Trouble establishing two-machine network

I'm a long-term user of Win98SE, but a newbie to WinXP (Media edition)
and to networking (first time I've had two machines in the house
capable of networking). My problem is that I can't get networking
to, well, work.

The older Win98SE is a Compaq Presario 7AP190. The new WinXP-M
is a Sony VAIO VGC-RB54G (300Gby/1Gby/Pentium D). Each has an
Ethernet port. I've connected them both (one with a short cable,
one with a 7-metre cable anticipating its move to another room)
to a D-Link DGS-1005D 5-port gigabit switch. The switch
successfully runs a diagnostic on each connection at power-up,
and then indicates good connections at 100Mbps. So the
mechanical side looks ok to my newbie perceptions.

I've been through the network setup on both machines several
times, but the outcome is always that the Win98SE machine
finds no other computers on the network, and the WinXP-M
machine reports no or limited connectivity and can't find
the older machine. Is this a common problem? Is there a
Guide For Perplexed Network Newbies somewhere? Any help
would be much appreciated.

A final note about the network wizard under WinXP-M:
it seems able to deal with the situation (which is the
one I'm in) of two machines which may independently
connect to the Internet, but its reaction is to warn
me that then file sharing would result in my sharing
files with the whole Net. I just want to share between
the machines, and to keep the world at large strictly
out. My Net connection is still dial-up: my section of
North Vancouver is still without high-speed telephone
(too far from the phone office -- yup, you heard right,
one of Vancouver's more affluent suburbs has a big
section without a service city folks are supposed to
be able to take for granted), plus my alarm system
prevents me from connecting to high-speed phone if it
were available; and the cable company would require me
to pay high business rates to have my personal domain on
their system. So Net connections for me are for now through
the machines' modems and can't go through the switch.

Something is missing in my comprehension (likely) or
in that of Microsoft (not unheard of).

.

Relevant Pages

  • PPP Lan Bridge
    ... machines running FreeBSD 5.3 with 56K modems & PPP. ... line-of-sight wireless connection. ... network to transmit data. ... Timeclock connected to dial-up client via CrossOver ...
    (freebsd-net)
  • RE: wirless connection security issues
    ... wrt54gl only has a single port for the incoming network. ... I would set up the router to use the Class C private IP range ... for your machines. ... Subject: wirless connection security issues ...
    (Security-Basics)
  • Re: resolver problems
    ... If you've got a little router, ... for using the graphical network information tool in system preferences. ... I do not have any of the machines specifically set to route from one ... transforming your network connection to a shared connection from several ...
    (freebsd-questions)
  • Re: Gateway address needed
    ... connection problems. ... Ah, well, if it's your own network then you're the admin, do what you ... Workgroup name - just fine - same as other machines. ... What does a 'ping 192.168.2.1' say ...
    (alt.internet.wireless)
  • Re: Simple network through modem / router combo
    ... Right click on the wireless connection and select Disable - you can always ... If both machines are running XP Home Edition, ... Add Guest to 'Access this computer from the network'. ... >>>wireless capability and can also connect to the internet that way. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.network_web)