Thought I'd ressurrect this thread as I'm having similar problems. I have been attempting to link my desktop (Athlon 2000+, 768mb ram, 55Gb free on HDD) with my laptop (Celeron 1.8 Ghz, 256 mb ram, 20Gb free on HDD) via a Linksys WRT54G router CAT5 wired to the desktop and a Buffalo WLI-PCM-L11GP wireless card fitted to the laptop. Unfortunately, neither computer can see the other. The desktop comes up with the message "Mshome is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. contact the administrator of this service to find out if you have access permissions. The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available." if I try to 'View Workgroup Computers'. The laptop sees only itself on the network. Win XP Firewalling is disabled on both computers, but Norton Internet Security is running on the Desktop, protecting its USB DSL connection. Both computers are running WinXP Home SP1, with all updates.
Both computers' Network properties use the following items: Client for Microsoft Networks; File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks; QoS Packet Scheduler; Internet protocol (TCP/IP). NetBEUI is not enabled on either computer.
The desktop is set to assign TCP/IP addresses by DHCP, the laptop is set to use a static address as it assigned different leading octets using DHCP (the desktop was 192.168.xxx.xxx, the laptop was using 169.254.xxx.xxx, which I'm told is incompatible?). Both are using the same gateway setting. The NetBIOS settings on both computers are set to 'Default - Use NetBIOS settings from the DHCP server. If static IP address is used or the DHCP server does not provide NetBIOS setting, enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP'. Forcing NetBIOS over TCP/IP makes no difference. I've tried pinging both ways without any joy. I can ping the router from the desktop but not from the laptop. The laptop has an 'excellent' signal from the router and is connected to the wireless network.
Can anyone offer any further ideas?