Question : Intermittent network visibility of XP and Vista workstations

I have an XP sp3 desktop running Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 and a Vista Premium 64 bit laptop running Norton 360. My router is connected to the desktop.

When I disable firewalls on both machines, they are sometimes able to see each other. When I turn the firewalls on again, they still see each other.

When I turn on the laptop, it is able to get onto the wireless network but it doesn't see the desktop machine and vice versa.

What do I need to do to establish consistent visibility?

Answer : Intermittent network visibility of XP and Vista workstations

There is an excellent description here by LeeTutor on how to set up Home networking with XP and Vista, although in the event the problem was fixed with a workaround ... see the last comment in the thread >
"Trying to share XP folders with Vista":
http://www.experts-exchange.com/OS/Microsoft_Operating_Systems/Windows/Windows_Vista/Q_23249000.html#a21150112