98SE to XP Networking Problems

woodbutcher · December 7th, 2004, 03:21 PM

Running a Netgear 614 wireless router, win xp using the SIS 900 nic on mobo, win98 running a add-in hardline Netgear FA311 nic adapter. Wireless not being used.
Can access the internet on both machines, winxp shows shared on win98 under network places and can access shared files.
Under network neighborhood on win 98 machine box pops up with 'unable to access network'
Can ping router and other comp on both setups.
I've set the Gateway, IP and subnet mask manually on the 98 comp, no luck.
Have uninstalled and re-installed nic on 98 comp multiple times. Driver was DLd from Netgear.
Also tried to run 'netsetup' from a floppy created by XP.

Any thoughts on what might be the problem.

Thanks in advance

WB

mazdarx7-64 · December 7th, 2004, 10:47 PM

You may need to setup file and printer sharing on the XP box. XP file sharing can be tricky when your not using 2 XP boxes. Also if you are sharing files on XP and the file system is NTFS, the 98 box will not be able to read them anyway.

woodbutcher · December 8th, 2004, 09:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mazdarx7-64

You may need to setup file and printer sharing on the XP box. XP file sharing can be tricky when your not using 2 XP boxes. Also if you are sharing files on XP and the file system is NTFS, the 98 box will not be able to read them anyway.

File and print sharing are set up on both boxes.
As far as the file system, I thought I had read that was not an issue.

WB

elmers · December 8th, 2004, 09:42 AM

"I thought I had read that was not an issue."

Thats right its not. However it takes a little while for file sharing to start working on win98. If you can ping and use the internet, where xp is the server, its prolly all set up correctly, it just takes like 5 min for the computers to start communicating.

Also firewalls? Most likley you have a firewall running on xp that blocks traffic from the win98 box.

Im assuming the xp box has the internet connection thats being shared. In that case you should have the win98 box set to auto ip address with the xp box's ip(ie. 192.168.0.1) as the gateway. If you run ipconfing (command prompt) it should show ip addresses, they should differ only in the last number.

kwebb · December 8th, 2004, 12:14 PM

Correct. The file system is completely irrelevant over a network.

Besides the good suggestion about looking at your firewall you can also NOT use Network Neighborhood. In fact I recommend not using it. It is a disaster without having WINS or DNS on your LAN to resolve names. Editing your hosts or LMHOSTS can help solve this problem however I'd suggest two things.

Disable the master browser on the 98 machine. And just use the UNC path to get to your shares, assuming they are setup properly. syntax is \\servername\share or you can just use \\servername to browse. MUCH better way to get to network resources when using an outdated system like a 98 box.

woodbutcher · December 8th, 2004, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elmers

"
Im assuming the xp box has the internet connection thats being shared. In that case you should have the win98 box set to auto ip address with the xp box's ip(ie. 192.168.0.1) as the gateway. If you run ipconfing (command prompt) it should show ip addresses, they should differ only in the last number.

I didn't think the xp box would be sharing the internet. Setup is with the cable modem to the Netgear wireless router. Both the 98 and xp boxes are hardwired in to two of the available four jacks. The routers address is 192.168.0.1 with the 98 box being 192.168.0.2 and the xp box being 192.168.0.3.
As far as the firewall, sygate personal and I have not configured that except fot the TCP/IP pinging access. Configuring the firewall is something I have to look into. I still want to set up a print server and by default the one I bought has it's default address set to 192.168.0.1 (same as the router) which should be OK?

kwebb, I did see the master setting in the properties, when it comes to UNC, editing hosts and the like i'm out of my league (which would be the pee wee league when it comes to networking). Still working on it though

WB

elmers · December 8th, 2004, 03:37 PM

As far as internet sharing is concerned I didnt realize it was a router, I thought it was a switch with a cable modem attached to the xp box.

Your ips look good, just make sure your firewalls are set correctly. I use kerio firewall (which I recommend

which has an option to allow file and printer sharing under windows. As for sygate I dumped it because I had trouble setting it up to work with me lan.

woodbutcher · December 11th, 2004, 12:24 PM

Well, after a lot of cursing I walked away from the comp for a couple of days. Installed a different ethernet adapter, a D-link DFE-530TX+ card. Booted up, installed the drivers, rebooted and using the XP cd went to install the networking software. I expected to see the same 'unable to find hardware' message that I have seen 4 times with the Netgear card, instead the wizard popped up and installed the software. Everything seems to be OK, even the Sygate Firewall apparently see's the network and lets the comps 'talk' to each other with no problems.
So, go figure, the Netgear adapter refused to work with the Netgear router but the D-Link worked fine.
All in all things are good in my 'hood'

Thanks for the input
WB