Networking XP Pro PC -> laptop hassles

G'day all,

I have a PC and a laptop, both have Windows XP Professional on them. I purchased a crossover cable, connected the computers and ran the network connection wizard on both PC's. I set up the PC as the computer which would have the internet connection and share it.

The result was a glorious network with the laptop connected to and able to use the PC's internet connection.

2 days later, my world has fallen apart as for no apparent (at least to me) reason, the connection no longer works. In fact it is so bad that I can not even ping one machine from the other.

I have no idea what I have done wrong. Any ideas? I have looked at other posts and tried numerous settings and registry changes, but nothing will work.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

PC Details are :

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : CCHV

Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-40-2B-1C-90-44

Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

PPP adapter CCHV Telstra Bigpond:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-53-45-00-00-00

Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 144.134.77.83

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 144.134.77.83

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 203.49.70.92

139.134.2.190

Laptop details are:

PC Details are :

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : hector

Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Mixed

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : MAC Bridge Miniport

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 31-B1-85-9E-AB-BE

Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

Autoconfiguration Enabled. . . . : Yes

Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.109.118

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Hec

The laptop doesn't appear to have an IP address in the same subnet as the main PC. Manually set the following details and see if they help.

IP Address: 192.168.0.2
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers: 203.49.70.92 & 139.134.2.190