LAN and IP Masquerade

My private LAN consists of 4 computers. 3 are windows2000 prof boxes and 1 is Windows 98. For the three Win2000 the IP address I've given is 192.168.0.1,2,3 and
have been named com1, com2 and com3 respectively. For the Win98 it is 192.168.0.10 and the name is com4. All the computers belong to the same WORKGROUP. They have
been connected to one HUB by CAT 5 cable. The problem is, the Win98 machine can seen the other computers but when I double click the com[123] computers Im asked
to enter a password for /com[123]/IPC$ and I don't know what password to enter. Even if I enter the admin password of the above machines it doesn't work. Please
tell me what do I have to do to connect Win98 with the other machines.

Now one more question. If I connect Linux to the Internet and provide IP masquerade facility, can windows machines access the Internet through this Linux machine and
also what are benefits of doing so. Also will my internal machines be safe from Blaster virus and the other worms. So please help me how to set up this network so that
my Linux and internal Windows machines are safe from virus attacks.

huliyar,

To answer your first question, because of the way the Windows 2000 security works, you need to do a few simple steps to resolve your problem.

1)Note down the username and password used to log into the Windows 98 machine.

2)goto each Windows 2000 machine and create and account using the exact loginname/password used on your windows 98 machine

3) Share the drives or folders you wish on your Windows 2000 machines

4) try to connect to them via the Windows 98 machine .. it should transparently authenticate and give you access to the resources !

As for the 2nd question, installing a linux server as a gateway/firewall as you described will work. You simply need to point all internal workstations to the linux server as their gateway.

This setup will protect you from a lot of worms, including the blaster virus with uses specific ports to propagate, but you need to also make sure the firewall is configured correctly!

Hope the info help you!

Cheers,