Networks & Slaves

As if I didn't have enough to do, I'm trying to help a buddy rescue his important files off an old computer (a PIII I believe) that is running Win 98SE. The old machine has had power supply problems before (overheating until I replaced the fan) & I suspect this is happening now. He bought a similar machine to the one I mentioned in a previous post (running Vista Home Not-Quite-Premium) and I had hoped that I could plug the network cable into the new computer & transfer files but I'm having the same problem with visibility on his network -- can't 'see' the other computer.

(I try very hard to understand networks but I'm still a dunce;-)

If someone answers my other post, I should be in business, Barring that:

1) can I install his system drive as a slave on my computer to move the files?

2) He is mainly concerned with his email (Thunderbird) addresses and messages ... where does Thunderbird store this stuff? .... or does Thunderbird have an 'Export' routine I could use?

 

Take the drive out of the old machine and put it in another one as a slave drive.
Firefox has an export feature.

 

OK, we got the files on the new machine.

Internet works on all machines but the computers don't 'see' each other. What's the next step?

 

Do a search here for Network. There are endless numbers of threads on it.