Wing Commander Fowler,
Lets get you down to basics first.
Lets use TCP/IP for both machines.
Do you have a Broadband connection to the net or are you using Dialup?
If you are using Broadband, you should just go out and buy a Broadband Router.
If you are using Dialup with the Notebook's internal modem, lets just see if we can get the two computers to talk to each other first.
On the first notebook, open View Network Connections then right click on your Local Area Connection and go to Properties. In there double click on TCP/IP. In there, set the IP Address to 192.168.1.2 and the Subnet Mask to 255.255.255.0 and click on OK.
Now do the same to the second Notebook and set it to IP Address to 192.168.1.3 with Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0 and click on OK.
Now open Windows Explorer on both machines. Pick Drive C and right click on it and click on Sharing. Turn on sharing and close. Then from each computer, try to access the shared directory on the other computer.
Let us know if you can see each computer from the other computer.
Take Care,
Richard