Hey, have you checked to see if all the workgroups are the same, for example MSHOME? This would stop them seeing each other. Is the internet working on the laptop? And is the card enabled? And failing that see if the Laptop is getting an IP address or has a valid one? If its not valid it will ask you to repair? If this fails to work you can setup a manual connection to the latop or visa versa by the following.
\\mshome\shared_folder