gdjacobs wrote:

Tools even exist for Win98 to mount ftp paths as volumes.

Really? Do they actually allow access of files without having to transfer them completely, or is it all just trickery with behind-the-scenes caching?

Of course it's caching, but to the user it's transparent.

i have wated to set up an FTP server on my home server any how so i will look in to just doing that..

I've set up ftp server on my Windows 7 Box (Filezilla). Download speed from this server to Windows 98 machine (Pentium 3 550Mhz, 3Com SOHO NIC, Total Commander ftp client) is about 7MB/s.
Is DMA transfer for HDD turned on ? I've noticed big differences in transfer after turning on DMA.

if i enable DMA transfer for HDD bad things happen the CD Rom will disappear and every thing will run in 16bit compatibility mode then i have to reinstall windows...

How are you enabling DMA?

If you have an Intel board, you will probably need the Intel Application Accelerator.

the motherboard is MS-5169 Aladdin 5 I have done it though the drive control pannle witht the stock windows drivers. and the chip-set drivers that i got from the MSI webpage