Peer-to-peer Windows XP and 98 small network

I am trying to troubleshoot a two-computer, Windows XP and 98 small peer-to-peer network.

I have verified the following:

1) The two computers are set to the same workgroup.

2) The firewall on the XP machine is disabled. There is no firewall on the 98 machine.

3) The IP address on the 98 machine is 192.168.2.6, and the subnet is set to 255.255.255.0. However, the IP address on the XP machine is a different IP address and a different subnet, which I must use in order to connect to the high-speed cable connection for the XP machine, according to my cable company.

4) File sharing is enabled on both machines.

5) They each have unique computer names.

Note: I am not trying to expressly share the internet connection from the XP machine to the 98 machine. I am just trying to set up file sharing for specific folders on each machine.

I gather from other posts in this forum that I would be in pretty good shape if both IP addresses were 192.168.2.x and if they were both in the 255.255.255.0 subnet. However, I can't change the IP address on the XP machine or we will not be able to use the cable internet connection.

I am a little confused, as this setup was reportedly working, most of the time without a hitch, before yesterday. We had to reboot the 98 machine, and neither machine has been able to see the other since.

They cannot successfully ping each other at all, not by name or IP address. Shared folders that have been set up in My Network Places on the XP machine that have been working in the past have not been able to connect.

If anyone can give me any guidance, give me any ideas on how I can get this stuff working again, or if there is more information that is needed before you'd have any idea what's off in our configuration, I'd be grateful for any input at this point.

I am now shrugging my shoulders in despair on my second day at my new job, where I am supposed to be making these things less stressful for the business owners. Virtual brownies to anyone who can get me out of this fix.

Kathy

I should have noted originally that this is a wireless, ad-hoc, peer-to-peer networking setup. Both computers can see the wireless connection (they can find the SSID when they do a site survey) and they both report being successfully connected with decent signal and quality percentages.

The Linksys setup utility reports the TCP/IP settings for the wireless PCI card in the XP machine as follows:

IP 192.168.2.2
Subnet 255.255.255.0

I know this is a stupid question, but does the PCI card have a separate IP address from the XP machine as a whole? Is it this IP address that has to be compatible with the IP on the 98 machine?

All right, that's my last reply to my own post.

Basically, as you said, I'd have thought that you'd need a connection on the same subnet (like 192.168.2.x) in order to get the computers to communicate. I don't know why this has suddenly stopped working though when you rebooted.

I would guess that in your XP computer you must have two network connections. Each network connection has an individual IP address. The computer as a whole doesn't have a specific IP address. So, I presume that you have one network connection to your Internet and one to your wireless network. Your one to the Internet connection needs to be configured as your ISP has told you to do so. With the wireless connection, you want to set an IP address in the subnet 192.168.2.x, which it sounds like you've already done.

If you've also got a connection on the 98 computer with an IP address in the 192.168.2.x subnet, you should be able to ping between them. The Internet connection shouldn't affect this.

Just me again. I resolved my issue. There was an extraneous network bridge set up on the XP machine which I had to delete before my XP and 98 machines could ping each other. As soon as that was deleted and the computers were restarted, everything worked just fine.

Someone else here recently confessed to me that they ran the windows network configuration wizard just before we noticed the problem. I think this is when the errant bridge was created.

Thanks for your help here at the forum!

Kathy

Glad you've solved the problem