To answer questions, 

1) The devices are working, though the ME install of the driver left
much to be desired.
2) It's two Win2K machines, 1 WinME, and a 486 Debian firewall.  (The
pentium fileserver
      comes later).
3) The router works (the firewall can ping to the outside world)
4) The two Win2K machines will talk to each other under particular
circumstances
5) Don't about the cabling, it's new and that's half the problem
(can't isolate
     causes)
6) The subnet might an option: I'll have to look into that.


> If none of that works then.............kick it..........

Given the installfest theme and my patience, I'm thinking trebuchet.

    - Dave


-- 
   Dave Kleist
   dkleist at acm.org
   "The covers of this book are too far apart."
              - Ambrose Bierce