Have a small home p2p network. 3 win98 machines & one W2k. 2 of the 98 machines access access the w2k shared drives with no problems. one wont; asks for a password. Course there is not one. Is a new install of w2k. Why would 2 work and one not?

Most likely, it's the cached UserID you've used to log onto the 2K machine. One good way to make sure you can connect on a small LAN without using passwords is to enable the guest account on the 2K machine. That will most definitely fix the problem, and then you can allow the group to access the shares. Good luck...

Search Google for the following to get the answer you need... Google search: IPC$ win98 win2000

IPC$ = NT/W2K/XP way of asking if you're allowed in there; i.e. do you have a valid account on that system? (Rather like the bouncer/door-man at an exclusive club...) Enabling the 'guest' account is a convenient fudge/workround... but it allows limited options for those using that access-route. Better is to create a proper account for the '98 'box' on the W2K system; use the same log-in/password for this acount that you use for local log-in on on the '98 'box'. More detailed 'how to etc.' at: http://www.helmig.com - covers all flavours of M$ OS networking - basics upwards.