MartinM

I have a peer to peer network at home (hub in airing cupboard etc - sad I know ) and want to have ICS so that I can Scoobynet while the kids/wife do their own Internet thing at the same time. All the PCs run 98

The PC with the modem is fairly fully featured (Matrox graphics card, Mitsubishi monitor, Soundblaster Live!, Win TV card, 2 printers (one on additional COM port card), scanner, USB for smartmedia card reader). I recently put a new motherboard in and it took me ages to configure it all up together with Win 98, but at least all the drivers exist (and work) for 98.

ICS needs Win 98SE or Win ME and I'm gonna have to buy one or the other. They are £80 and £40 respectively for the upgrade versions. Questions are:
- does 98SE upgrade over 98 - on the box it says upgrade for DOS, Win 3.1 and 95 ie not explicitly 98
- would I have a chance of getting all the above peripherals working on Me

My head says go to 98SE and then Me when its sorted, but my heart says why spend £80 on out of date software and then another £40 to get to Me one day

Thoughts/advice please?

XRS

Martin,

I have upgraded from 98 to 98SE to get ICS with no problem. ICS would not work with a crossover cable (don't ask me why) but is fine with my hub.

I think you would be wise to go to SE first and wait for ME to settle down a little.

MartinM

Thanks XRS - that's what I thought too

Any others agree/disagree?

Chris L

Martin

I would stick with Win98 for the moment. Been caught out before using Version 1 software (particulary from the boys in Seattle) - you are never quite sure what you are going to get. Win 98 is OK and should be fine for the kind of home use you are talking about.

Having said that, I am running Win2000 on my laptop and it is by far the most stable platform I have ever run (no crashes or blue screens in over 4 months). There are a distinct lack of drivers available for some products under W2K and I guess the same will be true for WinME (at least for the moment).

Chris

chiark

For what it's worth, I'm using Win2K professional, and ICS works brilliantly. Quite surprising, really...

jase555

Dont Touch ME,

Had it on two systems have just had to format and reset. Not Worth It. My Local Computer Bits Shop Are Not Selling It.

I Know Why !!!!

Jase

Dippy

We're still testing ME and IE 5.5 and are seriously considering excluding them from our platform compatibility list.

Chris,

Does your 2K laptop still work properly after a standby?

simes

Try doing a search for "internet connect sharing" at a shareware site e.g.

Chris L

Dippy

Yes it's working fine. My laptop is a Toshiba Tecra 780 DVD and it installed with no problems whatsoever - quite surprising.

We have have had problems with a Sony Vaio running W2K. Toshiba's rightly have a good reputation for their laptops and this just goes to reinforce it.

Chris

MartinM

Simes

Great idea - now why didn't I think of that. Already seen WinRoute Lite, InternetShare,Internet Gateway etc. Anyone with any experience of them?

One more question - well it should've been the first really.. ..does ICS work OK? Any drawbacks? Is it reliable? Does a teenager downloading music with Napster take over the whole bandwidth while I'm trying to ScoobyNet?

TIA

chiark

For what it's worth, 2k works brilliantly on my laptop (HP Omnibook 4150). I had to upgrade the bios to support the new power management protocol, but it's marvellous. Suspend/hibernate/power down/everything works and is completely configurable.

I like win2k pro.

MartinM

Quick update - loaded Avirt Soho 4.2 (from