Just going on a hunch...try setting the exact same username and passwords on a, b, and c...try it again. I apologize - my ME/98 skills have long since faded but I believe there is a way to setup a login with a password if you currently do not have one...I think you have to go into the Network Connections and add the "Client for Microsoft Networks" to enable a login w/password appropriate to communicate with XP. Obviously you'd want to make sure you have all OS install discs before you attempt any of this on 98!

:eek: ...suddenly I'm having flashbacks of six hour long tech support calls guiding users through extracting cab files from 95 FLOPPY DISKS! Alcohol - please purge this from my mind!

XP wants to authenticate access regardless of the OS you're coming from and ME/98 didn't have mechanisms to authenticate XP last I checked. This may have been corrected but it's been a few years since I've touched ME/98 or cared.

Since your network is obviously working can you access computers b and c from a? If so, then why not install something like VNC to access the console on computer a and simply place the files you want from computer a on computers b and c?

All you need to do is allow TCP port 5900 on the exceptions of your XP firewall (scope: localnet only) and set a password on the VNC server on the XP machine and then copy tvncviewer.exe to the other machines. The VNC client software should work on ME/98 and the whole thing is open source and free. If you can ping, you can do this.

http://realvnc.com/

Good luck!