Win XP doesn't recognize my Win 98 machine

[IKeelU]

I have a 3 computer home network running. Two machines run Windows XP Pro and the other runs Windows 98 SE. One of my XP machines is using the NTFS file system and the other FAT 32. My Win 98SE machine has no problems accessing files from either XP machine, but neither one of the XP machines can see the 98SE box. What gives?

 

[Murpheeee]

Firt thing I would do would be to delete and recreate the shares on your Win98 machine

 

[NumbaJuan]

just a thought.. do you have the win xp firewall enabled?

 

[ScrewFace]

You must have the FAT 32 file system in use by both OS's in order for them to work and communicate with each other. Trust me, I found this out the hard way.🙂

 

[NumbaJuan]

Originally posted by: ScrewFace
You must have the FAT 32 file system in use by both OS's in order for them to work and communicate with each other. Trust me, I found this out the hard way.🙂

disagree, i have 3 pcs networked, 1 ntfs and 2 fat32. they all see and talk to each other

 

[toant103]

Originally posted by: IKeelU
I have a 3 computer home network running. Two machines run Windows XP Pro and the other runs Windows 98 SE. One of my XP machines is using the NTFS file system and the other FAT 32. My Win 98SE machine has no problems accessing files from either XP machine, but neither one of the XP machines can see the 98SE box. What gives?

windows networking? same workgroup?

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: ScrewFace
You must have the FAT 32 file system in use by both OS's in order for them to work and communicate with each other. Trust me, I found this out the hard way.🙂

The file system on the remote share has nothing to do with this, it can be fat/ntfs/vinyl records for all the network stack cares.

Bill

 

[Slogun]

That does seem odd. Usually such troubles would be the reverse with Win98SE not being able to access the WinXP machine because of the firewall or the other security features (no, file system is not an issue).

Do you have a software firewall on that Win98SE machine set to maximum security?

As Murpheeee said, you might redo the file and printer sharing on the win98SE machine.

 

[WarmAndSCSI]

Originally posted by: ScrewFace
You must have the FAT 32 file system in use by both OS's in order for them to work and communicate with each other. Trust me, I found this out the hard way.🙂

LOL... that's like saying if you have a EXFS3-based Linux FTP server, you can't download files off of it from a FAT32-based Windows client...

 

[brandonm]

If you mean that you cannot "see" the Win98 machines, as in you can't see them in My Network Places, ensure that the Computer Browser service is running on the Windows XP machine. Also you can try opening the share by typing in "explorer \\192.168.x.x\sharename" (where 192.168.x.x denotes the IP address of the Win98 machine) from the command prompt or type "net use * \\192.168.x.x\sharename" to map a drive. Also you can try to do a Find-->Computer from the Windows search feature.

The Computer Browser service obtains a list of computers on your local network through NetBIOS broadcasts. If you open a share using the IP address, TCP/IP is used. TCP/IP is more reliable than NetBIOS since it uses addressed packets rather than broadcasts. On a single network (non segmented) NetBIOS broadcasts should be enough, but try using the IP instead.

 

[LittleAl]

Make sure that the 98 machine is setup for filesharing. Click on the File and Print Sharing button in Network Properties and make sure the checkbox for filesharing is checked and make sure that the computer is sharing something.

If it is checked, or if this does not correct the issue then make sure that the 98 machine is in the same workgroup as the XP machines.

Another thing you can try is installing NetBEUI on the XP machines. This may be required for the XP machines to see the 98 machine. Installing NetBEUI needs to be done from the XP CD.

 

[IKeelU]

Thanks for all your responses. I'll try your suggestions as soon as possible and report back.

 

[IKeelU]

Thanks LittleAl. I enabled filesharing. I also had to select a file and edit the properties to make it visible to other network users. Works now.