Trying to connect 2 mac mini's as a network, and sharing printers

Question

Hello to all. Please help me as I'm a newbie on these Mac mini's. I am trying to create a network between the two mini's and I would like to share files between them and be able to print from the upstairs mini to the printers hooked up to the downstairs mini.
Mini 1 (downstairs) has 2 printers attached directly, a HP color laserjet and a Epson 800 Artisan
Mini 2 (upstairs)
Mini 1 and mini 2 are both connected via ethernet to the Netgear router.
Here is my problem:
on the mini 1, I can print and even access the mini 2 via sharing. I can screen share and view folders that is on the mini 2.
However, from the mini 2 computer, I cannot get the screen share and folder sharing from the mini 1 computer. I show that it is there, but when I try to connect, I get a message that states: CONNECTION FAILED The server may no exist or it is not operation at this time. Check the server name or ip address and your network connection and try again.
On the mini 2 I also cannot get anything to print. It doesn't even show that the printers that are supposedly shared at the other computer are present. I tried to add them, via default icon or even ip from the print and fax preferences, but I get error messages and cannot print.
ON THE mini 2: When I used the 'default printer' icon, both of my printers showed up using bonjour shared and I 'added' them. But when I tried to print, I got a message stating:
*Connecting to downstairs-mac-mini.local on port 631...*
*Unable to connect to printer; will retry in 30 seconds....*
I deleted both printers as bonjour shared and tried to make the printers an ip internet shared, and put in the ip address xxx.xxx.1.2 (mini 1 ip address) but I got a message saying that that ip address was being used. I changed the ip address to xxx.xxx.1.5 (mini 2 ip address) and it looked like it was going to print, but it automatically goes to pause. (doesn't matter which printer it is, I can't print from either. I never did get either of the printers to work on mini 2.
I have done the following: On the mini 1, the printers are marked shared. On both computers the shared folders are marked shared, along with screen sharing. I also added all files on both computers to be shared as to who can read only or read and write.
Also, I have also gone to the 'system' icon and on internet sharing, I have made both computers to be shared, with the appropriate check marks done on the list of services I want shared.
ON both the mini 1 and mini 2 I have set the network to XXXXX Home and it automatically configured and states that my ethernet is connected.
On the downstairs computer, I can see the 'shared computer, and am able to access the files.
BUT on the other computer upstairs, I do see the downstairs computer, but it fails in the connection.
I noticed that the ip address for each computers state the same number, except the last digit is different. xxx.xxx.1.2 for the downstairs mini and xxx.xxx.1.5 for the upstairs mini. The router number and dns server along with the subnet mask are the same numbers between both of the computers.
I am going to set the power settings NOT to sleep when idle so that might help when I am trying to view files on each mini's.
So right now I am stuck with how to make the upstairs mini to print on the downstairs printers, and how to see the downstairs mini on the upstairs mini display.
Any help from anyone is very much appreciated. Sorry this is so long. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Mini 1 Allow only essential services
Mini 2 Allow all incoming connections
I changed mini 1 to allow all incoming connections
That did the trick for viewing, now will that help me on my printer issue also? YES! wahoo! Thanks so much, I would have not thought about checking the firewall.
Kudos to you and all your help!