Whenever it related to networking the previous version of Windows were not able to do the job very easily as when you tried to connect the shared folder with XP computer it would display a dialogue box with the following list \\computername\IPC$ where the computer is using XP/2000. You can create an User account in the XP/2000 machine which has the same name in the machine using Windows 98 you will have to enter the User section of XP/2000 computer and add user name as jsmith and use it as the password also and check out the box which display message that password wont expire to keep it away from future problems and check whether there are any section on adding the Windows 2000&XP for & how to create and edit the users.