Same workgroup? Did you try manually connecting to the older machines?

This might help:

Network Tutorial Windows 98

Is between Windows 98 and Windows 8.1 but the steps should be the same.

Yes workgroup is the same, I did everything that is common sense to do. Like I said the Windows XP computer complains about not being assigned an IP address which should be automatic.

Well does it have one assigned?

You can check this in the network area or type IPCONFIG in command prompt.

...

Yes I checked that, yes it seems to have an IP address...

Perhaps I should try turning it off and on again? 😜

NTLMv2 issue where the XP being configured to refuse to negotiate where NTLM2 aren't available (such as in win9x)?

If it sounds like a network issue, you probably should write in detail how your network is set up.

XP computers use self-assigned IPs if they don't get one. Just because your XP computer has a IP does not necessarily mean it is a valid one. What IP address do you get?

Power cycle all the things.

The common reason for this is the forced NTLMv2-only mode + no NTLMv2 on Win9x PCs.
WinXp: you can see this with the Local Security Policy ("Local Policies"\"Security Options"\"Network security: LAN Manager authentication level", must be "Send NTLMv2 response only\refuse LM and NTLM") or with the regedit (HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\"LMCompatibilityLevel", must be 5).
Win9x: HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Comtrol\Lsa\"LMCompatibility" must be 3.

ZellSF wrote:

If it sounds like a network issue, you probably should write in detail how your network is set up.

XP computers use self-assigned IPs if they don't get one. Just because your XP computer has a IP does not necessarily mean it is a valid one. What IP address do you get?

Power cycle all the things.

+1. If it's a 169.xx it's likely wrong. If you have a DHCP server it should be 192.xx something by default. If you're just plugging into a switch/hub it cannot automagically put itself together; you have to define an IP address for it.

Give this a look too:
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tut … e/wxpwin9x.html

If you have legal/genuine XP install there's also a wizard for home networking that it can transmit via floppy/CD (it may do USB mass storage too, I honestly don't remember - go into the home network wizard thing and it'll ask if you want to put a copy of the wizard on removable storage for Windows 9x/ME machines) that will try to set 9x correctly for your network too. On average it should work, but there's always a chance it doesn't due to X factor problem. I say legal/genuine because a lot of pirated "super light XP" variants have obtuse wizard stuff like this removed. 😒

Yeah I'm going to have to try and define a 192 number because I think it's 169. Sorry I haven't responded in a while. 🤣

It's just plugged into a Linksys 10/100 5 port Network Everywhere Ethernet Hub like I had set up back in the day.

Sounds like that's your problem. Hubs don't have DHCP servers built in.
If you have an old spare router with 4 LAN ports just use that. (I'm guessing you don't want these on the internet)
Otherwise you can assign each PC its own IP address, say 192.168.1.1 for the first PC 192.168.1.2 for the 2nd, etc. Its just a bit harder to troubleshoot problems.

If you do want them on the internet you just plug a network cable between your router and the uplink port of your hub. Everything should be able to find everything else then (but don't be surprised if it doesn't just yet)

When all else fails you could still VirtualPC2007 in XP with a Win98SE guest that has network passthrough 🤣 Method works on 7 as well.

I haven't actually got around to correcting it but yeah I think I'm going to just manually assign numbers because like you guessed I don't want these old computers anywhere near the World Wide Web. 🤣