Can't copy from WinXP to Win98?

Here is an odd one. I have an older Win98se machine on my home network.
The network has the 98se machine, a WinXP Pro desktop, a WinXP Pro laptop
and a (currently unused) Win 2003 server. All are connected to a Linksys
WRV54G and all have static IP addresses (DHCP disabled). The network is
using Microsoft Networking and TCP/IP. I use the Win98se machine for
testing my software.

Here's the problem. I tried to copy a 2MB binary file to the Win98 machine
via Explorer and just after the copy starts I get the error:

"The specified network name is no longer available"

Sometimes a few hundred bytes are copies, sometimes nothing. I tried
copying a similar file from the other machines, all with the same error.
So I did all of the usual stuff: changed the NIC, changed the cable,
switched ports on the Linksys box, ensured the NIC drivers were up to date,
etc. No change. I tried XCOPY to no avail, and I even set up a FTP server
on my main XP box to see if I could move the files that way - no dice. I
tried forcing variations of link speed/duplex settings for the NIC on the
Win98 box - no dice. I can, however, download large files from the net
with the Win98 box without incident. I can move files back and forth
between the XP machines. Network Places sees and accesses files on the
Win98 box from the other machines.

Now here's where it gets weird. If I copy a large (60Mb) text file to the
Win98 box via Explorer, it transfers perfectly! It seems that binary files
are a no-go, but why?

I'm at a bit of a dead end here, so if anyone has some suggestions, I'd
really appreciate them!

Paul

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Paul Hurley
Caliban Computing
http://www.Caliban.com/
Spam resistant return email address.