File sharing works over LAN but internet browser does not

[IanM]

Hi,

It is great to find a Win98 forum that is still active!!

I am having a problem with home networking that someone may be able to help me with. I have an old P200 Dell desktop with dual boot Win98SE and WinXP (SP3). I have this computer networked on a crossover ethernet cable to a newer P4 Titan running WinXP (SP3).

File sharing is no problem and works well between the newer P4 system and both systems on the older P200 system. I have the P4 system set up as "PC1", the XP system on the older P200 as "PC2", and the 98SE system on there as "PC3".

However when I set up the internet connections for these I ran into problems. I can only get browser access on the XP system on the older computer through the network.

But as for 98SE, the internet is just not working. No matter what setting I have tried it will not work. I have tried running the ICU wizard many times, but this seems broken and does nothing. I am possibly missing some very simple step or perhaps something is wrong in my settings in Explorer 6. It seems that sharing needs to be enabled but I cannot understand how to do this and the ICU wizard is not very helpful. In fact it makes little sense to me.

I am running Explorer 8 on the new computer and on the XP system on the old P200, but am only running Explorer 6 on the 98SE system. Could this be the cause of the problem?

If anyone can help I would be very grateful.

Regards

Ian

Edited September 30, 2010 by IanM

[Mijzelf]

You have got a DNS or a gateway problem. Have a look at winipcfg (Start->Run->Winipcfg) to find the used DNS and gateway. According to this page the gateway should be 192.168.0.1, while the ip address should be in the range 192.169.0.2-254. The latter seems to be OK, else filesharing wouldn't work either.The article doesn't say anything about DNS, so I suppose this is just the DNS of the host propagated by it's DHCP server. To see the DNS servers of the host, open a command prompt and type 'ipconfig /all'.

[IanM]

Post deleted. Please see one below.

Edited September 30, 2010 by IanM

[IanM]

I spoke too soon. It was working fine, but on next reboot the browser was not working again. But I still have file sharing. Something is odd about my sharing protocols. If I click on Ctrl Panel, Internet Options, Connections, Sharing. In the Internet Connection Sharing dialogue box, the two settings are ticked, but the pull down bar for "Connect to the Internet Using" contains no entries! However the one below it in "Connect to my Home Computer Using" does contain one entry, the 3Com Ethernet III Adapter. If I click OK I get an error message "You must select the network adapter you use to access the internet before saving cahnges".

So I am obviously missing something in set up.

[IanM]

Last night I downloaded some software called NAT32. This allows me to browse the web from the 98SE through the network providing I do a clean boot of both computers (PC1 first, then PC3). Wait until they find one another on the LAN, then run the NAT32 configuration manager. In the NAT32 config options I add all the available adapters to internet and install them one by one, (making sure the authority checkbox is ticked in each case). Then go onto PC3 and start Internet Explorer. Hey presto, it is there!

But for some reason if I reboot PC3 I can still get file sharing, but no internet browser. The gateway appears to be blocked by the firewall on PC1, but even if I disable the firewall the internet still will not work on PC3. The only way is to do a clean boot up from both machines. I am not sure if this is saying something about my settings?

I am sure I must just have a setting wrong somewhere. If anyone has got any ideas, I'd be very grateful for the help.

Edited October 1, 2010 by IanM

[Ponch]

If I remember well, ICS should make PC1 act as DHCP, so PC2 and PC3 should be set to automatically receive an IP from PC1. Is this the case ?

[IanM]

Hi Ponch, Yes that is correct. At least that is the way it is working in my case.

[Guest wsxedcrfv]

I have this computer networked on a crossover ethernet cable to a newer P4 Titan running WinXP (SP3).

Why are you making your life so difficult?

Go and buy a router and connect all your PC's to it. 4-port, 8-port, what ever you need. Let the router do your PPPOE or DSL login and act as a firewall for your local LAN. You will not have these problems if you do that. A cheap 4-port router is maybe $40 these days.

[IanM]

Thanks wsxedcrfv, I probably will have to do that rather than save myself 40 bucks. It all works fine the way it is, but if I intend to use the other PCs on the internet I have to do a clean boot on the host PC. I probably won't go on the net too often with the old 'puter - only to download software updates mainly.

[submix8c]

FWIW/AFAIK/AFAICR, the way it "works" for you is the ONLY way. The DHCP server (and/or the one connected to the WWW) has to be up-and running first BEFORE the connected (Clients) can access other resources. Always been that way since NT3.x and WFW 3.x. I always -1-Turn on my Modem -2-"Boot" my Router -3-Boot other PC's connected _OR (no Router) -1-Turn on my Modem -2-"Boot" my ICS PC (having two-plus NIC's) -3-Boot Other PC(s).

[IanM]

Thanks. Your replies have been very helpful.