Roebuc 0 Junior Poster

Ok...I am trying to hook up a desktop through a wire to my notebook running vista. My notebook is hooked up to a wireless network. The desktop is running xp. I went into network connections, assigned the IP that I want to use to the local connection, however, my desktop is not shoing the new IP and I can not get it to renew. I also, can not find the sharing option for my wireless connection, any help would be appreciated, thanks.