XP to 98 networking????

Okay guys let me know if you've done this.  I've got a Win 98 box I use for just about everything.  Me and my wife got a new dell Inspiron 8100 laptop.  It's running XP and I cannot get 98 drivers from dell for it.  So I'll have a mixed network no big deal.  I can ping either box with no problem.  I just can't see them on network neighborhood.  I installed some crap of off the XP CD and then it worked fine.  Just then all the crap I Installed started hitting Zone Alarm and trying to get on the internet.  After my latest format and full install I'm not doing that again but is there any other way to network them without going through all of the XP crap.  By the way I'm running XP PRO.  Thanks.

"all the crap hitting the ZA" are all network services XP's running (routing, DNS, RA, WINS). It usually makes no harm but you can also set permanent ZA filter and it wouldn't bother you all the time.
I have no idea what applications you've installed from the CD, but you obviously can set small network without using all these wizards.
Give both machines static IP addresses (like 10.1.1.1 & 10.2.2.2 or whatever you want).
Don't set DNS or Default gateway
Then make 'em both members of simple workgroup, this should work.

Do you see other machine typing \\computer_name  ?
If not, remove DNS and GW addresses.

Good luck
Chef

p.s. What about these drivers, what hw configuration you have, maybe folks would figure out sth

I tried that the other night but I'm gonna try again I'll let ya know.  XP is laid out different than 98 and I had 98 on both of my other computers before.  My computer is an Inspiron 8100 1Ghz PIII, 256MB ram, DVD ROM, ESS Audio and a Radeon 7500 with 64MB RAM for a Graphics card.  It really kicks butt so if anyone has some Win 98 drivers that will work on this let me know.  I talked to Dell and they said they considered 98 at the end of it's life cycle and have discontinued driver development for it.   > Just kinda chesses me off but other than that I love it.