optimizing winxp/Vista home network

[freakyhair]

Hi all,

To start, is there a good guide that you know of to sharing files between a windows XP machine and a vista machine?

I have a desktop PC which has all my movies and music wired to a WRT54G router. I have a Dell XPS laptop running Vista connected via wireless to the same router.

When I try to watch a movie (~1-2 GB divx or x264) on my laptop over the network, it pretty much isn't possible (tried VLC, media player). I've even tried copying the file over, then watching it, but it sits there in Vista 'calculating' the time to copy it over for what seems like forever (30+ minutes?)

I've also tried hooking up the vista laptop to the router via cat5E, and it's still slow for large files.

Is there something I can try? Sorry if this is something dumb, I've tried google, and just thought someone knew a trick or two.

Thanks!