I wish I knew a sure fire way to get it to work. Seems to me that I always just arrive at a working network by happenstance. I am never really sure of what I did to make it work. I just fumble around until suddenly, it's working.
Frustrating!
It's probably one of those things that's right under my nose.

Both systems probably only require a complete shut down and then starting back up anew.
But networking is working. I can jump on the laptop and see the shared folder on the desktop system.
The laptop can access the main desktop system. The main desktop system just isn't seeing the laptop.
Both are PCLinuxoS, in case I forgot to mention this.