I have a windows 8.1 Desktop and a windows 8.1 Laptop. I can see, but not connect to the Laptop from the Desktop at all, I can only connect to the Desktop from the Laptop as a Media Device.  Both machines can see the internet.  There is nothing on the desktop that can't be wiped out and have thought about starting over again. 

By "connect to" what do you mean? How are you trying to connect to it?

Hi JoeTollotta,

"Connect to"
Do you mean the Remote Desktop feature or something else? Have you got any error messages? Please share us more details of this, it will be very useful to understand the issue more clearly.

If we are using the Remote Desktop feature, please ensure the "Allow Remote connections to this computer" has been enabled.
We can take the following steps to have a troubleshoot:
1.Check the network type of them from the network and share center and ensure both of them are "Private".
2.Reinstall the network adapter driver from the device manager.
3.Run the following command line to reset the TCP/IP stack.
ipconfig /flushdns (Clear the dns cache)
nbtstat -RR (release and refesh NetBIOS names)
netsh int ip reset (reset ip settings)
netsh winsock reset (Reset Winsock Catalog)
Reboot
4.Turn off the firewall temporarily, please also turn off the third party antivirus software if it is installed.

If there is a third machine, we can perform a connection from this machine to have a troubleshoot.

Best regards