Where I am from where I was 2 1/2 days later, as always my main problem is
the getting started, the ping, without it I didn't know what worked and
what didn't, and how it worked.

on my windows98se machine in my network neighborhood properties I set
up the identification of my machine multitainer, and the domain as
MONT_1 and changed the tcp/ip properties of the network card, and added to
only two tabbed menus:

1) On Wins configuration I enables wins resolution and added 192.168.1.2
to my wins search order list. *need I do this*
2) On IP Address I specified an ip address as being 192.168.1.2 with a
Subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 *could I obtain an address automatically*

I did not change any other configuration should I for whatever reason be
changing anything else?

on my linux box slackware 9.0-->9.1
In best order I can manage
run netconfig and select:

billy hostname what the hell would be sensible?
brat.org domain name what the hell would be sensible?
192.168.1.1 ip address
255.255.255.0 netmask

I chose static ip would it have been better/possible/practical to set up a
DHCP server in windows98se.

Then I have to modprobe 8139too the driver for my network card I suspect
this should be loaded automatically, but I'm using kernel 2.6 and its a
bit screwy with the changes from modules.conf.

the to get the party started I type.
ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
route add -net 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 eth0
not quite sure why but if looks good to me, I got them from snippits
somewhere.

Now can I ping not a chance

I put a firewall up using guarddog which muddied the waters a bit. It
comes with a graphical interface which is nice, set up a new defined zone,
as being LAN with the zone address being 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0 and
added protocols Microsoft SMB over TCP; Windows Networking(NETBIOS); Ping
in the Local Boxes, In my Local to clients in zone I added the these again
in the LAN boxies. I assume this is correct but anthing you suspect I
should be switching on or off I would be grateful.

smb is compiled in the kernel, and I did not have to run smdb or nmbd I
just have to type smbmount //multitainer/C /mnt/multitainer/C/ and type my
password which works fine for root. Linneighborhood didn't work although I
could recheck this as root.

I've added //multitainer/C /mnt/multitainer/C smbfs
password=aclloyd,fmask=0777,dmask=0777,noauto,user ,rw 0 0
to /etc/fstab which only works for root at the moment. I can now see my
windows mounts on my linux box which is the main thing.

I will have a go at setting this up the linux-->windows later, if you know
a quick way to do this, or can point me in the right direction it would be
nice, but I know there is information out there, but it would be useful to
know of a sesible way of backing up my selective parts of my drive so I
can back up to CD/Network.

Last thing I lost my connection to DNS on the internet by doing all this
I added these lines to my resolv.conf but it was a lucky guess.
search brat.org
nameserver 158.43.240.4
nameserver 158.43.240.3
nameserver 192.168.1.1 <--should this go first last or be left off?

I know I need to automate this, and any advise would be appreciated as
there seems to be a variety of different ways of achieving the same ends.

And I need to start accessing the internet through my linux machine, again
any advise, idiots guides before I start breaking things on my computer
would be appreciated.

BTW if I was to add additional machines through a hub would I just follow
the same procedure?