Win98 WinXP - \\COMPUTER is not accessible network error

Any help would be much appreciated.

I have the following setup.

Desktop - COMPUTERNAME = DESKTOP
laptop - COMPUTERNAME = LAPTOP

Desktop runs XP Pro SP2
Laptop runs Win98 1st edition

I have a ethernet cable joining them both

My desktop acts as the connection to the internet through a DSL modem.

I have the XP firewall enabled on both the internet connection and the LAN connection. The laptop has a firewall which is diasbled.

I have no problems sharing the internet connection between both machines.

My XP desktop box can see shared directories on my laptop. However my laptop cannot get access to the shared files on the desktop.

On laptop - When i go to Network Neighbourhood is see the following

Entire Network
DESKTOP
LAPTOP

if i click the DESKTOP icon i get the following error

\\DESKTOP is not accessible
No permission to access resource.

I have a workgroup set up on both machines which both are a part of.

I can ping both machines from each other both using the ip address and the computer name.

My question is :-

What do i have to change to get the laptop to be able to access shared files on the desktop.

NB - when i boot the laptop i have to login.
I set up this network using the Network set up wizard on the XP box.

I have tried numerous things in numerous posts none of which seem to work. However to be fair i havent seen a single straight answer to this question which crops up again and again. Which leads me to believe that most people dont actually no the answer.

So any thorough answers detailing the correct steps to solve this issue would be appreciated.

Thanks.

it would be a good idea to post some of things you had tried.

have you tried to disable the firewall on XP.

or is file sharing enabled

sounds like that account being used on the laptop is not present on the XP desktop. Disable the xp firewall to confirm it is not playing a part in the access denied