here's what i have done:

forwarded port 25565 

added the ports to windows firewall exception list

have played on the server before, and so have others

the thing is, the server worked on my netbook. now i use my netbook daily so it can't be running as my server all the time. so what i did was i set up an older laptop that i had with an internet connection and such and tried running the server software on there. it totally failed. i tried to access the server but alas i failed. i am an uber nerd and have tried everything. someone please help! both computers are running xp sp3.