>Hi everyone,
>
>I posted the paragraph below in the Windows 98 forum, but I'm not sure if it's active so I'm going to go ahead and place it here also. Since the last post I added a hub between the two machines and while all the lights are green and there are no conflicts, I still cannot see a second computer in the network on either machine :(
>

>Renoir
>
>(posted earlier)
>
>I'm trying to connect a laptop using a 10/100 3Com PCM/CIA card to a 10/100 3Com card in my desktop PC. I have two cards in the desktop - the first card is used to access an ADSL line and the second was supposed to give the laptop access to the desktop. I never been comfortable (nor successful) in trying to do anything related to network settings, configurations, protocals and all the other stuff that I desperately need right now. All three cards check out fine in the device manager and I've gotten both machines to at least show themselves (and appropriate shared drive) in the network neighborhood, but I just can't seem to get them to see each other. I even went out and purchased a developer's Windows 98 book and all it did was encourage me to pay to have this done. Can anyone give me a hand or some references that could help? I really didn't think this would be that difficult...

You're doing native peer-to-peer, so make certain that both machines are both members of the same Workgroup. Check this in the Identification tab of the Network Control Panel applet.

Both machines have to be using a common protocol that supports NetBIOS communications; the easiest way (not necessarily the best, but definitely the easiest) is to make certain that both machines have the NetBEUI protocol installed. NetBIOS can use other protocols like TCP/IP or IPX/SPX as a transport mechanism, but there's more involved to get the setup right.

If your intent is to make the ADSL connection available to both machines, you'll need to upgrade the operating systems of both machines to Win98 Second Edition. The upgrade is available from Microsoft now; the cost is somthing in the $20+S/H range. Second Edition introduces the ability to share an Internet connection among several machines; before, you needed third-party software, or to have the machine handling the Internet connection to run NT with Proxy Server or the equivalent so that it could act as a multi-homed router (a system with >1 NIC that can route traffic on behalf of other systems).

If you don't want to learn the technology, hiring someone whop does know it makes sense.