Need help networking 2 computers

[Hovik]

Howdy,
Can someone give me some tips here.

Background:
I have 1 laptop running Win98, connected in 1 room to the Michigan State University (MSU) campus ethernet. In another room I have 1 Desktop running XPHome connected to the MSU campus ethernet. Physically the computers are not attached.

Objective:
I don't have room for a lot of hardware, so I only have one printer, which is connected to the desktop. I want to make it so that I can easily print from the laptop in the other room to the desktop-attached-printer.

Preparations:
I have setup the printer to be shared in XP on the desktop. On the laptop, I have been running it on MSU network without having it configured (to msu's network specifications) at all - and it's worked fine so far. Tonight I went to the http://help.msu.edu site and followed the instructions to configure the network, and when complete restarted the system. When it re-booted I got the prompt to enter my network password, which I did. Then i got the prompt to enter the windows password, which I did. Once up and running I went to network and tried to browse "entire network" which I was not able to do, the standard "unable to browse network" warning popped up.

I am sick of this, isn't there an easier way to make this work? I mean, it can't be that hard!:curse:

[bAdWaYz]

I'm not sure if MSU allows routers to be used within their network but the fast easy way to do what you want would be to just buy a wi-fi router and file/printer share between those two computers. I would check with MUS's IT department first and see what they say about routers. If they are ok with it then the only thing I'd look for is a wi-fi router and a wi-fi adapter for the laptop but be sure the adapter is listed as "compatable with Windows 98", as Windows 98 has limited wireless support at best.