[WriteLog] WinXP, Win98SE and networking

[Eric Scace K3NA]

Hi --

   I struggled for several hours trying to solve a networking problem in preparing the W1KM site for a multi-two effort this past
weekend.  Our server computer (and internet gateway) is a WinXP Pro machine.  The other computers are smaller and run Win98SE to
minimize the operating system workload.

   All the computers could see each other's file systems and move files around with Windows, so we knew that TCP/IP networking was
working.

   Every computer used the same username and password.  The WinXP computer user account had Administrator privileges.

   When a Win98SE machine was instructed to "Link to the Network", a pop-up window would ask for a password in order to access the
WinXP Pro machine that was acting as our WriteLog server.  Entering the proper password resulted in an "invalid password" message.

   After a lot of head scratching and a couple of frustrating hours of testing, a flash of inspired hunchwork revealed the solution.
The particular piece of Win98SE code that WriteLog employs in its intermachine communication does NOT recognize case.  Any password
typed in is converted to upper case.  On the other hand, WinNT and WinXP are both case-sensitive.  When we changed the user account
password on the WinXP machine to only uppercase letters, everything worked perfectly.

   This hard-won obscure fact needs to be added to the base of WL networking knowledge.

-- Eric K3NA