I an trying to connect a Win 2000 desktop with a Vista notebook.
I use dial-up mode, so this is only for file and print sharing, as well as a wireless access point for the notebook.

Earlier today, D-Link guided me thru the set of the router, but then left me high and dry.

We got to the point where the notebook could ping both the desktop and itself, but the desktop timed out when trying to ping the notebook.

The network on the notebook sees only itself.
The network on the desktop sees only itself.

Both computers are using the same workgroup name.
On the desktop, I assigned Yadda as the network id.

On the Vista system, the connection list includes:

Yadda Waiting for users to connect
Yadda Security-enabled network
MyWireless Security-enabled network

PLus a few other networks, likely belonging to my neighbors.

What do I need to do to get this working?

ALL the drives on the Win 2000 system appear to be set for file sharing, and I believe that the Vista drives are too.

Am I running into a security software issue?

Desktop has Kasprsky AV 7, notebook has NIS 2008

Is there a step by step guide for the networking disadvantaged?

Nothing is wrong with your Desktop or Notebook. Your anti-virus or personal firewall might be interfering a bit; if you suspect, disable it.

The main cause? It is called Windows Networking. Basically, all nodes in your Network Neighborhood are participating in a process called Master Election, or something like that. And they are having a hard time/long time achieving that because you are running similar Windows OS, for i.e XP and Vista, XP and 2000 Professional, etc., all of which are client class OS'es. Inject a server OS like 2000/2003/2008 server into your network and that process will be much faster and you'll be less frustrated.

Each node is broadcasting packets using a protocol (not sure NetBios or NetBui or something like that) that operates on top of UDP (a main protocol in current TCP/IP networks). UDP is on top of IP.

If you want to know more about MS networks, I suggest reading docs from SAMBA site at www.samba.org. You'll learn much faster than reading overly verbose pages at microsoft sites. No joke and no bias here!