problem linux windows network

I;m trying to connect a linux box to a windows 98.
I;m sure i have hosts routes resolv and all things ok.
when i ping the other box it doesn;t respond .
When i;m ruuning ethereal it seems that the two boxes are talking to each other, the win box sends some smb , netbios and ipx protocols packets .
I have not configured samba ,is it nessesary to have it configured if i don;t want to do file sharing??
The boxes don;t respond to eachother what is wrong .
MY route table
192.168.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
127.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo

The packets the Windows box is sending are probably broadcast packets and not sent specifically in response to your attempts to ping the windows box.

Is there any form of firewall running on the windows box?

By default win 98 would respond to pings but if you have installed a firewall then as most of the common windows firewalls block pings by default this could be the reason you are getting no response from the windows box.

You make no mention of what happens if you try to ping the linux box from the windows box.

How exactly are you trying to connect them? Via a network, using wireless or bluetooth devices?

If you only have one network interface card then the routing table is unlikely to be at fault.

What is the output of
ifconfig
on the linux box

Sorry i;didn;t give much feedback in the first place.
I am not running firewall on win box
A ping from win box just fails.The ping from linux doesn;t fail just seems not to respond but i said what shows the ethereal (and u are right they are broadcast packets from win identifying itsself).
I have only one ether card per box and i connect them with cable with RJ45 plugs -directly no hub no switch- last my ifconfig is:
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:05:5D:33:C2:26
inet addr:192.168.0.1 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:240 (240.0 b)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0xbf00

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:656 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:656 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:33000 (32.2 Kb) TX bytes:33000 (32.2 Kb)

i didnt include the pppx interface but i think it doesnt matter .
Thanks.

Are you sure that the network cable you are using is a crossover lead?

If there is no hub or switch between the two network cards and you just connect them directly, you need to use a network cable that is wired differently to the normal patch lead.

http://www.peakaudio.com/Images/Cobr...ms/networ1.gif

For a direct connection you need a cross cable. Its because Tx of comp 1 should go int Rx of Comp 2 and vice versa.

Cheers