Networking Win98SE & Win XP Pro - can Win 98SE be a DHCP server?

My desktop computer has Win 98SE. Recently in a fit of
extravagance I bought an IBM Thinkpad laptop.

I would like to use the IBM rapid restore facility and keep a
backup image of the laptop on the desktop, so I can restore the
laptop from an image in the event of emergency. I would make the
image after getting the laptop set up the way I want it.

Problem is, in an emergency, the rapid restore facility would
need to be invoked by booting from its CD (Windows not running),
and its operating system doesn't support networking to a fixed IP
address. Apparently it can only communicate over a network if
it can talk to something on the other end of the cable which can
use DHCP to allocate an IP address.

Just wondering if there is any way I can set up my Win 98 SE
Desktop computer to behave in this way - hopefully a method which
doesn't require a PhD to get it working (said with a sigh, after
spending about 2 hours before finally getting the laptop
configured to network with the Desktop computer with Windows
running - using fixed IP addresses for both).

I've another question too - for normal networking when both
machines are running their respective Windows. Is there some
other protocol which Win XP Pro can use for networking with Win
98 SE (other than TCP/IP)?

Although I finally got the two machines talking, I can only do
this if I disable my (admittedly oldish version) of ZoneAlarm
firewall on the desktop machine. However, I have a second
Desktop using Win 95, and it happily networks with the Win 98 SE
desktop using NetBEUI, which doesn't get stopped by the firewall.

Would be grateful for any answers, or any tips on where I might
go for the answers.

Cheers, John S

 

John

What is your network Hub/Switch/Router ?

If it's a broadband router it is more than likely there is a DHCP server
built into it. Just run it's web server and set appropriately.

If not get the cheapest Ethernet connected ADSL modem you can find and hang
it off one of your Hub/Switch ports and turn on it's DHCP server.

Protocol's
I know TCP/IP can be a pain to set up, but Netbui is not installed by
default with XP (and it's successors no doubt) IPX/SPX simlarly. TCP/IP has
become the 'standard' protocol because it is 'routeable' i.e. it will go via
a route direct to the target. Netbui on the other hand wanders around the
neighbourhood asking all and sundry until it finds the target. (No an
accurate analogy but you get the idea)

Zone Alarm (or any Firewall)
Frequently causes LAN problems by simply doing it's job, i.e. 'stop
everything unless permitted'
What you need to do is to 'allow an IP range' How depends on the 'Firewall'
If I remember right with Zone Alarm it's 'Firewall' on the left menu, and
'Zones' on the top tabs, Add, IP Range, and type in what your TCP/IP range
is e.g. 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.255.
The numbers you use will depend on what your DHCP server is set to give out.
For example the DHCP servers in the Dlink ADSL modems that Xtra (NZ) give
away to new customers are all 10.x.x.x space and give out IP numbers in this
range.

Hope this helps

Paul.

 

Sorry, should have thought more about giving enough information.
I'm on dial-up.
My "network" is just a cat5 cable between two machines at a time.
The cable has a changeover adaptor on one end to swap the
send/receive pairs.

Thanks! After reading this I went back and poked around in my
old version of Zonealarm. Found an area where I could nominate
the IP address of the laptop as a permitted address.

I gather though, that I won't be able to do anything to the
desktop (Win 98 SE) machine to enable it to act as a DHCP server?

Thanks for helping.

Cheers, John S

 

http://www.google.co.nz/search?q=freeware+dhcp+server+9x

 

(John S.) wrote:

snip snip

Just in case anyone is interested in the outcome - I learned the
solution was within the Windows 98 SE utilities.

Someone from another group suggested installing Internet
Connection Sharing on the Win 98 computer, as this allows the
host to act as a DHCP server to its clients.

I set this up after being given references to a number of web
sites. The one which gave me enough info to complete the task
was:-

http://www.annoyances.org/win98/features/ics.html

After going through this procedure I found the laptop could
access the internet through the host machine's modem, but I still
couldn't see the shared drive on the host machine over the
network.

However this was fixed in Network Neighbourhood properties by
enabling bindings from

TCP/IP(home)>ethernet adaptor for:-

Client for Microsoft Networks, and
File and Printer sharing.

Cheers,

John S