xp media center 2002 sp2 workgroup naming on a laptop

Depending on what I name my workgroup on my laptop, the problem will
result in a pop up saying the network is not accessible .... The
network path was not found.

On my laptop, if I name my workgroup anything besides the same name as
the SSID (wireless router), it works fine and I can see the laptop
under my network places. If I name it by the same name as the SSID, I
get the pop up above. The odd thing is I don't have this problem on
my xp pro sp2 desktop. The 2 systems don't have the same software
including firewalls. Neither runs xp's firewall (desktop has
ZoneAlarm, laptop has kaspersky). Perhaps the two systems have no
relationship to each other but just thought I'd mention it.

I've tried for days googling for answers and so far no luck. Any
ideas why the pop up for using one name but not others?