Can’t ping a workgroup computer in xp pro home network

I noticed similar problems, but no resolutions.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

I have a laptop and a desktop on a home network. I can ping and access network shares from the desktop to the laptop. I cannot however see the desktop or its shares from any other computer.
I tried simple shares, and am now working on the shares that resemble domain shares.
After loading a lltp layer, I can at least see the
desktop machine. I just get an access denied error.
I have unistalled my antivirus program, and I am not running windows firewall.
I have an identical user for both machines. I have tried to add this user to both machines. I think these may be different. Office1\dad probably does not equal gateway2000\dad