hi i just bought 2 new network cards and some UTP cable,because i wanted to connect two win98 computers. Anybody know wich protocols i need to use to get a connection?? and how do i find out if my network cards are even working?

You can choose almost any protocol and it will work, I suggest Net Bios (as this advertises the machines presence on the network) and IPX\SPX unless you know how to setup TCP/IP. Under networking make sure you have the same workgroup and also congifure both machines to share files! The UTP you bought is it standard straight through or does it have the cross over? If it isn't the crossover it will never work unless you are also using a hub! To test your NICs You can boot into DOS and run the diagnostic program that comes with your cards Good luck

There are two good sites for Windows networking. they are worthy to be seen http://hdallen.home.mindspring.com/ http://www.helmig.com/j_helmig/basics.htm

you will have to go to network properties (in control panel) and give your network cards an IP address. First, go into the network properties (on both of your computers), install the TCP/IP protocol, this will bind the TCP/IP protocol with your installed network card. then restart your computers. go back into the network settings and click on the newly installed protocol, then the properties button, make one of the computer's ip address be 192.168.0.1 with its subnet mask as 255.255.255.0 and your other pc's IP as 192.168.0.2 and the subnet mask the same.the subnet masks must be the same otherwise your computers will not find each other on the network. then on the tabs up top, click on identity, and make sure that they're both in the same workgroup, computer names should be different. and as for file sharing, make sure that you have checked off the boxes for the comps to share files/printers. and instead of using windows logon, choose client for ms networking (i forgot what it was exactly called, but it has "client" and "microsoft" in it..hehe). after you enter this, your comp will ask to restart...go ahead and restart. now when u log on, the "log on as" screen will pop up, do not enter a password unless you want passwords (it does get very annoying in the future since you're probably the only one that has access to the comp). there should now be a "network neighborhood" icon on your desktop, double click that and you should see your other computer in there. if you don't see any of their drives, open up the "my computer" icon on your desktop. right click on one of the drives, then click on "sharing". allow sharing and name the drive. you should now be able to see that drive from the other computer. and that's pretty much it!!! sounds like a lot, but it'll take a good 30-45 mins for first timers

oh yea...i forgot one more thing, you can connect the computers' network cards directly with a "crossover" ethernet cable or via a hub with regular ethernet cables. the crossover cable's your best bet since it's a lot cheaper (you don't have to spend 20-50 bucks on a hub)...unless you plan on hooking up another comp to the network later on. crossover cables only work with two comps. if you do add another comp to the network, every thing stays the same except the ip address as you've probably noticed, 192.168.0.1,2,3,4,5,6 ....etc. the last digit will be the only one different...no two computers should have the same ip address