XP has one-way network with 98SE after reinstall

Question

I have a Dimension 8300 running XP Home and a Dimension XPS R450 running Windows 98 SE. For over a year they were networked by a cable and 2 Ethernet adapters and got along great. I never had to log on to either system and never had to log on to the network from either system. They shared every drive and folder with no problem. They also shared the dial-up connection and the printer hooked to the 8300.

About 2 months ago the HDD in my 8300 crashed and had to be replaced --- and required reinstalling XP. After reinstalling the network, the 8300 can see and load files from the R450, but XP simply won't allow the R450 access to the 8300 for folders or the printer, but will allow it access to the Internet. The network shows up on the R450 but when I try to access it I usually get this message:
"You must supply a password to make this connection"
"Resource: \\NEW\IPC$"

Obviously, NEW is the unimaginative name I gave to the 8300. Anyway, no matter what I enter, it's not accepted. I wiped the password file from the R450 and rebooted and gave it a new password, after making sure that XP was using the very same password, but no dice. Whenever I reboot the R450 it wants a network and printer password.

I've run every troubleshooter I can find, trolled the murky waters of Microsoft's Web site, looked for help everywhere. FYI, the network firewall is off, file & print sharing is enabled in both computers, they are in the same workgroup. PING works fine both ways.
Those stupid troubleshooters in both XP and 98 throw their hands in the air. The 98 tells me to contact my network administrator. Well, duh! That's me!

What could have changed in the new install of XP to cause me these headaches?

jmwills · Answer

What other firewalls are running  besides the XP firewall?  Possibily one from Norton or Mcafee? Message Edited by jmwills on 09-20-2005 09:55 AM

techsupport4fre · Answer

are you prompted for IPC$ Password This happens when you attempt to browse the XP machine, but the XP machine is not satisfied with the credentials of the user. In other words, it doesn't know who you are. Possible causes: Your current user name doesn't exist on the XP machine.  To fix this, either enable the Guest account, or log in with a user name which has a valid account on the XP machine. The current user name is valid, but its password doesn't match the password for that account on the XP machine.  To fix this, either: Change the password on one of the machines to match the other, or; Enter the XP machine's password for that user name at the IPC$ prompt.

techsupport4fre · Answer

if this still does not resolve the issue try this

Go to Control Panel | Performance and Maintenance | Administrative Tools | Local Security Policy.

Expand Local Policies | Security options.

Double-click Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords to console login only, which is enabled by default. Disable this option

let me know if this resolved your issue.please mail me at techsupport4free@gmail.com.

Pablo54 · Answer

The XP firewall for networking has been disabled. The XP Internet firewall is running. I tried running w/o the XP Internet firewall but it had no effect.

I use Norton, but there are no firewalls.

Remember --- there is no change aside from the reinstallation of Windows XP.

Pablo54 · Answer

Is that it? I replied to your email but you never answered. I don't have the "Local Security Policy" option. Weird as that may be, that's the truth. I also don't have the option to reply by Google Talk. This is all I have to work with.

Reinstalling XP seemed to be a disaster. I lost a lot of functionality and nobody is willing or able to explain why. This only intensifies my desire to choose another operating system other than Windows in my next computer. If Dell won't offer that, I'll go elsewhere.

Why is it that nobody can help me?

Hysteresis · Answer

Just a hunch, the account that you use to log-on, does it have Administrative Privileges? .....

jmwills · Answer

Don't get hysterical and blame Microsoft. Did you re-install ALL the drivers? Including the chipset drivers?
And if you did a complete reinstall and used another account name and/or machine name, those credentials would not be recognized by the other machine.

Pablo54 · Answer

I've installed all the drivers that I could, including chipset drivers. Device Manager says I don't have SM Bus Controller installed. That's not listed on the Resource CDROM so I can only guess what that might be. There is a Promise SATA controller listed as needing drivers. When I make the floppy as instructed, XP says it can't find any drivers on it.

Account name? Don't know. This is not an office network, only a simple connection between 2 machines that only I use. Like I said, originally I used no passwords at all and everything was fine. Now I'm required to log in. Even as administrator, I can't access the security settings in the XP machine --- in Adminstrative Tools, Local Security Policy does NOT appear. Go figure. The machine name and network name are exactly the same. The WIN98 machine sees the network and will browse itself through the network. The XP machine sees both and has complete access to both, but just will not allow the WIN98 machine access to its files or to the printer.

Sorry if I sound impatient, but I do blame Microsoft. There's no way this should be such a pain to do; security that keeps ME out of my own system is ridiculous. I get messages that make no sense, I get advice on their Web site that doesn't work or doesn't apply to my machine, and their "Help" files are a bad joke. Call that hysterical if you want, but I'm thoroughly sick of it.

jmwills · Answer

If you can not authenticate who you are, then yes, the system is working as is should. Is there a Norton firewall running?

Pablo54 · Answer

There is no Norton Forewall or network firewall. There is the built in XP Internet firewall. I've turned it off but that doesn't help. All my drives have been set to share on the network.

How do I authenticate who I am? If XP lets me log on as administrator then why do I not have any control over security settings in Administrative Tools? I appreciate your making an effort to help, but I'm getting nowhere. You seem to be saying it's perfectly normal for XP to keep me out of areas that I should have access to, and no one seems to be able to tell me how to correct this situation.

I get the feeling that this is going to require yet another reinstallation of XP.

jmwills · Answer

Are these connected by a router or a cross over cable?

Pablo54 · Answer

The computers are connected by a cable between Ethernet cards.

Pablo54 · Answer

If at first you don't succeed, etc....

I STILL don't have a network. I finally discovered that the missing drivers for the SM Bus Controller are in fact my chipset drivers. I discovered that quite by accident.

Everywhere I've looked, I'm told to do thus and so and it will make my Network work properly --- guaranteed! Right. Even my Administrative Tools*Computer Management is missing one of its elements, Local Security Policy. A lot of the advice I get just doesn't apply; it's for XP PRO or some version of 98 SE that I don't seem to have. I set up an account under the name that appears on my login screen on the Windows 98 machine, set a password to match the one I use, and nothing changes.

I find both the Dell troubleshooters and the Microsoft site to be worthless. They both make assumptions that don't apply and don't give me information I seek. I couldn't get the Microsoft site to even acknowledge that some of the error messages I get even exist!

This is make or break time, folks. I've spent 3 months trying to solve this, by far the longest period of troubleshooting ever. I'm becoming more convinced every day that my next computer will NOT run Windows in any form!

Thankls to all who tried to help, anyway. It's too bad I can't get help from the designers of Windows or the makers of my computer, though.

Pablo54 · Answer

My XP machine can see the 98 machine just fine and has full access to its files. What it has is the following:
--Client for Microsoft Networks
--File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks
--Q0S Packet Scheduler
--Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)

The firewall is turned off. The internet connection firewall is on, but turning it off makes no difference. Both machines use the same password for everything.

The 98SE machine sees the XP machine and can ping it by name or IP address, but the XP machine refuses to allow the 98SE machine access for file or printer sharing. Network and printer login screens appear when I try and they will not accept any password, even the one I created in a special account in the XP machine.

jmwills · Answer

NetBIOS over TCP/IP will have to be enable for the XP machine to see the 98 machine.  Have you done this?

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

XP has one-way network with 98SE after reinstall

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