Getting XP to see existing Win98 network? (1 Viewer)

[Vince Maskeeper]

I have tried installing windows XP because of some probelms I was having on my HTPC with win2000.

However I could not get XP to see my household network or connect to the internet via Internet Connection Sharing that I run on my system (it seemed to ignore the other win98 machines on the network completely). All the other PCs on the network are win 98 second edition-- including the machine serving as the router for ICS.

Win2000 is able to connect to the internet perfectly via Internet connection sharing without issue- so I was forced to uninstall XP and reinstall 2000 in order to get up to date drivers and information from the net. I would rather run XP- but as long as it refuses to work with my network- it will sit on my coffee table, collecting dust.

Does anyone know how to get XP to see an existing network running internet connection sharing? If I open IE, it sits detecting proxy settings for a while, and then gives up.

I went through windows help and found that it said to uncheck both Auto Detect AND Use Script in internet options in IE (!!)-- but even unchecking both yielded no result (nor did a dozen restarts). All other help info for Internet Connection Sharing revolves around setting up the XP machine as the server- which I don't want to do!

Seems odd they have almost no info on helping you incorporate an XP machine into an existing network when 2000 does it so well. I tried every wizard I could find in Network settings- still nothing.

Win 2000 is able to connect using the same exact hardware without issue. Also, I can pass files across the network with 2000 and XP refuses to see any oter machine on the network. I have made sure the workgroup names match- still XP ignores the network.

Is there any trick to making this work? I don't care so much about file/print sharing- but if it can't see the internet via ICS, then it is worthless to me.

-Vince

 

[Brian E]

Do your machines have IP's assigned or are they done automatically?
You might find some info to help here http://www.wown.com

 

[nolesrule]

When you installed WinXP, most likely you didn't set up your work group. Go to your network settings and set the workgroup to be the same as that for your Win98 computers. I had that same problem and it took me an hour to realize I had never set up the work group.

Nevertheless, I would recommend you use a hardware router instead of ICS through one of your PCs. It's much more reliable and you don't have to worry about keeping a whole PC running an unstable operating system up in order to have your computers connect to the internet.

I got fed up with ICS when I had one PC and one notebook. The router is a much better setup. Now I've got all 4 ports on my router filled and I never have problems. If you use DHCP, a router is 100% plug-n-play. It's worth the $100 or so.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

I got fed up with ICS when I had one PC and one notebook. The router is a much better setup. Now I've got all 4 ports on my router filled and I never have problems. If you use DHCP, a router is 100% plug-n-play. It's worth the $100 or so.

$100 for 4 ports- I have more than 10.

I simply integrated internet into the current network I had (2 linked 6 port routers- connected to 5 desktop PCs, my HTPC, a web router, a MP3 audio server, and 2 laptops-- with 2 ports left over for the times when I work on friends PCs and need to connect to the net or backup files).

Those router units are really only a solution for people running "household" networks-- but when we're talking about 10+ computers and having to throw out all the existing networking hardware routers- well it seems to me a simple old P133 (that was previously a doorstop) in a box in the basement serving as a web router is a much better solution.

Also, this config makes VPN a bit easier.

It seems resonable to me, since all 2000, 98 and 95 machines I've ever had in the house were able to at least see the internet via the network- and most were able to pass files and printers-- that XP would be able to work with a minimal amount of efort.

I did consider that hardware soltion at first, but:

Seems silly to pull out 2 complete rack mounted routers, toss a perfectly good old pentium ASP computer in the garbage and go buy several hundred dollars worth of Linksys hardware routers just to get on single PC running Bill Gate's new nightmare to talk to the old ones.

-Vince

 

[Brian E]

It seems resonable to me, since all 2000, 98 and 95 machines I've ever had in the house were able to at least see the internet via the network- and most were able to pass files and printers-- that XP would be able to work with a minimal amount of efort.

It should. I've set up over a dozen networks with XP connecting to WIN95, WIN98, WIN ME & WIN2K machines and had about half of them share a connection through ICS on WIN98, WIN ME or WIN2K. No problems at all. Although on one such network where each machine has an IP assigned manually the only way I could get the XP machine to the internet through a 98 machine was to set it to automatically assign an IP (on that cpu only, the rest are still manually assigned). Then it worked great.

 

[nolesrule]

$100 for 4 ports, but plug a 4 port hub into each port and you now have 16 ports. Or 1 8-port hub and you now have 11 ports.

You only need one router, which is the most expensive piece in terms of networking hardware.

At work, we have 1 router and 1 hub handling all of our computers (about a dozen). We do many peer file transfers and loads upon loads of internet access. Works perfectly.

If you need a computer outside of the DHCP and you have more than 1 IP from your ISP, just put a hub before the router. Of course, this assumes that you aren't using dial-up.

And like I said before, I have never found ICS to be reliable.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Well, my apologies to Bill gates and his family.
I got XP to work- it was seemingly a problem with the Network card (the Way XP worked with hardware installs- I think it was lying about the card being installed-- because I had to switch PCI slots when I went back to Win2000).
Anyway- the card was not working- so as soon as I swapped cards it is now rockin!
One note: If you can avoid the cheap Linksys "Network Anywhere" cards- do. The regular Linksys cards are still fine- but these "Network Anywhere" cards appear to be their Walmart version and simply suck.
-Vince