XP/W7 networking issue

Hi,
I am having major networking issues.
I’ve two systems that I’m trying to network. One’s a laptop running Windows 7 Beta (Build 7057) and the other is a desktop running Windows XP Pro SP3.

I’ll detail the problem first, and then describe what I’ve done to eliminate the problem (but failed miserably so far). The desktop (windows XP) can see the laptop (W7) and has access to the shared folders and everything. No problem on that account. The laptop (W7), however, cannot see or access the folders on the desktop (windows XP). I want complete and smooth sharing between the two systems.

The network is setup in the following way:
Motorola Modem --> Wireless Netgear Router --> Desktop (wired) and Laptop (wireless)

The desktop and laptop are assigned ip’s from the router.

I turned off the third-party firewall (Kaspersky) on the desktop as well as the Windows Firewall and also the Windows Firewall on the laptop (W7) and tried to run the network then but no go. The computers can, however, ping each other.

I’ve installed the LLTP (something something) on the desktop (XP) but that didn’t really do much except for making the XP desktop visible in the Network Map tool on W7.

On W7, network discovery is ON, file and printer sharing is ON, public folder sharing is ON, password protection is OFF. The network location has been set as private as well.

On XP, I ran the network wizard but again no change.

Strangely enough, I can access the shared folders on XP if I type //computername in W7 and I’ve full access to them then. But they just don’t show in my network folder.

I’m at a loss as to what to do next. I’ve been going through the forums and one of the solutions people seem to be offering is that I should make matching user accounts and passwords on both the computers but that just sounds messed and impractical. It’s the least efficient way of solving this problem. Can someone please help?

I just want a simple file sharing network for my home. Office comes later, there i’ve a domain so that’s gonna be a completely different sorta headache I guess :/