I had a great deal of trouble with networking when I first started using Windows XP as my operating system. You can read the initial story here if you're interested, as well as the details of what ultimately fixed my problems. For those who would prefer to cut right to the chase, however, I suggest you try the following links instead. Note well: in the discussion that follows, I am not talking about networks configured with a domain name and all that yucky business. I'm talking about the small kinds of networks that average home users maintain. If you're in a corporate environment, only some of the following will be relevant. C'est la vie.
Configuring wireless networks
Non-simple file sharing
Interoptability problems with Windows 98
Configuring a wireless network can be a little tricky under Windows XP, depending upon how you have to configure your machine. If you're lucky, once you have wireless NIC installed and working, the zero-configuration wizard will pop up and appraise you of all the wireless networks it has detected. If it doesn't pop up, however, then you have a couple of options. First, you can try to use the zero-configuration wizard anyway. To do this, examine the list of services (right click on "My Computer", select the "Manage" option and select "Services" under the "Services and Applications" section). Look for the "Wireless Zero Configuration" service, and start it if it isn't already running. You may have to reboot your computer for it to work, but it should pop up when a wireless network is detected if everything is working correctly.
Once you've got the XP-supplied dialog to work with, connecting is pretty simple. All you need to do is select the wireless network to which you wish to connect. If your network is using the wireless encryption protocol (WEP), then you will need to specify the key prior to trying to connect; otherwise, your connection will fail. Here's the mildly tricky part: the key must be specified as a string of hexadecimal digits (16 of them for 128-bit encryption) without any spaces. If you've enabled encryption, you should save this key somewhere for future use—even if your network equipment allows you to generate the key from some textual password.
Second, if the zero-configuration wizard simply will not pop up (or if you prefer to do such things manually), you can examine the properties of your wireless network connection. If such a connection isn't listed in the network connections folder, then you need to create one before proceeding. At any rate, once you're examining the properties of your wireless network connection, go to the "Wireless Networks" tab and fill in the values on that page. If there are no wireless network listed, or you simply cannot get any of this to work, then you still have one option remaining.
To wit, you can try relying upon whatever tools (if any) your network equipment vendor provided. Most vendors provide some sort of configuration utility, which typically allows you to configure the settings of your wireless network adapter, adjust the encryption settings, and so forth. This may even be the simplest solution to use from the outset. There is a good reason that I don't list it first, however, and that is because it can interfere with the built-in Windows XP wireless networking features. In my own case, for example, I tried using the Linksys-provided utility for a WMP11 wireless NIC, and I could not get the card to work no matter what I did. It was only after researching the problem that I discovered that such vendor-supplied utilities can end up "fighting" Windows XP's tools. Trust me, you're much better off getting your equipment working using only the built-in features of Windows XP, even if it does take some additional work.
For those coming from the Windows 9x code base, getting file sharing to work under Windows XP is somewhat non-intuitive. First a disclaimer: if you're using the home edition of Windows XP, then this note is not for you. The home edition limits you to simple file sharing only, and for that reason alone I suggest you avoid it like the plague if you're going to have more than one computer. If you are using Windows XP Professional, however, then this tip might be useful after all.
Where most folk go wrong is in expecting to do what they've done previously and have it work. That is, most folk share a folder and are then baffled as to why some other user can't access it. The reason is simple: Windows XP authenticates such connections in a way quite different from Windows 9x. When using Windows XP, anyone who tries to connect to a resource on your machine must have an account on your machine. Otherwise, they will not be able to connect. This is much more flexible than Windows 9x insofar as that older OS authenticated with a maximum of two passwords for anyone who wanted to connect, but it is also more onerous for the home user. The following procedure will work.
Many users of Windows XP have reported nasty networking problems when trying to work with machines still running Windows 98 or Windows 98 Second Edition. The sorts of problems typically reported include failure to connect to network resources, inability to browse network resources, ridiculously low throughput for network file transfers, long delays in being able to access remote machines, and so forth. Microsoft's denials to the contrary, Windows XP networking is fundamentally screwed up right out of the box. It can typically be made to work, however, with a little patience and additional effort. Since there are several different solutions that seem to help for this variety of problems, I'll go over them one at a time.
First, you should make sure that your hardware is configured properly. This goes without saying, really, but it's particularly important with Windows XP. If you're using a hub, for example, then you should be sure that your network card is configured to half-duplex mode; otherwise, you'll cut your bandwidth roughly in half for TCP/IP transfers. You should also make sure that all the correct drivers are in place, that the card is functioning correctly, etc. Networking in Windows XP is touchy enough without hardware problems dragging you down.
Second, you should be sure that no passwords are being remembered for the Windows 98 machines on your network. This is what solved my own problem, as I've written elsewhere, and it's solved the browsing and file-transfer problems for several other people as well—I know this because I've received several very kind email messages thanking me for my advice. To make sure that Windows XP isn't remembering any passwords for those machines, take the following steps:
Don't ask me why this works. It just does. It doesn't make any sense to me that forgetting the passwords would make access quicker and simpler, but that's how it works. Maybe that tells us something about the way the programming minds at Microsoft think, eh? Note well: you don't need to remove your passport/.NET password stuff. You just need to remove any passwords that are listed for the machines with which you're having problems. In my own case, I was having all kinds of trouble browsing computers running Windows 98; removing the stored passwords solved the issue completely. Should you wish to research this further, I suggest starting with the Microsoft knowledgebase article on the subject.
Third, you can try some other remedies that have helped other users. For some folks, deleting all of the locations in "My Network Places" has been said to help. Others have solved their problems by installing and using IPX/SPX or NetBEUI as a protocol instead. For sake of reference, the NetBEUI protocol is available for Windows XP; you simply need to look for it on the Windows XP installation CD. Microsoft provides instructions on how to install it in yet another of their knowledgebase articles. Personally, I suggest you avoid NetBEUI if at all possible. It's a half-baked protocol in the first place, and TCP/IP is generally much more straightforward to use—particularly if your machine auto-configures itself on the network. Still others have solved their problems by disabling scanning of scheduled tasks on remote machines, or even moving their network card to a different PCI slot.
If none of these things fix your inter-networking woes, well, I'm sorry to say that you're one of many who remain frustrated with the half-baked networking in Windows XP. If you come across other fixes that work, please let me know so that I may include them here.