it is a bit confusing.... I am not totally sure of what's going on myself. When you list network connections on the Desktop machine it does not show the T1 network which the laptop shows it is connecting to. When you look at the laptop - T1 is the only network name you can see until you goto network places click on the network icon and access properties - then if you click the wireless connections tab it shows both networks i.e. the T1 network it is connecting to and the one which my Desktop shows exclusively- called keynet - keynet is the one which I want the damn laptop to access. If I shift access to this network, however, the wireless connection is lost... and then it automatically connects back to T1.

I set up all the file permissions under the KeyNet network config so I'm not surprised things don't work under the T1 network...... However it is not the file permissions that need sorting here it is access to the machine.... will try the firewall and report back!!!!

couple of other things.... the laptop runs XP home and the desktop XP pro. The desktop has NTFS file system and the laptop FAT... I assume this is not a potential problem? Don't think it should be as the desktop is quite happy to connect to the laptop.

Not sure about confusion, however ... the SSID  or as I called it, the Network name, is Keynet,  the workgroup  is set to Knights Rest - both initialliy set up on the Desktop.  When I bought the new laptop it automatically found a connection and called it T1 (ie. it did not see Keynet). The laptop can see the workgroup Knights Rest under T1 and can also see two members. Laptop (i.e. itself) and Master - which is the Desktop computer name. However when you click on 'Master' the laptop tells you that you do not have the permission... contact administrator etc.  

When I look at network connections on the laptop it tells me that I have two preferred networks - 1= T1 - (it uses and set up itself) and  Keynet viz that set up on the Desktop. Keynet is not accessible at all. The other way around - it seems that the Desktop - under KeyNet can see Knights Rest and two workgroup members laptop and itself (master) and access both. If I try to ping the network address for Keynet from the laptop it gets no reply. Pinging the otherway is ok.

As mentioned before the Desktop uses XP pro and the laptop XP home - two different file systems (FAT and NTFS). The desktop is connected to an Addon router through an Ethernet cable.....

Note I have tried turning off the firewalls and it has no effect. When I look at exceptions under the firewall it shows KeyNet on the Desktop and just Wireless Network on the laptop.

I am now getting to the point of riniging the European branch of these Seattle cowboys! Auto connection...............

That is quite possible - however why can't I see it on the desktop? How can I get rid of it if that is the case? And even if I disable it on the laptop, the laptop does not want to know the Keynet network.... i.e. it doesn't work - and I cannot ping the address either! I really don't understand why...... If I can start again without stripping the disk how do I do it? Problem is I bought the laptop to both get onto the Internet - it does that ok and talk to my Desktop - it won't... It is no real good to be if it won't talk to the desktop as I want to share a lot of files between them.

This is what I mean by automation, when things go wrong it can be an obstacle rather than a help....