WinXP Dial-up Doesn't Connect When Attached to Peer/Peer Network with Win98 Box

[Geron]

I have tried, and tried, but I cannot seem to solve this problem.

And so I turn to the infinite collective knowledge of the PC Mech Forums to help me solve my problem.

I've narrowed it down to specifics for you:

There are two computers:

One old one (ethernet card and modem) with Windows 98 and a new one (ethernet card and modem too) with Windows XP Pro.

It used to be, that the computers would connect to eachother (through crossover cable) and you would be able to transfer files fine. The only thing is, the dial-up internet would connect, but it would never transfer any data and woudl promptly disconnect. The internet would work fine if the ethernet cable was unplugged though, or the LAN disabled.

Recently, some settings got screwed around with on one or both of the computers, and they can no longer see eachother on the network, even though an ethernet connection is being made, and the dial-up not working remains the same with it working while the ethernet is unplugged, but not working while the ethernet is plugged in, with the network working properly or not.

Could it be that the modem in the new computer is conflicting with the ethernet card? If not, is it trying to obtain two different IPs a LAN and a WAN and getting confused? Or did the ethernet cable get damaged?

Any thoughts, suggestions would be immensely appreciated.

Thanks,
Geron

[Tom Brodrick]

Did you enable Internet Connection sharing on the XP box? When you do, it will be automatically set to 192.168.0.1.

Set your 98 box to DHCP, and it will be assigned the standard 192.168.0.2 IP address. Set your default Gateway on the 98 box to be the address of your XP box. (192.168.0.1 probably)

Since it's a peer to peer network, you will have to add an account from the 98 machine on the XP box to allow it to share files.

If none of this works, and neither of your network cards are showing a conflict, try to ping 127.0.0.1 on each box to verify your network cards are working. If you get a reply, at least you can rule them out.

Try to remove the modem and boot up without it to see if the machine reassigns the IRQ differently.

Next, try another cable. You never know...

Could be many things. See what you come up with.