I am tying to setup a network between an xp home and a windows98se machine. I can’t use the ‘net diag’ command because it won’t run on the xp machine. I can use ‘Ping’ to check the TCP/IP connection, if that works does that prove my adapters and cable are all working? Are there any other FREE network diagnosing programs available to help me diagnose these sort of problems? Lastly (yes, there is an end to this continual drivel!) I want to install netbui protocol for security reasons, some people say it doesn’t work (on an XP machine) others say it does work. Do some modern network cards have a problem with netbui, or is it that people aren’t configuring there machines properly for it to work? Thanks DaveB

You can install netbeui. See here http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;301041&sd=tech I do believe you are mislead as to netbeui is providing any kind of security. Problem you will have with multiple protocols on the 98 box is you can't order their priority. So 98 can be talking netbeui as its main protocol and xp is talking tcp/ip as its main and you will have problems. In XP you can change the binding [priority] order. Yes pinging between stations both ways test nics, cables and tcp/ip configuration.

Thanx wanderer. I think the idea of netbeui providing greater security than TCP/IP is that if your firewall fails then your whole network is potentially hackable from the internet, whereas a netbeui network isn't. thankx again for your help. Dave