I am trying to set up networking between 2 computers sharing an internet connection. The XP machine is up and running. The Windows 98 machine never had networking; I installed a CNet PRO200 PCI networking card and loaded the appropriate driver which I found on the internet. The router and the XP machine are seeing the Win98 machine and the router has assigned it an IP address; however the Win98 machine does not see anything on the network. I cannot ping the router from the 98 machine, nor can I ping the 98 machine from elsewhere on the network. I have reinstalled Windows 98 and the device manager says that the network card is working properly. Any suggestions?

Verify File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks is Installed by following these instructions for your particular OS:

Windows XP

1. Log in as the administrator or as an account that has administrator capabilities.
2. Open the Control Panel and click Network And Internet Connections.
3. Below "Pick A Control Panel" Icon, click "Network Setup Wizard."
4. On the Welcome screen that displays, click Next and then click Next again. The wizard displays the Select A Connection Method dialog box.
5. If your host computer connects to the Internet through a residential gateway like a router, access point, or base station, select the second option and click Next.
6. The following prompt is for your computer’s description and name. Accept the default answers and click Next. Do the same for the Workgroup Name prompt.
7. On the File And Printer Sharing screen, select the Turn On File And Printer Sharing radio button and click Next.
8. When the process is complete, the You’re Almost Done dialog box displays.
9. Select Just Finish The Wizard; I Don’t Need To Run The Wizard On Other Computers and click Next.

Windows Vista

1. Click Start, right-click Network, and then click Properties.
2. In the Network and Sharing Center window, under Sharing and Discovery, click the down arrow next to File sharing.
3. Within the File sharing settings, click Turn on file sharing, and then click Apply.
4. Next, click the down arrow next to Printer sharing.
5. Within the Printer sharing settings, click Turn on printer sharing, and then click Apply.

Windows 7

1. Click Start, open up Control Panel, then click on Network and Internet, then click on Network and Sharing Center.
2. In the Network and Sharing Center window, click on Change advanced sharing settings.
3. In the Advanced Sharing Settings window, you will need to change the settings for the Home or Work, and Public profiles.
4. Turn on File and Printer Sharing for both Home or Work, and Public profiles.
5. Click Save Changes and close this window.

Problem: Network Cable Unplugged

Description: Don’t take this message literally - there are many causes besides not having a cable physically plugged into the network card. The message really means that the network card doesn’t detect a live link to another device on the other end of the cable.

Possible Solutions:
Download and install the latest network card driver program.
Check the cabling - a bad cable will prevent link detection. Substitute a cable that’s known to be good.
Check the link lights on the device on the other end of the cable, whether it’s a hub, switch, router, or a NIC in another computer. It should show a live link to the NIC. If it doesn’t, try a different port.
Auto-detecting speed and duplex mode can be unreliable. Set them manually. Most routers and switches use 100Mb, full duplex. Hubs can only use half duplex.
Problem: Renewing a DHCP lease fails, with error message “An error occurred while renewing interface <name>: The system cannot find the file specified.”

Problem: Network connection configured to obtain an IP address automatically has IP address 0.0.0.0

Solution: Make sure that the DHCP Client service is running:
Right click My Computer, and click Manage.
Double click Services and Applications.
Double click Services.
Double click DHCP Client. If the Service status is Stopped, click Start.
Set the Startup type to Automatic.
Thanks to Lightcap, who suggested this fix in a news group message.
Problem: Network Connection Has IP Address 169.254.x.x
Description: The network card is configured to obtain an IP address automatically, and it’s connected to a network with a DHCP server: hardware router, another computer running Internet Connection Sharing, cable modem, DSL modem, etc. But it gets a 169.254.x.x IP address, which indicates that it can’t communicate with the DHCP server:

Possible Solutions:
Connect the computer using a different Ethernet cable or hub/switch/router port.
Download and install the latest firmware for the hardware router.
Disable XP’s Internet Connection Firewall <../xp/ic_firewall.htm> on the local area network connection.
The card is configured to automatically sense network speed and duplex mode, but auto-sensing is failing. Configure the speed and duplex mode manually. For example, most switches and routers use 100 Mb speed and full duplex. To make the settings, right click the network connection and click Properties | Configure | Advanced.
Un-install the network card and move it to a different slot.
If you have a cable modem connection, turn off the computer, turn off the cable modem, and wait a few minutes. Turn on the cable modem, and then turn on the computer.
Problem: Renewing a DHCP lease fails, with error message “An error occurred while renewing interface <name>: The system cannot find the file specified.”

Problem: Network connection configured to obtain an IP address automatically has IP address 0.0.0.0

Solution: Make sure that the DHCP Client service is running:
Right click My Computer, and click Manage.
Double click Services and Applications.
Double click Services.
Double click DHCP Client. If the Service status is Stopped, click Start.
Set the Startup type to Automatic.
Thanks to Lightcap, who suggested this fix in a news group message.
Error Message: An error has occurred while trying to share <filename>. The Server service is not started. The shared resource was not created at this time.

Solution: To start the Server service:

Right click My Computer and select Manage.
Double click Services and Applications.
Double click Services.
Scroll down the list of services and double click Server.
Click the Start button.
Set the Startup type to Automatic.
Click Apply and OK.
Problem: Computer A Can Ping Computer B, but not Vice Versa
Solution: This is almost always caused by an improperly configured firewall on Computer A.

Problem: One Computer Can’t Access Some Web Sites, but Other Computers Can

Solution: Look for the Windows Hosts file on the problem computer:
Windows 95/98/Me: C:\Windows\Hosts
Windows 2000: C:\WinNT\System32\Drivers\Etc\Hosts
Windows XP: C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc\Hosts
Open it with a text editor and you'll probably find lines with the names of the sites that you can't access. Delete those lines, save the file, and try again. If those are the only lines in the file, delete the file. Be sure to save it with a file name of just Hosts, with no file type. If your editor saves it as Hosts.txt, rename it to just Hosts.
The Hosts file can be created by "web accelerator" programs that store name-to-IP address translations. This might speed up access by a tiny amount, but it causes problems when a site's IP address changes.


Problem: A shared disk or folder doesn’t appear in My Network Places

Description: The disk or folder is shared correctly on another computer, but it doesn’t appear.
Solution 1: Click Add a network place and follow the prompts to add it. Browse to it through Entire Network, or specify the path name using the form \\computer\share.
Solution 2: Click View workgroup computers, then click the computer that has the shared disk or folder.

Problem: XP's Network Setup Wizard Says That No Network Card Is Installed

Solution: XP's Network Setup Wizard sometimes fails to recognize an installed and working network card. This is because the NIC's driver program doesn't respond correctly to all of the queries that the Wizard makes when it's looking for a NIC. Configure the card’s TCP/IP properties manually. Here’s how to do it for Windows 95/98/Me <../ics/icsclient.htm>, Windows 2000 <../ics/ics_win2k_client.htm>, and Windows XP <../xp_ics/clientwiz.htm>. Then set the workgroup name to MSHOME.


Problem: Windows XP takes a long time to open a shared disk or folder on a computer running Windows 95, 98, or Me

Description: This is a different problem than My Network Places taking a long time to open <slowbrowse02.htm>. This problem occurs after you double click a shared disk or folder.
Possible Solutions:
Disable searching for scheduled tasks
This Microsoft Knowledge Base article <http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us; Q245800> describes a bug in Windows 2000 Professional that might also exist in Windows XP. Disable searching for scheduled tasks by deleting this registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace\
{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}
· Delete stored network passwords
1. Click Control Panel | User Accounts.
2. Click your user name.
3. Click Manage my network passwords.
4. Click each entry and click Remove