Network Connection Wizard cannot complete connection

Windows XP Home on host; Windows 98SE on client. Ethernet cable connection.
Hardware all appears to be OK.
This network USED to work fine - don't know what happened!
Network Connection Wizard always returns "Cannot Complete Network Connection" due to an error, but of course doesn't even hint at what the error might be.
It suggests I might try configuring the network manually but doesn't say how that can be done.
Most Internet "Help" sites suggest right-clicking on my Internet connection that will be used for sharing, then Properties, then Advanced, then in the "Internet Connection Sharing" panel, click "allow sharing ".
I have a feeling this is what needs to be done.
Except when I do that, there IS no "Internet Connection Sharing" panel. Under the "Advanced" tab for all my Internet connections, or under the Local Area Connection entry, all I see is the Internet Connection Firewall panel; the rest is blank.
If this IS the problem, can anyone tell me how to make that panel appear? Windows "Help" is, needless to say, no Help whatsoever, but why shoud I expect anything else? (Hope that doesn't count as "abuse "...)!
If that is NOT the problem, then can anyone suggest what it might be?

Thanks in advance
Jim Kenzie

 

I may have answered my own question - turns out the NVIDIA networking card was "disabled ". Since I don't know how to do that, I'm not sure how it happened. Once I re-enabled it, the "Internet Sharing" panel re-appeared, the Networking Wizard worked, and I can now access my laptop.

But another problem has re-appeared, that is, the computer automatically starts to dial up the Internet every minute or so.

I've unchecked the "Establish a dial-up connection..." box in the Internet Connection panel, hoping that will stop it...

Any further clues would be appreciated!

Cheers,

Jim Kenzie

 

Look through this thread and see if any of it helps.

 

Thanks Dave:

I went to the Internet Connection Sharing panel - the one that had disappeared and re-appeared after I re-enabled my network card - and unchecked "Establish a dial-up connection whenever a computer on my network attempts to connect to the Internet ", and that seems to have done it...

It will only access the Internet when I explicitly tell it to, which is surely what anyone would want...

Well, it's what I want anyway!

Thanks for your help.

Jim Kenzie

 

You're welcome. Glad it helped.