regfla said:
I have xp pro and another computer has 98 se. I use a linksys broadband
firewall router model BEFSX41 VER 2 with 4 ports. I need to transfer
files
from 98se to pro comp..no burner on 98 comp. Can i just connect the 98 to
router by usb and the pro will see as another drive? What do i need to do?
That router doesn't appear to have any USB ports, just Ethernet. In any
case, the USB ports on the W98 machine are likely to be USB 1 or 1.1, which
means they will be pretty slow for file transfers. You want to use
Ethernet.
If the W98 machine has an Ethernet network card, use that - if not, get an
inexpensive one and install it. They can be had for under $20. Connect
both machines to the router with standard ethernet cables - not crossover.
After the network card is installed on the W98 machine, install TCP/IP from
the network properties pages; also install File and Printer Sharing. You'll
need to reboot, possibly several times as you install these. You may also
need to install IPX/SPX (as a protocol) on both machines.
Then, set the W98 hard disk folders to Shared and set the workgroup to the
same as the XP machine.
Now you should be able to access the W98 machine from the XP machine; this
will be easier than adding an account on the XP machine for the W98 access.
Go to Start, Run, type Explorer, and choose My Network Places. Open this
up and expand Entire Network, then Microsoft Windows Network. The
workgroup(s) will be displayed; expand this, and if you've done it right
(this may require IPX/SPX as mentioned) you will see the W98 machine and the
folders you shared.
Now you can simply open another Explorer window for your XP machine and drag
and drop files as needed.
An alternate plan, which can work *very* well, is to pop the drive out of
the W98 machine and temporarily install it in the XP machine. You'll need
to be sure jumpers are set correctly. When the XP machine restarts, the
drive will be recognised and you can get full-speed access to the files.
When done, remove the W98 drive and put it back in its machine, remembering
to reset the jumpers appropriately.
HTH
-pk
