thanks ruggb...
in classifying the network, i have three options, "Home network" "Work Network" and "Public Network"
Home says it is for Win7 Only. So I set up the network as a "Work Network" which says the other computers have to be XP, Vista or 7 . So that looks like the right choice...
Then when looking at the WIRELESS NETWORK CONNECTION window there are 5 buttons; details, wireless properties, then below PROPERTIES, DISABLE, Diagnose. In the properties button there are two tabs; networking and sharing. In the sharing tab I have both boxes (Allow other network users to connect through this computer's internet connection" and Allow other network users to control or disable the shared internet connection" ) There is also a box in between those two check box sections tha tis titled HOME NETWORKING CONNECTION. the entry is different here than anywhere else. (??)
Then in the wireless properties, the security tab shows "WPA2-Personal" as the security type and "AES" as the Encryption Type. then below it has the network security key.
I have this information written down. Then also in the wireless properties section there is a link to 'copy this network profile to USB Flash" which I did.
I tried to use this flash in the 2 xp computers only to receive the error message that "can not find information or information is useless" (slight paraphrase).
I tried to manually set the information on xp and still no good. I get the error message " Problem applying profile"