win2kserver unable to connect to down-le

win2k domain backward compatibility mode, win2kpro clients, 9x clients all network settings appear correct as per normal, but recently though one of the win2kserver boxs cannot not connect to the 98 clients
which is strange. a messgae says ” unknown user and password, access denied “, shouldn’t prompted for username password in first place – very weird.
wondering if it might be ntlm setting or machine account problem.

anyone got any ideas ?

cheers, craniel