Win98 - peer to peer shared drive on Windows XP - keeps dropping - Please help

[David Smithz]

Hi there,

A peer to peer network all access a shared drive that is attached to one of
the laptops in the network. This all works fine until a new member of staff
came along with a laptop running Windows 98 ( a temporary solution until
their new PC arrives in about a week).

I set this laptop up to be able to access the shared drive and it all seemed
to work fine when I left the office. However, after a few hours they phone
me to say they cannot access the shared drive from the Windows 98 laptop.

It says the network is not available if they click on the shortcut I
created. If they go to network places it says (don't know exact error) the
network is not available with the critical error notification.

I looked into what networking protocols were installed and both TCP/IP and
NetBeui (I think). As not in front of the laptop now I am not 100% of the
exact terminology or errors, but does anyone have any ideas.

All the other laptops in the network (all running XP) have no problems.

Thanks in advance, any input greatly appreciated.

David

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi there,

A peer to peer network all access a shared drive that is attached to one of
the laptops in the network. This all works fine until a new member of staff
came along with a laptop running Windows 98 ( a temporary solution until
their new PC arrives in about a week).

I set this laptop up to be able to access the shared drive and it all seemed
to work fine when I left the office. However, after a few hours they phone
me to say they cannot access the shared drive from the Windows 98 laptop.

It says the network is not available if they click on the shortcut I
created. If they go to network places it says (don't know exact error) the
network is not available with the critical error notification.

I looked into what networking protocols were installed and both TCP/IP and
NetBeui (I think). As not in front of the laptop now I am not 100% of the
exact terminology or errors, but does anyone have any ideas.

All the other laptops in the network (all running XP) have no problems.

Thanks in advance, any input greatly appreciated.

David

You need to go through the usual motions, i.e.
- Check if the "Share" permissions are set to "Full control" for
everyone;
- Check the NTFS permissions;
- Check the user name and password used on the Win98 PC;
- Ensure that this user name and password is also defined
on the machine hosting the share;
- Check for TCP/IP connectivity;
and, of course, report error messages verbatim instead of
"words to this effect". You should also report the OS of
the PC hosting the share WinXP Home or Professional?

Lastly: You posted your question in a Win2000 newsgroup,
yet none of your PCs appear to run Win2000.

 

[David Smithz]

Good stuff. Thank you for the comments and points noted. At the time of
writing I was so frustrated with Windows, and there really seems to be a hit
or miss aspect to some elements of networking in windows, even when doing XP
to XP (Actually Windows 2000 to Windows 2000 seemed to be very stable).

But anyway, I'm hoping we can just remove this 98 box out of the equation
ASAP.

Cheers

David