I have no idea if this will help - perhaps there's some nugget of information you can use here ... Way back in the day I made these notes about setting up access to a Winblows (SMB) network from DOS:
-----------------------------------

Microsoft has the Lan Manager client for DOS, which provides access to
MS networks. I don't know if it is still available as a product, however
I found it in the CLIENTS directory of the WinNT4 server evaluation disk
that came with Microsofts "Internet Information Server" evaluation kit.

There is another DOS client called "The Workgroup Connection". I found
it in the software library samples of an older (Dec95) MS TechNet CD.

If you have Windows For Workgroups, you already have everything you need
to access an MS network from DOS. If you already have WFW setup on the
machine (and plan to leave it there), you don't have to do anything...
Just use the NET command to activate the DOS network client outside of
windows.

If you want to use the DOS client without having the rest of windows
hanging around, you can distill it down to a minimum set of files.
Note that is provides a client only... you have to run WFW to share
resources on your machine:

WFW files needed to access network from DOS:
NET.EXE
NET.MSG
NETH.MSG
IFSHLP.SYS
NDISHLP.SYS
PROTMAN.DOS
PROTMAN.EXE
WFWSYS.CFG
SYSTEM.INI
PROTOCOL.INI

You also need the real mode driver for your network card, which will
be listed in the netcard= entry of the [network.drivers] section of
SYSTEM.INI. In my case, I use NE2000 compatibles, and SMC/WD 8013's,
which use one of the following:
NE2000.DOS - NE2000 Compatible
SMCMAC.DOS - SMC/WD 8013

If you want to trim SYSTEM.INI, you need only the following sections:
[Network]
[network drivers]
[Password Lists]

Make sure the devdir= entry under [network drivers], and all
of the entries under [Password Lists] point to the directory
where you have setup these files.

You have to load IFSHLP.SYS in CONFIG.SYS at boot time, just
as you do for WFW.

Once setup, you can use the NET command to start the network,
make connections etc. Use /? for help: NET /? | MORE

Change server min protocol to LANMAN1 and add strict sync = no

I tried changing minprotocal=LANMAN1 and strict sync=no, it didnt help. I think the problem is something im not doing on the win98 side..

@davedds, thanks for the notes but im trying to get w98se to work, i may try installing some of that dos software as a last resort.

winipcfg (just as a check)
nbtstat -A <server IP>
nbtstat generally (check its command options)
net view \\<server IP> (to see if it's a host lookup/browsing/master browser issue or a connectivity issue)
net use z: \\<server IP>\share (to try connecting directly)
these were common diagnostic steps when Win98 was still current.

If all that fails, try a packet capture. Wireshark understands the SMB protocols and will help dump it for you, and it's all unencrypted so you can see where it goes awry.
Also, Win98 will not support the direct-to-port-445 protocol that was introduced with Win2000. So if your device is not listening on the legacy 137/138/139 ports, or you have a firewall blocking them, that will be an issue.

rwGast wrote on Yesterday, 00:38:

I tried changing minprotocal=LANMAN1 and strict sync=no, it didnt help. I think the problem is something im not doing on the win98 side..

@davedds, thanks for the notes but im trying to get w98se to work, i may try installing some of that dos software as a last resort.

I have the ability to read my windows 11 shares from windows 98Se and Win3.11, no changes needed to be made on the client side (win98/3.11), all changes were made on the server (win11). It's going to be the same here. Just need to figure out what the correct settings are.

I will note that going to \\computername or \\ipaddress results in an error, the method used to list the shares probably is incompatible. But going to \\computername\share or \\ipaddress\share works fine.

Using Samba 4.23.5-107 and Windows 98 SE, the following seems to work fine:

1[global]
2        netbios name = SERVER
3        workgroup = WORKGROUP
4        security = user
5        map to guest = Bad User
6        guest account = user
7        interfaces = eno1
8        server min protocol = LANMAN1
9
10[download]
11        comment = read-only
12        path = /home/user/public/download
13        public = yes
14        writable = no
15        printable = no
16
17[upload]
18        comment = read & write
19        path = /home/user/public/upload
20        public = yes
21        writable = yes
22        printable = no

Also works with Windows 11 (10.0.26200.8875), but requires this PowerShell setting:

Set-SmbClientConfiguration -RequireSecuritySignature $false

(INSECURE AND DISCOURAGED!)

Ione for the night ill try some more tmrw night. I did get my win11 boxes to see my windows 98 share. Whats strange is from win11 \\98ip\c fails but \\98compname\c works fine! I can not see win 11 shares from 98 though, everything ive read says that doesnt work.

rwGast wrote on Yesterday, 05:06:

Ione for the night ill try some more tmrw night. I did get my win11 boxes to see my windows 98 share. Whats strange is from win11 \\98ip\c fails but \\98compname\c works fine! I can not see win 11 shares from 98 though, everything ive read says that doesnt work.

I have win11 shares accessible on 98Se and win3.11, it requires you to change a couple of settings on the win11 system and reduce the security so older systems can connect

Data transfer: How to connect Win98se (or even 3.1) PCs to a Win11 PC using Windows functionality?

I can confirm it works, as mentioned you have to access the share directly (\\computername\share) and not go via the share list (\\computername)

rwGast wrote on Yesterday, 00:38:

@davedds, thanks for the notes but im trying to get w98se to work, i may try installing some of that dos software as a last resort.

Oh I completely understand what you are trying to do ... I just wanted to pass on what I had figured out for getting the Wfw client running independently in case something in what I had worked out to do so was still relevant in Win98 or would at least "give a hint" to something you could "tweak" - I don't actually know how similar Win98 Lan config is to Wfw ...

I also do recall another discussion where it was pointed out that Winblows has tightened network security in recent editions, which prevent it from working with older editions "out of the box" and you have to change a setting (reducing network security) to get that working.
Re: DDLINK: Easily move files between/To/From DOS systems\

I guess my 98 pc could access my windows11 shares, im not sure what the issue was yesterday. I also got 98 to see my "NAS", i was putting all the smb settings under my share section [netstore], once i moved all the settings to [global], everything works! As mentioned above i cant access anything through network neighborhood, i have to type the share address, but i can use the friendly name instead of ip in the address. I wonder why the network discovery stuff is so wonky when everything else functions correctly.