Check the link led's on the Network Card- if they're not on or blinking it's a cable problem. Have you enable DHCP on the e-smith box? If so setup the win98 client for dynamic IP addressing. Silly question, but you're not using a hub with the crossover are you? Have you tested the crossover with a tester? It certainly sounds like it's a hardware problem to me (either the cable or one of the NIC's).