I am trying to set up a home network to eventually share a broadband connection, The server machine is running win98se and is connected to an xp pro machine and an me laptop. I have all the pcs conneted to a netgear switch. I can ping 127.0.0.1 from all the machines and get a reply but when I try to ping the other computers connected to the network, I get request timed out, this happens on all the computers on the network, I cant ping any machine from any machine but they can all ping themselves. The lights on the switch indicate that all the cables are connected properly, and the led's to show data is flowing through light up for both the connections. I have ruled out having a faulty switch by replacing it with a hub, and the problems are still there. All the NICs seem to be working.
Im pretty lost on what to do next
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
Anton

I don't know why you would want a 98se to be a server, but since you are wanting a shared broadband conneciton, Just connect the switch with the broadband connection, and set all tcp/ip settings for all computers to DHCP. and make sure netbui is running

if it is a broadband cable connection then you will most probably need another NIC with a MAC address and that would be the reason as to why you cant plug it into the switch. (in comes the need for a router). Win98se is not a server and therefore cannot be used as one. so in actual fact you are runnning a workgroup and this means that it would make much more sense to run the internet connection the xp pro machine and then use network wizard in network connections to set up internet connection sharing