Networking - What am I doing wrong?

[bludger]

Can you believe I've been trying for months to get my 1200 talking with the outside world?

After trying in vain with OS 3.1, I upgraded to 3.9 to be sure of having the latest version of Genesis and the TCP/IP stack.

System specs are -
KS 3.1
OS 3.9
Elsat E1208 ram card with 4 meg (due to the PCMCIA port problem)
A 3C5890 ethernet card from Amigakit.com

The problem isn't configuring the amiga as such, I've tried Amiga Explorer (the latest version - 7.4.262.0 downloaded today), and Easynet that came with the 3C5890. I am trying to connect from 2 laptops running Win98 and XP SP2 over a simple cross-over cable.
Everything has the correct network setup (192.168.0.XX and 255.255.255.0 netmask) and I can ping the 1200 no trouble, I just can't transfer files.

With Genesis online, the log file shows "Access from host 192.168.0.90 (or 0.3 on the 98 machine) to port 356 denied" everytime I ping or open AExplorer on the PC.

What am I doing wrong ? I tried reading the guides with the software and fell asleep after the first 2 paragraphs!

[bludger]

Thanks for the quick replies, but I have had it working over a serial connection, and sharing is on the laptops (they can see each other when linked).
I'm sure it's a configuration problem with the Amiga.

[bludger]

@Mark

No, that's not it either.
The AmiTCP:db/inet.access file didn't block any ports, and I added the extra line without affecting the result.

Amiga Explorer is still giving the error "[color=0000ff]Error connecting with the Amiga server: TCP/IP socket not found[/color][/i]"

It's beginning to look like I'll be trying to back up my 2 gig H/D (onto floppy?) and start again.