I think it is which ever way you do the set up- from the desktop or from the laptop.
You may want to set up each one so it will see the other - Depends on if you want to share files between the machines or not..

It's been awhile since we used a shared network here.

We all use the same wireless router to get to the internet here - but I don't have file sharing enabled, only for specific uses- then I turn sharing off again.

It's really pretty easy unless someone changed some default settings on the desktop or if antivirus or firewall are set at very high security level