Home networking WinXP to Win98SE

[John]

Hi, I can't get my two computers(Win98SE and WinXP) to
recognize each other for file and printer sharing. They
both get out on a common broadband connection to the
internet through a router(linksys WRT54G,hardwired) but
don't see each other. I have run the network wizard off
the WinXP CD on the Win98 machine however it stops
responding with a "Msgsrv32 not responding" when that
machine restarts in the process of configuring for a
network. I suspect the problem lies in Win98 machine.
Appreciate any advice for this situation.... ThankYou

 

[Lauren]

Have you tried unchecking the "Internet Connection
Firewall" checkbox? To locate: go to network connections,
right-click on the icon for your LAN, then go to the
Advanced tab. That helped my XP/98SE network.
-Lauren

 

[Michael_L]

Try what Lauren replied first. If it still doesn't work
try this.

1. Try to ping the IP address of the other computer. If
you don't get a response then look for a firewall running
that is preventing communication. Especially make sure
Windows XP Internet Connection Firewall is not running on
your internal network connection.
2. If ping comes back from the ok then make sure
you are logging on with a user name and password that
exists on the XP machine.
Michael

 

[Felixcct]

Hi, I can't get my two computers(Win98SE and WinXP) to
recognize each other for file and printer sharing. They
both get out on a common broadband connection to the
internet through a router(linksys WRT54G,hardwired) but
don't see each other. I have run the network wizard off
the WinXP CD on the Win98 machine however it stops
responding with a "Msgsrv32 not responding" when that
machine restarts in the process of configuring for a
network. I suspect the problem lies in Win98 machine.
Appreciate any advice for this situation.... ThankYou

Make sure that your Win98SE machine is using TCP/IP for file sharing
services. Win98SE and earlier versions could also use a different protocol
called NETBEUI to share files. You can enable NETBEUI on WinXP too, but
it's a hidden option that MS is trying to discourage.

Try to get Ping working first, as someone else suggested. If the two
machines can't Ping each other, then you don't know if they are
communicating at all. Ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is a Run command line. If Ping
doesn't work:
- verify that the ethernet activity LED flashes when you try to Ping. If it
doesn't then your messages are not getting out of the originating computer.
- turn off the software firewalls on both machines and try again (WinXP's
built-in firewall blocks Ping by default)
- check the IP addresses on both machines to make sure they are on the same
subnet (usually the first 2 or 3 components of the IP address must be the
same).

Once the two machines can Ping each other, they may still not locate each
other automatically (at least not quickly). Try Find Computer, specifying
the network name of the other computer. They don't usually have to be in
the same WorkGroup.

Once you have the two machines talking, you can increase security again.
Try turning the firewall back on to see if it blocks communication. If so,
you may have to add the IP address of the other machine to the "Local Zone"
of your firewall in order to give it access privileges.

If you want to do these tests while not connected to the internet (for
added security), be aware that any computer which is booted while off the
net will get a very different dynamic IP address than it had before, and it
may not be on the same subnet as any other computer which got its IP
address from the ISP's DCHP server. If you work off the net, it's best to
set a specific IP address for each machine, differing by 1 in the final
component.

 

[John]

-----Original Message-----
Try what Lauren replied first. If it still doesn't work
try this.

1. Try to ping the IP address of the other computer. If
you don't get a response then look for a firewall running
that is preventing communication. Especially make sure
Windows XP Internet Connection Firewall is not running on
your internal network connection.
2. If ping comes back from the ok then make sure
you are logging on with a user name and password that
exists on the XP machine.
Michael


.
Lauren was correct.... Thank You all for your responses!

However, I seem to have dug myself into a hole.I was
successful in seeing the other computers on the network.
I then went to set up printer sharing and got to the
point where I wanted to reinstall the printer, it
uninstalled but would not reinstall. Finally tried the
other drive(CD-RW) and it worked. I now am unable to get
out to the internet on the Win98 machine(explorer
performed illegal action and will be shutdown) On start
up I get a Rundll32 illegal action and shutdown warning.I
have reloaded internet explorer(even went back to IE5.5)
Ran virus check(there were 4 trojans that were repaired)
that is now clean. I want to reload the O/S Win98SE off
the CD that came originally with the computer(Dell....
their phone support stinks)Can I do that to successfully
repair what I think has to do with corrupted files
(Rundll32) without digging myself in deeper. I have
checked the start.ini file regarding Rundll and that is
OK..... again thank you for your responses John