Netbt

[willemidema]

Hello,

I've a local network WinXP=Pro <-> Win98. Since some time I can't connect to shares on the system (either way), but internet and mail works ok.
Wenn trying the option to restore the LAN-connection I get a message like 'can't release
NetBT' (I probably don't use the correct English terms as I'm using a Dutch version of Win). :confused: HELP ME PLEASE as I don'y have a idea how to solve this problem.
Searching the internet didn't give a solution.

Willem

[rbradscott]

You might also look into making sure NETBIOS is enabled on both machines. Don't know about your specific error however, sorry.

[patrickpawlowsk]

Here's a few ideas. First check under your network card hardware settings: Start>Control Panel>Network connections right click the connection and select properties. Then at the top of the general tab click the Configure button next to the actual hardware device. Now on the Power Saver Mode tab and makes sure that computer doesn't automatically shut down the adapter to save power. If it does, then you will not be able to connect from the other machine once this happens. A simple jiggle of the mouse on the server machine will bring the adapter back to life though. You may notice this happen when you are away from the computer for awhile and then come back and touch a key or move the mouse and you suddenly get the message "Network is now connected at 100Mbs" or something like that. That's because your network adapter was basically asleep.

Make sure you have done the following also:

Share a drive or folder or printer from each computer so you can connect to it.

Set the appropriate permission on the share, on the XP machine there are actually 2 permissions that you have to set. You have to give permission to the share, and then you have to give NTFS permissions to the folder/files.

Connect to the share using Start>Run and then enter the UNC path i.e. \\computername this should open a windows explorer window showing the shares available on computername. For instance if the computer you are connecting to is named bobscomputer you would type \\bobscomputer at the run prompt and press enter. Many people use Network Neighborhood but I find it to be a PITA and somewhat unreliable. Not to mention slower, it takes 10 clicks instead of 3 to get where you're going.

Anyway, once you see the share that you are looking for, right click it and select Map Network Drive and give it a drive letter and from that point forward you should be able to get to that share through my computer or by simply typing x: at the run prompt where x is the drive letter you specified.

Another note when setting up permissions. Say you have 2 machines named: workstation and server and you log into both with the username bob. If you add server\bob to the administrators group on workstation and workstation\bob to the administrators group on server, then you "shouldn't" have any permissions problems connecting between computers. It's been awhile since I worked on a 98 box though and it might be a little more complicated than that on the 98 box. Or it might be simpler, I think with 98 you only have to give the share a password and there is no NTFS permissions because it uses FAT.

Well, hopefully some of this long primer on Windows network basics will help you out.