does vista play nicely with xp pro cause i want to do this? sorry for stealing your prob michaelp

ahem *cracks fingers*. (sorry but this is a long one)
in my experience networking xp machines with the 'wizard' is a joke. its hard enough to get 2 machines to recognise each other using the same os.
do you know much about networking (ip addressing, file shares, subnet mask, etc.) because if you don't know much about networking feel free to ignore this post - im only going to cover the basics just in case you do know what im on about.

very first thing is get a network cable tester - make sure the cables are intact (theres 8 wires in each cable, however typically only 4 are used except on gigabit ethernet)

now i don't know exactly how you have connected the machines (router, hub, switch, other?) so if you have used a router or a switch then you have to configure it to allow communication. my suggestion is just do the 2 wired ones first - get them 100% then you can work on the wireless.

anyway if you know how to change network settings without the wizard check these things in order.
1. all machines using same subnet mask (for your purpose a simple subnet will suffice so 255.255.255.0)
2. all machines ip address on same subnet (so 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2 etc. it helps to use fixed ip addresses because then you can always get to the machines shares with a browser)
3. make sure file sharing is enabled on all the machines and that the file and printer sharing protocol is installed - also check to see if client for microsoft networks is installed (usually is unless the protocol was removed by someone).
4. if you have a firewall allow local network access to and from all the ip addresses chosen as above. if you use a router or switch allow the machines to communicate via its settings.
5. when you first try and see the other machines you have to wait for each machine to recognise each other - this typically takes up to 10 minutes. if you want to test it type in an explorer window \\ip address (so e.g. \\192.168.0.2)
6. if still no luck check and see if all network related windows services are enabled or active.

these are the absolute basics - the wizard usually does all this transparently but its much more pleasing to work it all out yourself - you get a gratification from knowing you can do something better than microsoft. :)

Thanks anger and richluk, your suggestions worked!
+Randomness for you. :D

glad you got it working :)