Two Connections, One Network

Although I have not tried this myself I may have some insight to your issue. For starters I do not now your exact situation but I will try to provide some input from what I do know.
It is not possibly to establish a connection via NIC to NIC. I assume that you are connected to your DSL modem/router using a NIC card. When you tried to use the dial?up VPN settings on your 98 box?s you where changing the binding to your NIC (Network interface Card). The NIC cards are trying to establish a dial up connection without a dial up connection! That may be why the computers are freezing.
When you create a VPN you have to have a common platform or interrupter. This is usually a server running VPN services in conjunction with RAS (Remote Access Server) services. You can however connect a VPN between two routers. This can be done with IPSEC or PPTP. If you have a standard DSL modem/Router like a Cisco or Linksys these features should be built in. You should be able to establish a connection between the routers. Log into the routers using HYPERTERM or similar application. You then can change the setting within the router itself to use VPN services between the two platforms. Here is a link that you may find useful. I commonly refer to these sights when confronting VPN connection. www.firstvpn.com
www.vpninsider.com

I am not very sure of what you really want, but I think you can use Direct Cable Connection instead of VPN, and you can still use the internet this way for both computers.

Hope this helps, Maozy

I believe ICS is the answer your looking for.
Go to Win98se Help, look into Internet Connection Sharing. All (or both) both computers will need to have ICS installed, found in the Windows Setup/Internet Menu. The win help program is fairly easy to follow. You'll use the ICS Adapter/ICS Protocol/ICS TCP/IP and DCHP for wins resolution to connect to your ISP, instead of the ethernet/cable modem TCP/IP connection you've been using. Using DCHP will nul your static IP addresses, but provide a somewhat improved security scenario, leaving one of your computers (the 'secondary') pretty well protected from intrusion (perhaps the best choice for system backup folders on a logical drive). Then, create a separate connection, (using DialUp Networking)to assign IP addresses for each NIC, to create your small LAN (NIC adapter/NIC TCP/IP shared). I don't think this would work (or be wise) for activating both connections simultainiously, but should meet your task criteria, separately. Also, I think VPN should be eliminated (or of no use) in this type of setup.

The problem is you are trying to link two client services together (the sending computer freezes {accually it's just waiting for an answer} because the other computer does not and cannot answer). Simple solution should be to upgrade one of the computers to NT 4.0 WS or Win2k pro. Limitation to this is that establishing the connection will be one way (initiated by Win98se to NT box). If you want to establish the connection either way, upgrade both boxes.

Ray

Answer 1 is right and wrong, you are not limited to a VPN connection since your NIC is allready connected to the DSL/Cable connection (like answer 1 said), b/c DSL/Cable (DSL only if its an allways on connection otherwise DSL dosnt bind directly to the NIC) works on the NIC while VPN does NOT bind the IP address directly to the NIC it binds it to a virtual adapter and not dirctly to the NIC.
answer five is correct you need a server to be the VPN server you can not use a win9x machine for the server, maybe PCAnywhere will work.

First of all forget about VPN, I don't know anybody that has ever had success with it. But, I do know that there is a lot of software on the internet that is supposed to do it. try www.nonags.com, I remember seeing something there.....

Larry Hyman