help please!!!

Have you added the shared printer to your laptop using Control Panel (or whatever Vista calls it)? (Warning: I have no experience whatsoever with Vista).

yes and it still doesnt work... i think im going to convert my laptop to windows xp cause vista apparently only accepts certain printers
(but the older ones) not even a person at ibm could figure it out!  

Go to Control Panel\Network Map. You may or may not see your Printer in the routing config. In any case, on the top toolbar of your Network explorer you'll see Network and Sharing Center. Use Setup a Connection or Network (your Network Setup Wizard) to setup the printer.

1) Ensure that the Workgroup is off the same name in both the computers.
2) In Vista Go to "Network Sharing and center" you will find your type of network, it should be set to "Private" and not public. If it is listed as Public, click on the tiny blue colored Customize link and change it to Private.
3) Try connecting to printer
a)\\Ip address of Computer 1 in run box or
b)Browse for the printer via add a printer in Printers via Control panel.

If you are getting any further errors then firewall needs to be configured on the one or both the computers (easiest way to check this is ensure ping computer 1 works on computer 2 and Viceversa)

Any further errors - Check in google.

Regards
RockBala (from India)