A bit about this LAN system
I have a 4 PC LAN system that I am trying to get working. This system used to be run on Win98SE which I knew very well & had no problems with getting to work, however, I decided it was finally about time we got with the times & upgraded everything so that's what I am doing now.

The Intel 6x86 is a 100mhz PC (sad but true) & it is what we are using as a server (we don't have any $ to upgrade to new systems so please do not even bring it up). It is running Windows 2000 Professional, not server. It only has 40 megs of RAM & all server OS's require at least 64 megs of RAM.

The server serves files, that's it. No PHP serving, no gaming servers, nothing even the least bit complicated - just files (& a program or 2 that I set to 1 user only at one time). The files range from MS Publisher files, MP3 files, & any other documents that get modified. We all share the same Documents folder on the client workstations which is again, stored on the server. So if any of the workstations catch a virus or whatever the case may be (& is forced to go offline), the other workstations still have the data they need access to.

The clients all run on Windows XP. They range from 266mhz to 600 mhz, all of which have at least 128 megs of RAM.

The old system & the new system
When this was Win98SE, I set up IPX/SPX with File & Printer Sharing but not TCP/IP. The server was set up for IPX/SPX only, this way I didn't need a firewall but I recently learned that TCP/IP is faster than the IPX/SPX protocol, so obviously I wouldn't mind the connection being faster; Considering the clock speed on the Intel server is only 100mhz, we can use every little bit we can get to help speed things up.

I want this system to be secure though. Unless a user is specifically given permission (LAN or internet), then I don't want them to have access to the shared resources. We only have 2 accounts set up on each computer, the admin & user account - no more, just those 2. The user account is a nerfed account, it can't install new programs or make any big changes in the system (I've had to deal with people uninstalling things that weren't supposed to be & installing things that yet again, weren't supposed to be). The user account is named after the name & model of the PC.

So far, I haven't been able to get the LAN working at all in TCP/IP. I am going to mess around with it a bit more but I could really use some help here. Any help would be appreciated.

You can post here or you may contact me via any of these instant messaging services. I currently have 3 of the PC's set up specifically for figuring out this networking system; 2 to try & communicate & the third so I may communicate with whomever online.

Contact Info:
E-Mail: Marker0077@Hotmail.com (MAKE SURE you include a *** ANYWERE in the subject (mail filter))
MSN IM: Marker0077
AOL IM: Marker0077
ICQ: 16442029
Yahoo IM: Marker0077

Thanks for your time people, it is appreciated.

You need to generate accouts on the server that match the account names listed on the clients. Then you will need to assign NTFS permissions to the shares that you want them to have access.

If the passwords match on the server and clients, you will be able to just browse to the share. If they do not, you will be prompted for username / password combination.

Actually if this happens you will be prmpted for a password only, and nothing you type at this point will give you access. not sure why it even asks.....

Actually my problem was I didn't enable NetBIOS over the... whatever it is, it's not TCP/IP it's the other option that's listed there. I never used NetBIOS when I had IPX/SPX enabled with Win98SE so I figured it would be disabled here as well.

I do have 2 other questions though, I am going to post them seperately tho so others may answer as well.

Thank you for your time though.