Set up new wireless network. Why can't I see or share most of my files?

Hi guys. I have a new laptop, and I'm trying to get a lot of my old music and photos off of my old desktop onto the new machine. I set up a wireless network. At first it didn't work at all, but after I switched off ZoneAlarm on the desktop it started working. However, the only way I can see desktop files from the laptop are if I go over to the desktop and drap files into the default "Shared Documents" folder. I've gone to all of my other folders I want to share and selected the appropriate options to share them. They all have the little hand beneath their icons now. Still, I can't see any of them from the laptop except for the default folder mentioned above.

The network also doesn't work the other way around. When I'm on the desktop and select "My Network Places", all I see are all of the folders on the desktop I selected for sharing. The laptop is nowhere to be seen.

Any ideas?

 

Hope this helps, after spending this whole weekend trying, I finally got a network set-up and printers printing.

First, read this link and follow the steps to the letter.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/honeycutt_july2.mspx

Once you have finished go to my network places> view workgroup cpmputers and make sure you have the networks reading each other........

Although zone alarm's firewall never appeared to be an issue, I had them turned off until everything started working...

(For your printers make sure you have the hand underneath the printers you are sharing...)

 

I finally figured it out. I had to go into the Windows firewall settings and uncheck a box that totally firewalls out everything on the network from seeing your files (except for "my shared folder" apparantly). Very unusual, since clicking the "share" option on a folder is supposed to cause an exception to this rule.

Still haven't tried the printer yet, and I haven't tried seeing the notebook from the desktop.

 

i tried following the instructions on that and it won't work. it keeps telling me that the printer name i typed was wrong or the printer has been taken offline from the server computer. i checked the name, it was right, and the printer is working on the server. what am i doing wrong?