>>Hi All,
>>
>>Sorry this is not VFP, but this is the place I come for help, so...
>>
>>I have 3 machines in a MS Network setup using Ethernet cards connected with coax T-connections.
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>>I have been into the Properties of Network Neighborhood and REMOVED the network adapter, MS VPN, IPX/SPX..., NETBEUI..., re-booted and then re-installed all of that.
>>
>>Can anyone suggest some course of action to resolve this??
>>
>
> There's a lot of things that can cause problems. Whenever I have a problem on a coax network, I usually check the wiring and terminators first. If they check out OK, I move on to the machine having the problems. Wiring problems can cause some machines on the network to work OK, but others to have all sorts of bizarre problems - and the problems are not necessarily anywhere near the bad cable and/or terminator.
>
> Once that's checked, I suggest you get rid of NetBEUI, and IPX and just use TCP/IP. If that's not an option, I'd use IPX before using NetBEUI. NetBEUI can cause problems with some applications.

I'd strongly disagree here. It's a single Ethernet segment. It's all Win9x. There's no proxy server, DHCP, or dedicated server. It's pure peer-to-peer, no routing. This is an ideal environment for nothing -but- NetBEUI. Low packet overhead, no need for central management. This is exactly netBEUI's turf; NetBIOS access and low packet overhead are called for. I'd dump everything but NetBEUI and work from there. With a TCP/IP stack, you still need a NetBIOS over TCP/IP in order to manage the environment; ideally, a WINS server should be present to resolve NetBIOS names to IP addresses. Why complicate things?

Enable NetBEUI on all machines, and make sure that no other protocol binds to the LAN adapter. Give each machine a unique name, make certain that they're all using the same Workgroup, enable File and Printer Sharing on all machines and make the Win98 box the master browser (there are documented bugs involving in Win95's Master Browser code that can create exactly this situation.) Make sure that if any machine with a dual media NIC is set to select the coax connector; many cards default to using the RJ45 connector if no definitive selection is made.

Then deal with the standard brain damaged configuration things - make sure that all machine names are 16 characters in length or less, and that they don't contain special characters, especially spaces (it should not be a problem, but there's no good reason not to follow the NetBIOS naming conventions.) Mkae sure that each machine has a share of some sort to test connectivity from other machines - if nothing is visibly shared (especially if you've forgotten to enable File and Printer Sharing) Win9x browsers may not see the machine properly. Make certain that everything is terminated properly, and that only one of the terminators is grounded. Every machine goes through a T connector - don't bring the cable directly into the BNC connector, or you won't be able to terminate properly. Make certain that the calbes use a 50 ohm RG58 variant; lots of people can get away with using RG59 for a while, but impedance problems can and do crop up. Worry about password protection later, when everything can see everything else.

If things have3 gotten too complex, delete the NIC from the Win98 box in Device Manager (this will clear everything from Networking) and let Win98 readd the NIC and protocols. Limit yourself to NetBEUI when initially configuring the LAN. Again NetBEUI by itself is adequate; with TCP/IP or IPX, you need an additional NetBIOS layer to make the peer-to-peer environment work.

>
> Do you have sharing enabled on all the computers? Have you tried to connect to a shared drive (on the computer that can't see the other two computers)? Open a DOS prompt and try: NET USE \\MachineName\ShareName
>
>You'll need to replace "MachineName" with the name of one of the computers that has a shared drive. "ShareName" is the name of the shared drive. Sometimes even though browsing doesn't work, you can still establish a network connection.