Networking Across OS's Not Working

I am at an absolute loss. 3 machines -- win98se, win2000, and winXP -- all three show up on the network in the correct group. WinXP can see/access Win2000. Win2000 can see/access win XP. Win98 can see but not access either machine and Win2000/XP can see but not access Win98.

I have wracked my brain and cannot figure what is wrong. All of my settings are as before between the win98 and win2000 machine. Yet it no longer works. I have loaded windows networking onto the win98 machine ... nothing is working. Can someone get me started on a path with some ongoing interaction? I view myself as a medium-to-advanced user so should be able to follow most guidance/instructions. I just don't know where to start.

Thanks in advance ...

 

The main issue with networking 98 to 2000 or XP is that 98 doesn't include usernames on network shares only passwords. This is only an issue with 98 seeing 2000/XP though, vice versa should work fine.

So to start, in order to get this all working correctly, all three computers must have an account with the EXACT same username and password on them. Because 98 will automaticly use the password of the user who is logged into it, and it is not possible to change this.

Making sure the three accounts match EXACTLY is the biggest problem with networking the older windows platforms. Once that is done everything should work like normal, just make sure you have actually shared files out on the 98 machine and don't set an extra password on the folders in 98.

Also make sure you set the share and the NTFS security permissions on 2000 and XP to allow that user access.

 

Thanks for the input ...

Question: When I had the Win98 networked with Win2000, both computers had a different username but the identical password and all worked fine. Do I simply need to change the password on the WinXP machine (which has yet a different username) to match the other two? OR Do I have to reset all usernames and passwords because of the addition of WinXP?

I guess I am concerned if all 3 computers have the same logon (username and password).

Appreciate any help on this ... and thanks in advance ...

 

To be honest I haven't really spent much time networking a 98 machine to 2000. So I'm not exactly sure why it worked. It is possible 2000 is more backwards compatible then XP is. I mean it is closer so it would make sense.

To get the 98 machine to be able to browse the XP machine you will have to match the user account and password. Although it should be possible to get the XP machine to browse the 98 machine without that. It's just annoying, and causes problems.

As for having the password the same on the computers, well I wouldn't worry. It would only be a problem with physical access and breaking a windows password with physical access is a very simple task anyways. If you're worried about someone breaking in online then still I wouldn't worry to much, because people won't get in by using the username/password, they break in on a currently active session which is already logged in, they have no need for a password. Your protection from online threats should come from firewalls and not a windows username/password.

 

Okay ... here is what worked for me.

1) right-click on Network neighborhood on the Win98 machine,
2) in the ID section, click on the first radio button that allows you to "set passwords"
3) if all passwords are the same, you can allow full privileges and enter the password that is common to all IDs
4) for me, I have different passwords so I selected the option that allows a "read only" and a "full" (i.e. 2 password settings); since I did not need both machines to have "full" privileges, I used one password for "read only" and the other one has "full" access

This configuation worked for me (note: all machines have different user names but are connected to the same "group"). Now I have to get the printers setup on the network!

Thanks for the advice ... it helped me to find a workable solution even though it's not the ideal.