In reply to:
As with IPs not being saved on the Win98...something with your driver or network registry is corrupted. I have seen that on occasion. The only way to fix that is to remove the network card and driver software. Remove ALL entries in the registry (a pain). Re-install it from scratch.
True it could be the 9x network bug, but a slightly easier way to fix it is this...
In networking just remove everything STARTING with File/Print sharing (if its there), then M$ networking, then the protocols (TCP/IP, others if any), I would actually leave the network adapter there. When you click OK it will likely say networking not complete, continue? just hit OK and reboot.
After restarting go back to networking, add the TCP/IP protocol and reboot (should only have the network adapter and TCP/IP that is bound to it in networking at this point), after rebooting go to RUN and type WINIPCFG and see if its getting an IP address. If it is go back to networking and add back M$ networks and click the box for file and printer sharing. If its not well.... upgrade to XP
(be sure the router is working correctly too, prolly need a 2nd PC to know thou)
