I'm using ics but the connection i have between computers says cable is unplugged and it's

I have a desktop and a laptop I want my laptop to use the interent connection of my desktop using windows xp internet sharing i have used the setup home network wizard and done everything accordingly my desktop has a constant on connection the desktop has two network adapter one i use to connect to the internet the other i just installed so my laptop can connect to the internet using the desktops internet connection i have all the wires connected but on both the laptop and the desktop they both say that the network cable is unplugged i'm using a standard ethernet cord this there a special cord i should be using for this kind of a connection between computers or am i just missing something comepletely?

I'm using ics but the connection i have between computers says cable is unplugged and it's not????antivirus scan

If you are connecting computer to computer, you will need a cross over cable. Easy and cheap to find.

In either case, it sounds to me more like the cable you are using may be broken, that is to say that it is not making a proper connection. the cable may have bent one too many ways. Try another one first if you have a spare.

EDIT:

There is a difference between a cross-over cable and a regular cat5 cable, two of the cables inside are exchanged with each others position at one end. You can see what I mean here http://www.littlewhitedog.com/content-8.... as you can see in the example given on that site, cables 2 and 6 are the ones exchanged. Either way, you got your connection working and that is what mattered the most.