Windows 7: Going nuts trying to network XP to Win7

I am having an apparently common problem: my Windows 7 machine can access my XP/SP3 laptop just fine but though the XP can see the Windows 7, it can't access it at all. What I get is...

\\[Windows 7 machine] is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource... yada yada yada.

I've looked up the topic and this phrase and find lots of answers, some ridiculously complex (registry hacks?), most of them contradicting each other. Nothing I've found offers a step-by-step how-to.

I'm one of those who skipped Vista, so I'm not familiar with all the new security. When my home network was all XP, I just connected a computer to the workgroup, gave folder permissions, and go. (I don't use passwords.)

So how do I do it now?

There are/will be a lot of us moving to 7 straight from XP, and we need some sort of "you used to do this, now you must do this" type of guide.

Thanks for any help, and please pardon any frustration. This should SO NOT be a problem!

Ed

First, ensure your workgroups are named the same. I can't remember exactly which SP's made the change but by default some were named WORKGROUP and other HOMEGROUP (I could be thinking of Vista though). Also keep in mind that if you're using Windows 7's homegroup, that it's IPV6 based and you will need it running on your XP machine. Hope this helps.

captain, i havent ran vista primarily, but i would say that case was vista dependant as i never seen "Homegroup" for workgroup name.

Ed, its best to have passwords setup on both machines. They dont have to be the same user/pass. When you are on XP and go to network explorer, click the 7 machine, you should then get the prompt for identification. Enter your Windows 7 user/pass. Should log right in.

Other things to make sure of: Discovery (sounds like its on), Use user accounts and passwords to connect to other computers, and file sharing turned on.

Alternative(s) to use/try: Turn off password protected sharing. Also toggle the 128/64 bit encryption for file sharing connections.