Winxp Network help

Hi i have winXP on my laptop and desktop, the desktop is plugged directly into my wireless router and laptop is connected to the internet, via the wireless connection.

I had it setup through some sort of luck where my laptop and desktop had shared folders so i could quickly transfer files back and forth, but my laptops MBRs died and i had to reformat, now I cant get them to find eachother even when i type in \\’computername’

I was hoping someone could take the time to tell me the steps to setting it up for the computers to be able to reach eachother starting from a fresh format becasue some how I cannot get it to work again.

Thanks VERY much in advance.