workgroup computer not accessible or asks for password

I have a wireless home network on a Windows XP SP2 system. It consists
of an XP Home desktop and an XP Pro laptop. If I go to My Network
Places and click on "View Workgroup computers", I can see both
computers, and can open, see and use their respective shared files from
the laptop only. On the desktop, if I try to look at workgroups, I can
see both computers listed, but cannot open the laptop to see or use its
files. From My Network Places, the message is "<workgroup name> is not
acessible...The network path was not found". If I attempt to look at
the laptop from Explorer, I don't get an error message but a logon box
instead. It says "Connecting to <laptop>", has a grayed out username
area, and a password box to fill in. The user name is given as
"<desktop>\Guest", and I haven't been able to find any way to change
that. In fact, neither computer has the Guest account enabled, but it
seems to make no difference if I do enable them, or even assign
passwords to the Guest accounts. In all cases, pressing the Enter key
simply brings the login box back on the screen. There is no error
message and the box is difficult to close. Clicking on the X box and/or
clicking "Cancel" often doesn't work, and I don't know which Task
Manager process is involved to allow me to end the loop.

Help and/or clues will be much appreciated!

Justine

 

To me it sounds like a security issue on your Laptop.

Is this on wireless?