How to make Win 98 hop on to the internet over a small home network?

June 24, 2006 7:30 AM

Question regarding getting Windows 98 to play nice with a Linksys Router and another Win XP computer on a home network.

Ok, I've got the router connected correctly (At least the Win XP box has no problem interfacing with my wireless laptop, and of course the world wide web), and I don't even need to worry about file sharing or printer sharing. I just need to get the Win 98 box on the highspeed interweb using an ethernet cable plugged into the router. Any suggestions? Any clarification questions are welcome, and just to head it off at the pass, yes Linux would work out of the box, and no it's not an acceptable solution. Much to my chagrin.

Thanks a lot!

posted by TrueVox to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Does the 98 machine get an IP address?
posted by k8t at 7:40 AM on June 24, 2006

Huh? What's your question exactly?
posted by cillit bang at 8:41 AM on June 24, 2006

I assume that you have looked at the back of your Win98 machine and the network card has a light on. And there is a light on the router port connected to the Win98 machine. The light should be on when the cable is plugged in, and off when it is not. If this is not the case, your network card or possibly the cable is not functioning.
I am also assuming you looked in the device manager and found the network card is listed properly, with no yellow exclamation points or red X's. If there is an exclamation point, the network card is functioning but network drivers aren't installed, and you're going to have to find out the model of your netcard and download the appropriate drivers.
If there is a red X, then the network card is disabled and you can right-click it and enable it. If it shows properly with no exclamation points, proceed below to set up the IP address. Otherwise, if there are exclamation points, that's the network card drivers again.

On the win98 box, go to the start menu, click Run, then type "winipcfg". From the drop down box, select the network card and its current IP address will appear.

On the WinXP box, go to the start menu, click Run, then type 'cmd' and press enter. In the command box that appears, type "ipconfig" and press enter. You'll see the IP address appear. Compare them.

- Both IP addresses should be different, but the first three sets of numbers should match - i.e. 192.168.1.x - where all numbers but X match on both machines.

- Both machines should show the same gateway. The gateway IP address should be the IP address of the router.

On the XP box, type "ipconfig/all". Take a look at the DNS server entries.
On the Win98 box, click the More...button in winipcfg, and look at the DNS entries. They should match the ones from the XP box. If they don't:
On the Win98 box, go to Control Panel, then Network. Select TCP/IP and select Properties. Make sure the IP address and DNS server addresses are both set to "obtain automatically". If they aren't, make it so, and then restart the machine.
If all is well, or after the restart, try pinging the gateway. Open a DOS prompt and in the Run...box, type "command" and click OK. In the DOS prompt, type the word "winipcfg" and the same box as before will appear - select your network card and note the IP address of the machine. Ping it. In the DOS prompt, type "ping" and the IP address of the Win98 box - in my case that line looks like "ping 192.168.1.100" without the quotes). It should receive a response. If it doesn't, something is wrong with the network "winsock" and you should google "reinstall winsock in windows 98" because fixing that is a process, not an askme answer. :) If the machine receives a response, ping the gateway. If it receives a response, try pinging "google.com" to see if the machine correctly translates a name to an IP address. If it does, you should be able to hit the internet. If it does not, check your cabling and/or your router port.

Try all this and if it works, great, if not, post back and we'll go further.
posted by disclaimer at 8:41 AM on June 24, 2006

Disclaimer, you're my hero. I'll try that when I get there this afternoon, and get back to you (should be about two and a half hours from now).

That was such a great, well thought out answer. THANK YOU.
posted by TrueVox at 8:56 AM on June 24, 2006

Oops! Won't be able to get there tonight. So, we'll just assume it worked! Thanks (hopefully :D)!
posted by TrueVox at 1:50 PM on June 24, 2006

Just a little heads up to anyone using Windows 98/98se or Me...

All support from Microsoft finally ends on July 11th 2006.
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifean18
posted by Leenie at 5:08 PM on June 24, 2006