peer to peer network problem

Clarifications

It looks like you may need to set the IP and subnet's manually on those machines. That's my best guess... Well as long as the cable is good.

Right click on My Computer in hte start menu, select Properties from the drop down menu.

CLick on the "Computer Name" tab.
Click on Change.
Make sure "Workgroup" is selected on both machines and enter the same workgroup name on both machines. make sure the Computer Name is different for each computer.

If your cross over cable is good , XP should auto set the IP address on each machine and they should be able to communicate. The Limited access message is indicating the computers did not aquire an IP address through DHCP so they are notsure if there is nayone else on the network with them.

They expect to see a DHCP server to give them an address. When they don't they Autoconfig the NIC and display the arning message.