OK, Eric, I think we're up and running!

Kept my Laptop connected directly to ethernet (router>Cable Modem>Ethernet cable) and got it all cleaned up. (Many varied scans done and found Smitfraud and a Dropper Trojan, plus some deeply hidden spyware.) All clean now, runs very smoothly. crunchie thinks my hijackthis log looks good, but I posted a Silent Runners log at his suggestion and he'll take a look.

So I swapped back: hooked Desktop up to router, re-inserted adaptor into notebook. First try I got "page cannot be displayed" although notebook had a good connection showing. A reboot fixed that.

Had trouble with printer, took me an hour or so of reading posts here and web articles to figure out I missed some very basic steps, and will post for anyone that might benefit in future. It was a combination of firewall settings and Network ID (SSID).

First mistake: I did not enter my IP addresses as "Trusted Zones" in Zone Alarm. So in Desktop I entered Notebook IP as trusted, and in Notebook I added Desktop IP as trusted. (I always have left XP firewall off, and made sure it was still off on both machines-- it was.)

From the Desktop, I went to Printers and Faxes Properties>Sharing tab and shared the printer. XP wanted to fight with me on putting a share name in, but just kept trying till it worked (for some crazy reason there was nothing in "share name" box and it wouldn't accept what I put in, but finally after repeated attempts Windows automatically put in the correct printer name.

Next I went to Notebook Control Panel>Printers>Add Printer. That's where I ran into trouble. No matter what I tried, the Wizard did not list my printer, and Wizard kept hanging when searching for one. I sat here thinking about it and it dawned on me, it must be the Network name (so basic!) The laptop already displays the SSID name in the Netgear Configuration software. But the Desktop didn't display it anywhere. So I went into Desktop Network Connetions>Local Area Connections>Properties and changed the name from "Local Area Network" to the same SSID I used for the router. Once I did that, I went back to the notebook, sailed through the Add Printer wizard and there was my printer listed.

So, in a nutshell, the two basic things I neglected to do were 1) assign the firewall permission to communicate with each computer and 2) make sure that the desktop and notebook shared the same Network ID/ SSID.

Anyway, this is resolved (for now!) If you want to mark the thread resolved, can we wait a couple days, make sure I keep the connection on the notebook? I'll post back whether I encounter problems or it's continued smooth sailing.

Thanks for the assist, I greatly appreciate it!

~Kat