Home Network doesn't see a station

I am in the process of setting up a home network that will encompass a total of three computers. I have installed a Linksys 10/100 Lan card in my computer and will be installing one in a new computer that I am still building. My wife has an older Compaq Presario 5285 that came with an on-board LAN port, which I'm using as it would not assign an IRQ number for the Linksys card I installed. I have taken it out and will use it in the new build. I am using the Linksys 8-Port workgroup switch model # EZXS88W to connect all of the computers into.

Right now I have my computer and my wife's computer plugged into the switch and have configured them with the Network Neighborhood. On her computer when she opens the Network Neighborhood her computer is shown but mine is not. Her computer is shown on my computer and I can access her files but not vice-versa. I have gone over the setup over and over again but still can't get my computer to show up on her computer.

I am not setting this up to share internet access, as we are using Win98 first edition and do not have ICS. I am sure the problem I'm having lies somewhere in the settings, but I don't know where. Everything I have found on the internet has been for broadband or DSL networking, which doesn't apply to my situation.

I would appreciate any help in correcting this matter. Thanks, Dusty

 

your computer has to share something to be seen (i think). Try pinging it. Go to start, click run, type cmd if you are running windows xp, type command if you are not running windows xp, a black box will come up, type ipconfig, press enter, look for the 10/100 adapter, get the ip address for it, go to other computer, get into cmd or command again, type: ping (ip of other computer) and press enter. If it comes up with timeout errors or other errors, the problem's a little harder to solve. If it comes up with responces, the network is working right, repeat for other computer.

sorry if my post is a little hard to understand.

 

The ping test were successful on both machines, no errors.

 

is each system sharing something, like a printer or a directory (if running xp, the answer is yes, because of the automatically shared documents folder)

 

Yes, I had both machines set up to share all drives and the printer on my computer.

 

did you try restarting both machines yet, and are the firewalls off? What operating system(s) are you running?

 

Yes, I have had both machines running. I have transferred files from my floppy drive to a folder in my wife's "C" drive. I can see her computer in the Network Neighborhood (NN) on my computer, but my computer doesn't show up in mine or her NN.

We are using Win98 first edition.

Firewall? I have Nortan Anti-Virus, is this what you are talking about?

OK, it's working. I'm not sure how, but at least it working for now anyway.

 

Have you checked the name of the Workgroup on both computers? If they're the same you might also check that the same protocols are installed on both machines.

 

IN order to "see" machines NETBIOS must be used.