Networking XP to 98

My friend bought a new Dell laptop running XP. I have
been "helping" him set up a wireless network to his old 98
desktop and new cable modem connection. I put both
machines in the same Workgroup. Both are configured to use
DHCP for TCP/IP address. To make a long story short,
here's what happened:

1) Both machines get access to internet. Great.
2) Network neighborhood on laptop only shows laptop, on
desktop only shows desktop. Bad.
3) Both machines could PING one another. Good
4) On XP laptop, I used a search feature to find the
desktop via its IP address. It found it and I was able to
see the shared file system perfectly. Terrific. I mapped
it as a network drive. I obviously have a network.
5) Nothing I do on the 98 desktop lets me see the laptop.
6) I found a disk with XP system with a wizard for
installing network. Against my better judgement, I ran it.
Everything still seemed as before. The instructions now
said to run the disk on the "other" machines on the
network. Insanely I ran the disk on the 98 desktop. It
asked the obvious questions, there really isn't much to
do. When finished, the XP laptop could still see the 98
desktop, but the desktop got worse; now it can't even PING
the laptop. Yikes.

So, there I stand. I might investigate downloaded 98
service packs. I don't think my friend ever has done this?
Do you think it will help.
>-----Original Message-----
>Clearly I'm not the only one with a problem and if I've
missed the answer in
>some of the other postings sorry for asking again.
>
>I've just bought a new machine with XP which I wan't to
add to my network.
>I started by connecting the new machine and my laptop
(98) via a hub. I've
>run the wizard etc. and the LAC icon is showing
connected. The Laptop
>shows itself in network neighbourhood but not my new
machine. When I try
>to go to my Workgroup in Neighbourhood Places I get a
message box saying I
>do not have access permissions etc. I've checked the
obvious settings, the
>firewall is off and I feel ready to go back to 98 and
forget about this
>upgrading stuff. Help of the easy variety would be
gratefully received
>
>
>
>.
>