XP home network stopped working

I need some help as I have run out of ideas. I have a simple XP Home network
consisting of a desktop with 2 harddrives and a laptop with both wired and
wireless connections. I have had 2 changes to my network lately and I can't
figure out which one (or both) caused the problem. 1. I recently reformatted
the desktop and reinstalled XP, when I did this I chose a new name for my
computer. 2. I installed comodo firewall and avast a/v on the laptop, was
not happy with them and uninstalled both, i now run AVG a/v and the windows
firewall on both machines.

The Problem:
I ran the network setup wizard on both machines with MSHOME as the
workgroup. I can access the laptop via the desktop through "view workgroup
computers" without a problem. On the laptop I mapped over to the desktop's
second harddrive so I can store photos, etc there. This mapping disconnects
after a while and if I ping the desktop the mapping will work again for a
while then repeats the cycle. I can browse to the desktop by putting the
name into Explorer. Also on the laptop I cannot see the 2 computers in "view
workgroup computers", I either get an error saying "the network path was not
found" or "the list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available"

What I have done so far:
I have run the network wizard several times

I dloaded the resource kit, opened command shell and typed ntrights +r
SeNetworkLogonRight -u Guest
ntrights -r SeDenyNetworkLogonRight -u Guest
ntrights +r SeNetworkLogonRight -g Everyone
ntrights -r SeDenyNetworkLogonRight -g Everyone

Restrictanonymous is set to 0 on both machines

I disabled the computer browser service on the laptop

Both are running XP Home sp2, I am focusing on the laptop more because the
errors occur when trying to browse to the desktop, should I be focusing on
the desktop instead? I just want to be able to share the second drive and
print to the desktop's printer but the mapping keeps failing on me then a
ping will bring it back for a while.

Thanks for your help



.

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