Need help w/networking 2xp and 2 98 w/printer

Hello All,

I have a LAN for about a two years with with a smc 8port swithch and two 98 hp computers. About 6 month ago I added a third computer hp with xp home ed to the LAN. I did have problems with the xp setup but a friend help me resolve the problem, I needed to add IP address for the new xp computer it did not access the internet. The other 98 computer accessed the internet independently using dail up lines.

The problem is I have another xp home ed Dell 4700 computer to replace one of the 98 computers and I wanted to put the 98 computer in another area if possible but know I just wanted to get the 2 xp computers working with the printer and the other 98 computer.

The new dell xp computer and the 98 computer I can ping and the dell did ping with the printer. The 2 xp did not ping . I used the wizard for networking from the dell xp computer which is the main computer that the other will be accessing. I created the a disk that I loaded on to the other computers but for some reason the two xp computer do not see each other. I created IP address for for the dell xp computer and downloaded the drives for the printer

I did want to put the other 98 computer on the network but if I could just get the 2xp and the one 98 computer networked with the pinter I would be happy.

thank you for any comments
vinspe in need

sounds to me you need to turn off the firewall in XP.

Thank you I will try turn the firewall off in xp in both machines