Can't connect to shared XP Machine through finder

[ndassassin]

Hi guys, I have a 13" Unibody Macbook that is about 5 months old, and I can't connect to a certain XP PC through the left "Shared" dropdown in finder. It shows up and if I click on it it says Connection Failed at the top of the window. If I select "Connect As" it says "Connection Failed. The server may not exist or it is not operation at this time. Check the server name or IP address and your network connection and try again." I am able to connect to a different XP Machine that shows up in the same dropdown through this method. I can however connect by going to finder, go, connect to sever and then typing in smb://xxx.xxx.x and it then brings up all the shared drives which I can then mount. The weird thing is I used to be able to connect via the method not working, but one day out of the blue it quit. Any suggestions? I know I can just use the connect to server way but this is kind of a pain to do all the time. It would be much easier and nicer to just be able to select the computer from the left dropdown in Finder. Anyone?