[V]

ok im still in the dark with whats going on. Im trying to network my two comps. So far from everyone I talked to, it should be possible, i just probably wont be able to acess info on computer 1 from computer 2.
Heres the rundown.. computer 1 is my main computer running windows XP, computer 2 is running windows 98. Computer 1 has an internet connection. Both comps have ethernet cards or whatever. I am using a net gear fast ethernet switch. The cables are new. I wanna share files between the 2 comps, basically just taking files from comp 2.

I hooked everything up when i first got it. after like 5 minutes i got it to work and i was able to access the internet from computer 2(comp 1 has the main connection) but since then, i have not been able to get the 2 computers to connect again.

when it tries to connect it says "acquiring network address" then comes back saying "limited or no connectivity" Brandon helped me check one thing. i did the ipconfig command on both comps. comp 1 came back fine, but comp 2 came up with the IP address :0.0.0.0, and the same for the subnet mask. Also under details while trying to connect, comp 1 shows IP address and subnet as 0.0.0.0 "assigned by DCHP"...whatever that means.

My question is what do i do now? lol, im so lost. I have 3 hard drives in comp 2 with files on them that i want. and the modem in that comp got fried by lightning and i dont feel like replacing it a 3rd time. it also doesnt have a cd burner so all copying of files would ahve to be onto a diskette and id rather not do that either.