Yes, Outlook needs to be the same version on both machines. Since I have office 2k on both I didnt have that problem.

As far as Firewalls go, most of my experience with them comes from ZoneAlarm. I am using Sygate now, but ZA has Inter and Intra settings. I let everything have access on the Intra, but restrict what I wanted on the Inter settings. Sygate handles it differently. Also, if you have DHCP enabled on your router, it will change IP addresses everytime the Laptop/Desktop logs into the router (found that out when trying to route packets to a specific IP on my Gated intranet)

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