In oups.com,
had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Okay, so I've uninstalled Norton and gone to windows firewall on the
XP and allowed every possible exception I could find for the ME's IP.
Now, when I ping from the ME machine, rather than timing out as it had
before, I get a message that says destination host unreachable. Any
suggestions?

First make sure the cable is good.
Second set a static IP address in the LAN (local area net connection) to:

ME: 192.168.0.2
XP: 192.168.0.1

After you type it in mouse down and click into the boxes just below it and
let it auto-fill those.

To do this you will highlight TCP/IP in the network connection properties
menu... Then you will click properties for TCP/IP... Don't worry about
DNS... Just fill in the above addresses and make sure that after you're done
with each of them that you mouse down and click in the subnet mask section
so it can auto-fill.

Now, one last thing...

Grab your cable. Pull both ends out... Flip them up and look at them so that
they're both going in exactly the same direction. Is one of the color
strands (two really) different? Is it properly crimped? I don't suppose
you've access to a tester? Maybe a multimeter? Then you could check
continuity but with the above - and I assure you - you should then be able
to ping either box and we can go from there if need be.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind,
which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply
there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations." -
Sherlock Holmes