Alright, you networking eggheads...

[flawed_ethics]

The age old problem beteeen Win 98 and XP. Back when my roommate and his 98 laptop were wirelessly on a network with my 98 desktop, things were working fine and dandy.

Since then, he's bought a new laptop with XP. We updated the router's firmware so it could 'see' him and allow him to connect, so the router is set up correctly. He can surf now, but we can't file share. We've enabled 'Easy file sharing' or something to that effect, under Tools>View in My Computer on the XP. MS's website said it would solve the problem. And it sort of has. Now he can read and copy files from my 98 and his old laptop. Thing is, I can't access his shared files. I've added NetBEUI to our 98s, so our 98s can still see each other (for no apparent reason, we couldn't see each other once the XP machine could see us).

So, how can I make his XP machine visible to our 98 machines on our network?

Feel free to ask any prodding questions.

 

[Ezzy]

Try here!

 

[BobJones69]

A tricky one... try going into Windows Explorer and directly accessing the computer using it's IP eg. type
"\\192.168.0.3"
in the address bar if the WinXP machine has that address.

If you can access it via that method, then check the workgroups of both computers. Been a while since I had to stuff around with Win98 so more will come back to me in a bit

 

[Hexxed]

Ahh, windows98 and networking. The OS where even two systems running the exact same OS could have consistent networking problems. I oh so fondly remember the days of yore in hooking up 95/98 and NT machines together. Of hours wasted getting lans set up for games..


I helped a friend transfer stuff over from his 98 machine to the new XP one recently and was rather surprised that the 98 box saw the XP machine right away. I had to use "Find Computer" search to actually see it and connect to it though, so you might try that. Double check to make sure all machines are on the same "workgroup" as well. Good luck..

 

[Exciteher]

UPFD!! ( You poor f'in dude!)

I feel your pain.

Sounds like your folder shares and permissions on the xp machine are not set correctly...then again its microsoft so who knows! Start with the basics!

step 1) After making sure you can each ping each other, you are in the same workgroup, have "file and printer sharing for microsoft networks" installed and have "client for microsoft networks" installed..etc, etc, etc...then:

Step 2) Make sure that the folders you want access to on the xp machine are shared, (right click on the with administrator rights, goto folder, "sharing and security", "share as") When you share a folder, the "permissions" tab should become active, click it. With simple file sharing you should see a share called "Everyone", (if not "add" it).. check the box's for the permissions of the "Everyone" share you want that share to have, by default xp enables "read only" for that share. But sounds like you need to give it full "full control"... Now, you should at least be able to get there by typing the path in a browser..ie: \\xp machine name\path to folder\foldername ...and be able to swap files etc.

Everyone should be able to "see" this machine (all the machines actually) and all the shared folders now in their "Network Places" if you are in the same workgroup...but then again..

I don't think NetBEUI is supported in XP, may cause odd conflicts...but if all else fails, you should try loading and enabling Nwlink NetBIOS in tcpip on all the machines instead.

Also do everything one step at a time...and reboot all machines...reboot all machines...etc. between steps. What a drag huh?

Another way is to start over! Windows XP can get all fucked up and things that should work..do not! Make sure all the stuff in step 1 is in place, the all folder shares on all machines are in place (as per Step 2), and make a new LAN connection on the xp machine using the make "new connection wizard",...at the end of that process you have the option to make a network setup floppy disk... use that to setup all the win98 machines....

For tough cases..it might be easier to get everything working on all machines using multiport router or hub using ethernet.... and then impose the wireless layer...

There is some good stuff about networking and trouble shooting at the Wingate website... more down to earth...yet more fundamental,specific and step by step... than the dumbed down stuff on the Microsoft site...google "Wingate"

Only after getting all of this to work..should you turn on firewalls, tune your security settings etc...

You think this is a pain, try getting a VPN between an XP host and a win98 client to work!

Good Luck!

 

[HornyHenry]

File systems

Assuming you try all the above suggestions and it still doesn't work,
I think it is because XP is normally NTFS, or NT File System, where Win '98 is FAT. XP can "see" Win '98, but Win '98 can never see XP.
The only way it could is if the XP system was formatted in FAT instead of NTFS.

Yes, the 2 can network together ok, but only the XP system can pull or push files. The Win '98 can't.

 

[tron]

listen to HornyHenry.

 

[BobJones69]

Assuming you try all the above suggestions and it still doesn't work,
I think it is because XP is normally NTFS, or NT File System, where Win '98 is FAT. XP can "see" Win '98, but Win '98 can never see XP.
The only way it could is if the XP system was formatted in FAT instead of NTFS.

Yes, the 2 can network together ok, but only the XP system can pull or push files. The Win '98 can't.

Thats just because you haven't altered the security descriptors to allow the Win98 machine to access the files too. Just sharing the files isn't enough.