Network Help Needed -- Pretty Basic..?

The Basics: 6 work-stations, all xp home, basic file sharing, all networked.

Try to add a laptop. Here is what i've done:

Connected the laptop hardwire ethernet, Go to Start - Network Connections - Setup small office or home network - Ran the wizard as per normal.

Go into all laptop files I want shared - sharing and security - share the folders.

Right click on my computer, make sure name is correct, and make sure it is added to the proper workgroup. All correct.

Restart.

After the re-start the laptop shows up in the network neighborhood on all of my machines, however I cannot access it. I get an error message saying:

//laptop is not accessible. You may not have permission to use these resources. Contact your network administrator..

Blah, Blah, Blah.

When I got onto the laptop and try to see it's workgroup computers I get the same error message.

Can somebody tell me what I am doing wrong? Why Can't I get this silly thing onto a very basic network?

Do you have a firewall, like ZoneAlarm or similar? You may have to give permission to the laptop's IP address. In the laptop go to Start | Run. Type cmd or command in the "Open:" box an hit OK. A DOS-looking window will open up. Type ipconfig and hit enter. this wil give you the laptop's IP address - something like 192.168.2.10. Go into the firewall and enable a range of IP addresses. If your laptop is 192.168.2.10, then your pc's will be 192.168.2.n, 192.168.2.y, 192.168.2.x, etc. So you would need to enable a range from 192.168.2.1 to 192.168.2.255. (Most routers are set to dymanically set each pc's IP address, that's why you need a range)

This might help you decipher the problem.
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/windo...

First, make sure to turn off Windows Firewall on both the laptop and the other system(s) you're using.

I would then check the laptop's shares. This is just a test so bear with me... Right click on a folder and select properties. Click on "Share this folder" radio button and click permissions. Make sure Everyone has at least Read and Change permissions.

Then... On one of your other systems, go to a command prompt and run this command: Net View \\<laptops IP address>

Just to clarify, that's Net<space>View<space>SlashSlash<IP address>. You should see the share you just created. This should also get you additional information if it doesn't work; such as "Access Denied" or "the RPC service is unavailable" etc.

If you get an Access Denied message, check the workgroup name again. If you get the RPC message, this means that something with the basic networking isn't working. Check your services on the laptop to make sure the Workstation service and the Server service is running (you should probably check this anyway).

Finally, at this stage of troubleshooting, I would go into your network settings (right click on "My Network Places" and select Properties, right click on the Local Area Connection that's connected and select properties.) Make sure the "Client for Microsoft Networks" and "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" is enabled with a check in the checkbox.

There's about a hundred other things that can be going on but this should get you started on getting more specific error messages to help you out.