Well, to update, I have set up the two desktops and the lappy to use the Belkin Modem/Router and all three see the router and use the internet/mail with 128bit encryption with no problems....so far so good!
However I then ran the Windows SP2 wizard for setting up a wireless network. Entered the settings using a different name for the network other than the 'Belkin54g' network showing as default, and then found that none of the three computers showed any evidence of seeing the new network, or could see each other, except that Desktop 2 has shown a prevalence for dropping start up programs since then. A restore to a point prior to the network seems to have solved most of the problems on that front.
As I write all three are seeing the internet/mail without problems, but I suspect that I have to adapt the default Belkin network to see files and printers etc. The trouble is that as much as I read up on networking principles I cannot seem to find out how to actually 'work' the network once I've set it up. Every instruction book tells you how to get connected, but not what to do to see each computer or use the files. Clicking on everything including the group computers under network places doesn't work so I'm out of idea's.
I just knew I'd hate networking!
