Is there another way to protect my win98 PCs other than Personal firewall
offered by PC-Cillin 2004 or other third-party firewall? Because my problem
is solved by disabling firewall. I tried enabling all the exceptions but it
doesn't work. Upgrading my win98 PCs to winXP is a bit costly (expensive).
Maybe winXP SP2 is doing something to prevent file and print sharing
seamlessly. Before SP2 everything seems to work fine even with firewall
enabled with lesser exceptions on win98 PCs.
Actually I am using the ADSLmodem/router only for my winXP and then it act
as gateway to share my internet connection to my win98 PCs. I have 8 PCs with
win98 connected to the PC with winXP via LAN switcher. I do this because I
want to monitor the internet connection on my client PCs and at the same time
run my cafe billing software. In addition, winXP PC is acting as proxy
server. I intend to use the remaining port of my router for my personal use.
I am running 3 protocols on win98 PCs; TCP/IP, NetBUI and IPX/SPX. While on
winXP, only TCP/IP and NetBEUI (before SP2 its only TCP/IP). File and Print
sharing is enabled on both PCs. The win98 PCs is used mostly for LAN and
internet gaming and browsing.
I have a question, will the Windows firewall good enough to protect my
network if I will disable the firewall on my win98 PCs?
Arnold,
the firewall protecting you from attacks from the Internet
should be the one in your router.
Your computers should all be connected to your router. If the
router does not have enough Ethernet ports for all computers,
you should connect a switch directly to the router and some
computers directly to the switch. No computer should have
Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) enabled. All computers should
be set to obtain their IP addresses automatically, unless there
is an overriding reason to use fixed IP addresses. In that case,
the router has to be set up carefully to avoid IP address
conflicts.
If you need the IPX protocol for games, you have to have it, of
course. I would consider disabling all bindings in the advanced
settings of the network connection, such that the Windows
network uses TCP/IP only. Alternatively you could disable all
Windows network bindings from the TCP/IP protocol and use only
IPX for Windows networking.
I would remove NetBEUI from all computers. It serves no purpose
and will not help you in any way.
All software firewalls should be uninstalled, except the one
that comes with Windows XP, unless you have an overriding reason
to use them. If you do, they have to be set up properly.
Hans-Georg