hi, I have connected up my 2 computers at Home, Windows XP Home(1), and Win98 SE(2) with no hub. I am sharing folders on both computers and a printer from (2). (2) has been setup to automatically log in through Tweak UI. (1) is also connected to the internet. After a few times of restarting computer (2) my network connection and internet connections work fine on both computers. There appears to be two situations that I notice why I think my computers do not connect straight away. -On first startup of computer(2) it almost never connects and it may be due the Login Script through Tweak UI not working on intial start up. -When computer (2) is turned off and (1) is on, Windows XP has the funny habbit of displaying an icon in the taskbar with the message, "Local Area Connection - A network cable is unplugged"(Is there a way of not stopping the icon and message to be shown in the taskbar?). Once I start computer (2) the icon in the taskbar dissappears but still no connection. It is after I restart (2) again that it connects properly. I have updated to the latest drivers of my network cards and have tried playing with some network options as well as removing them completely and starting from scratch. Nothing really seems to work and I happy for any help or suggestions that could lead on to the right track. Sancho.

If you attempt to peer-to-peer network two computers, one of which has Windows 2000 Professional installed, with a short crossover CAT-5 cable, you may receive the error network cable unplugged See http://support.dell.com/us/en/kb/document.asp?DN=1032446 it applies to xp as well