Okay, I have here a Windows 95 laptop that I want to connect to a Windows 2000 network. If this is impossible just thwack me on the head with a stick, I know nothing about OS networking compatibility. Anyway, I have the IP address of the server that I should be connecting to. I'm using a Xircom Ethernet/Modem PCMCIA card which is presumably in working condition, at least the modem part of it works fine. So how do I get this thing working? I did try plugging in the ethernet cable once and seeing what happened; I wasn't able to do anything, and the Connection Integrity light on the dongle didn't light up at all, though I was told that the cable I was trying it with was rather bad, so the problem was most likely not on my end. So how do I get it to work? Additionally, I looked in Windows Explorer to find the settings for sharing folders over the network, and there were none. Odd. I can't find any of the usual network settings you find in Explorer on later operating systems.

You must use a cross-over Ethernet cable to network two computers togheter. The lights on your NICs should lit and your should be able to PING one computer from the other. HTH.