Access point

You _can_ probably make this work, though poorly, with ICS, but get a WRT54GL and it'll work flawlessly, all the time, no matter which machines are up and running, and it'll be far more secure.

OK, I have a connection. Problem is neither computer can see the other. My network places on desktop has no files even though I set up sharing of some folders. Laptop has folders in my network places. When I check status of connection it show packets being sent but none received. Can my Ip 198.168.0.1 be the same for both computers?

What are the details of your AP, router, computers, etc?

You can't use the same IP for any two devices. Using .1 for a computer is usually the wrong thing to do, as that's usually the IP of the gateway...

I have a gateway laptop xp home with wireless card, a desktop xp pro with wireless card and i get a connection. Just can't see other computers folders. I was setting the ip myself but went to auto detect and got desktop ip

Ack, Pthht, as Bill The Cat is wont to say. Get a WiFi router...

Anyway, your problem is more Windows Networking related than WiFi, but you can try:

Turn off WinDoze Firewall on both machines Make sure they are in the same Workgroup Check to see that file and print sharing is enabled make sure something is shared on both machines see if you can ping each machine from the other do \\\\169.254.186.196 from the laptop