To: Bob Pittsfield who wrote (23205 ) 11/5/2001 6:11:47 AM From: thecow Respond to of 110653 Bob This may or may not have anything to do with your situation but it's about networking with mixed os's. From Langa newsletter. "As in Win98, simple peer-to-peer connections--- including Direct Cable Connections--- are supported in Win2K and XP. In a homogenous environment--- groups of systems all running XP/Win2K for example--- it's about as simple to set up peer networking as it is in Win98. But whether by standard networking or Direct Cable, peer networking in a heterogeneous environment--- mixed Win9x and XP systems, for example--- can be a lot harder. That's because XP/Win2K/NT handle local networking quite differently from Win9x/ME, and there are all manner of pitfalls. The benefit is that Win2K/XP networking is more secure. For example, access is based on user-specific permissions rather than on simple shared passwords. The problem is that this is a needless complication in situations where the extra security isn't meaningfully useful or desired. (And many small office and home networks fall into that category.) XP offers an updated "Networking Wizard" that lets you set up XP networking on one machine and then generate a floppy disk you carry around to other non-XP machines; supposedly, this makes for effortless networking, and I've heard from a number of readers for whom it's worked. It's never worked for me, though: I've found it necessary to do a *lot* of manual diddling, and to fundamentally change the operation of the non-XP/Win2K boxes in order to get them to talk to the XP/Win2K boxes. It's a pain. If you're just getting started with Win2K/XP-style networking, you may find these articles helpful (I did!):"support.microsoft.com helmig.com practicallynetworked.com