I have XP pro desktop and XP home laptop. I connect a crossover cable and use the network wizard on both computers to establish connection without success. I try several different configurations within network wizard. Neither system can “see” the other. -windows internet connection firewall is off -my personal firewall is off -there are shared folders listed on each system -they both have unique names -they are in the same workgroup -guest accounts are active (someone said to try it) I reboot each system but no change. I then assign each system a unique IP address but with the same subnet. I try to ping without success, it times out from both systems. I inspect the crossover cable and replace it even though I found nothing wrong. Still no networking. I know that the cards work because I use them both for internet access, the desktop with an exterior DSL modem and the laptop through a network. I then try the built-in windows troubleshooter for networking but still no success. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Run the Network wizard on the PC which has the Internet connection and make the floppy disk at end of wizard and pop this in other PC.

Guest accounts are not needed. Make sure you have set a valid static IP addresses for each computer like 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2, and subnet like 255.255.255.0. And also make sure all the require XP services for networking have been enable (running) or set to automatic. Usually, you don't have to ping or search for other computers on your network when your hardware installed correctly and have all the networking services running, it will automatically show up after boot.