what are the specific about your network (equipment, static/DHCP, protocols).

what, if any firewall software program(s) are you running on the win98 sys? btw, hopefully you are NOT running multiple s/w firewalls...

have you ensured that both systems are in the same workgroup, have unique computer names & unique ip addresses (on your private network)?

just saw your other win98/2000 post regarding your network probs - in the future please try to maintaine posts on the same thread where warranted, such as in this case. anyhow... i still need to know what wheter your running static or DHCP on the private side of your network (regardless of whether or not the D-Link is connected to the internet). I simple test is ping the loop back ip of 127.0.0.1; if you can't ping that let us know. if can, and you're set up for DHCP, do a release & a renew (via winipcfg), make sure you're releasing (not release all, just release when on your nic) to 0.0.0.0 and then renewing to an appropriate ip address (ie, 192.168.100.21, etc; not a 169.x ip). post how this helps/doesn't help or if you need clarification on the instructs to this point.