Vista - Home Basic to Home Premium Workgroup Connection

Hello,

I am trying to connect my laptop (vista home premium) to my desktop (vista
home basic) through work grouping but I am not successful. I did this all
day long with PCs and LPs that had XP Pro. XP Pro had multiple checklist and
other helpful features. Vista may but I cant seem to find them.

I have both set for the same workgroup.
I have folders shared
I have networking window configured to allow file and print sharing.

I was able to, at one point, access my laptop from the desktop but not the
other way around. I have the firewalls configured the same and have tried
accessing them without the firewall. Now I can access anything from one
another. I re-checked and triple checked everything.

Am I over looking something? Does anyone have a good short effective
checklist for this in Vista? Is vista home basic non compatible to do this?
Also, like XP Pro, will Vista allow for sharing internet connection through
one PC?

Thank you in advance!