Can't Share Laptop on Network

Couple of things.. Make sure NetBios is installed in the network settings of the laptop, and also make sure that you are in the same workgroup as your PCs.

9 times out of 10, sharing problems are caused by the Microsoft Firewall being turned on; disable it and try again. If that doesn't work, check your Local Area Connection in the Network Connections under the Control Panel. Make sure that your laptop is using the correct NIC for your configuration. Laptops are more prone to these types of problems because they are often equipped with both an ethernet port for local connections and a WiFi card for wireless connections. If your laptop is checking for your local nodes on the wrong NIC, it's not going to find them, but other nodes would still find the laptop, because the second NIC is also connected. Don't give up because you at least know the hardware is working properly; your network settings just aren't configured properly.

I have had the same problem. I fixed it by setting up a user that exists on both the laptop and the PC. Also giving admin privs to that user may help. When accessing the shared resource, you may have to enter the said username. ie: LAP2//User then the password

hey, thanks for the posts folks. Simple enough suggestions, I can't tell you how long and how often I've had to revisit this subject for me pesonally at home. What a drag. But looks like I'm finally getting somewhere.

My suggestions:
1. make sure all nodes are on the same workgroup name
2. make atleast one file/folder a network share on EACH node, by right clicking and turning on share.
3. install netbui/ipx on all nodes.
4. in network places, start the 'add network place' wizard and either \\name\share or search for the share. If you search, this will be a good indicator whether or not it will work. If a share shows up, then it's all good. If not, you're out of luck even using a path.
5. other nigth I also added all my internal ips to the lmhost file of each computer. Don't know if this helped.

Something useful that I found is using net use:
“net use \\computername\sharename * /user:username”

The * is to prompt for the password, instead of * you can add your password on the same line. Hope this help to someone.