Witsend wrote:

As Keith in Oregon says: "I'm running out of ideas other than
buying a new computer - again and again and again - which I
would rather not do. Hate designed obsolescence. Help ????"

It's not designed obsolescence. It's operator stupidity.

Do you see a "network neighborhood" icon on your desktop?

If yes, right-click on it, select properties.

You will see a list of items in a box. Slide the list down. Near the
bottom you should see something like "TCP/IP - (ethernet device)"
where "(ethernet device)" will be your ethernet card. Select it, then
hit the Properties button. Another window will open.

There are a number of tabs across the top. It should open on a tab
called "IP address".

At this point, go to your XP computer, open a DOS or Command prompt,
and type "ipconfig" and hit enter. You might see several listings for
ethernet adapters. Find one that says "IP Address ..............:
192.168.x.y"

Write down what it says for x.

Under that line it will say "Default Gateway". Again, it should be
192.168.x.z. Write down x and z. The value for x here should be the
same as the value for x in the previous step. (hint: x will most
likely be either 0, or 1, or 2, and z will most likely be 1).

Go back to your win-98 machine. Click the radio button that says
"Specify an IP address". Then in the box called "IP Address" enter
192.168.x.123 (where "x" is what you wrote down above".

Subnet mask should be 255.255.255.0

Click on the Gateway tab. If there is anything listed in "installed
gateways" then select it and remove it. Then in the New gateway box
enter 192.168.x.z (where x and z are numbers you wrote down above).
Then click the Add button.

Click the DNS configuration tab. Hit the radio button "Enable DNS".
Under host, enter some cute name, or just type the word "hello". In
the box "DNS server search order", enter 4.2.2.2 and hit add. Then
hit the "Bindings" tab.

You should have a check-box that says "client for microsoft
networks". Make sure there is a checkbox in that box.

Then hit the OK button. That should take you back to the Network
window. Hit the OK button on that window. Windows will want to
restart, so let it.

You should have internet access when it restarts.