WinXP's networking blues

Ok.. i know this is a known problem but its really pissing me off and I just wanted to know if anyone had any luck so far..

My Setup:
1) I have a DSL line in my bed room connected to my main computer. It has a wireless ethernet card.
2) The main computer has ICS enabled
3) I got another 2 computers in another room (which I use for testing) and a notebook which i normally use while sitting in the living room.
4) My notebook runs Windows ME and main computer, Windows XP. From the other two in the other room, one runs Windows 98/2000 (dual boot) and the other Red Hat Linux 7.2

Now the problem... the ICS works fine... all computers are able to access the internet at great speeds coz i have a really powerful wireless system spread out... Now the problem comes while communication via IPX i.e. copying files from one machine to another. It works at good speeds between pre XP computers but while copying a file from the XP machine to my ME notebook, it takes ages.

I first thought it was because it was transfering the file using TCP/IP so i disabled that for the network ethernet card... that didn't help. I read a lot about it on the net but couldn't find any solution. Then I found out the only IPX protocol installed is NetBeui. So that means there is no standard IPX protocol on the XP machine (according to me). So i tried installing it from the ethernet software floppy i had... but it never installed... always ended up in an error or something

I really need to solve this problem and fast.. any help would be appreciated

Have you got IPX installed??

I have a Win 98 server and XP Pro client, and I tried to play Warcraft 2 across the nework, but it needs ipx, now the 98 installed it all fine, and when I tried to install ipx, I had to choose something weird for the xp.

I suggest looking at your protocols on the xp machine, to cut a long story short.