1" from laptop. When i run winipcfg it shows host name as desktop1.my isp.net but I think host should be Desktop1 and my ip should be the one assigned by router .I hope this all makes sense
I have a similar wired network with SMC router at home and it works as it's supposed to.I hope I'm just missing something simple...