This has me stumped...

I am running a 2 pc network with ICS through a crossover cable. Both PC's use WinXP. The host can browse the client with no problem. The ICS works fine. The problem is the client has problems browsing the host. My Network Places and the View Network Computer screens come up fine, but when I click on files shared on the host, nothing happens for about 4-5 minutes. Then the client finally finds the file on the host. Besides being extremely slow this problem also has a quirk. If I try to access a file on the host wiht the client it begins (slowly) trying to gain access, but if I immediately re-enter My Network Places and try to access the same file, I can grab it right away. I have the WinXP firewall disabled, and I am using Norton Internet Security, but the problem is exactly the same with Norton disabled. Please help

Yep, about 10X. I got so frustrated that I reformatted and installed WinME *(vomit)* and everything works fine except that my faster computer is now running this p.o.s.-o.s. LOL

Yeah, I tried that too. I tried everything that I know of (not too awfully much). I didn't say this in the original post, but I even formatted and reistalled WinXP on the second computer with no luck prior to going back to WinME. Right now, the WinXP connnects to the internet (ME uses ICS), and both are working fine. The thing that I found most puzzling and frustrating before was that the Internet Connection Sharing worked, but I could not access my local network (read: other computer) from either computer. I could not figure that out. The error I always got was the "......not available. You may not have permission to access.... " but it took several minutes before it came up.

Where there's a will, there's a way-even when it comes to screwing up.