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How can I grant Win98 shared resources access on a W2k3 network and AD?

On a clean Windows Standard Server 2003 installed as the DC with DNS (DDNS), AD, WINS, and DHCP services, all clients log in fine, but only the W2K and XP servers and clients can access shared resources on a local W2K or XP machine. My Win98 clients' shared resources (printers and folders) cannot be accessed by any other server or clients, but the Win98 clients are visible on the network--everyone is browsing.

I tried using the latest (v5.5) DSClient.exe (for AD) on my Win98 machines, but there was no change in shared accessibility. The Win98 clients run only TCP/IP protocol with DHCP resolution, and a DHCP reservation has been set for every workstation (Win98 thru XP). Win98 domain login is set to the NetBIOS domain name of the DC, as well as for the Workgroup name and Access Control sharing group name, and File and Printer Sharing is installed and enabled. The Win98 Browser Master is set to Automatic, and LM Announcement is set to No.

My W2k3 DC's event logs look OK, and both DCdiag and NETdiag report no errors. This was all working and sharing correctly on the previous NT4 PDC network. What do I do to grant Win98 shared resources access on the W2k3 network and AD?
This is probably a name resolution issue. Windows 98 relies on NetBIOS name resolution, whereas 2000 and 2003 live and die by DNS. Can you ping your Windows 98 clients by name from other machines on the network? You may need to configure a WINS server for NetBIOS name resolution on your AD network.

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This was first published in June 2004

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